BARRHEAD/WESTLOCK - The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) is more united than ever and is ready to take on Justin Trudeau and the governing Liberals.
Peace River-Westlock MP Arnold Viersen reflected on 2022 in a year-end interview with Town and Country This Week. saying it was an exciting year for a number of reasons — one of them being the leadership campaign that followed the departure of Erin O'Toole as party leader in early February after the CPC caucus voted to remove him from the position after 18 months.
Viersen said a leadership campaign and subsequent election of a new leader always brings an air of excitement and energy to a party, noting the latest, saw the election of Pierre Poilievre.
The 2022 leadership campaign was the third such contest Viersen has participated in since he was first elected in 2015. In 2017, he endorsed eventual winner Andrew Scheer. In 2020, he did not publicly state who he supported, and in the latest contest, Viersen supported third-place finisher Leslyn Lewis who garnered just under 10 per cent of the vote.
He said that coming out of the leadership campaign, he has never experienced a caucus that has been as united as it has under the first few months of Poilievre's leadership.
"His resounding win is probably one of the reasons for that. He took two-thirds of the vote, and there were only eight ridings in the country that he did not carry," Viersen said. "It was an impressive win that really gelled caucus and that folks in and out of the party are generally excited in the direction he is going, which might be one of the reasons why (in a recent Ipsos poll) show that half of Canadians would like to see a federal election in 2023.
On a personal side, Viersen noted that he was proud of the work he has been able to do on behalf of his constituents, adding that in 2022, he spoke 270 times in the House of Commons on issues of importance for Northern Alberta residents, including oil and gas, forestry, the need to help small business owners, protecting children from Internet pornography and Indigenous rights.
Viersen also talked about, in his year-end message to constituents, the work he is doing as part of the Sub-committee on International Human Rights, for which he serves as vice-chair.
"Human rights are given to all because we are created in God's image, and we must ensure that they are protected and upheld," he said.
Viersen added part of the work the sub-committee is doing is studying human rights atrocities taking place in Tigray, Ethiopia, Ukraine and Iran.
"I have advocated for studies on modern slavery fueled by the growing demand for green technology and the alarming increase of religious persecution of Christians in Nigeria."
He also noted his continued work in his fight against sexual exploitation on the Internet and human trafficking through the introduction of his private member's bills, Bill C-270 (Stopping Internet Sexual Exploitation Act or SISE) and Bill C-308 (National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking Act).
The SISE act, if passed, would mandate Internet companies obtain and maintain records of both age and consent before posting images and videos of a sexual nature on the Internet.
"This is to combat the likes of Pornhub, which had many under-aged and non-consensual images and videos on their website, and they 'say they did not know'," Viersen said. "This would mandate ensure that the content they post is consensual and that all the people depicted are of age, and if they don't, it would be a Criminal Code violation ... Basically it reverses the onus putting it on the companies to prove that their content is legal."
Bill 308, if passed, would mandate that the federal government be required to maintain a national strategy to combat human trafficking and set out minimum measures or milestones along with a timetable of when they need to be reached.
"Right now, we have a plan, but it is on the whim of the government. The bill would mandate that it be in place all the time and that the government give annual updates, putting us in line with several other countries, including the U.S."
Viersen also emphasized the day-to-day work his office does in helping constituents resolve passport and immigration issues and, as a Northern Alberta riding, obtain their firearm Possession and Acquisition Licence (PAL).
Viersen added that he also regularly presents petitions from Canadians all across the country in the House of Commons.
"Folks from across the country come up with ideas of what they would like to see the government move on in the House of Commons. It is one of the best ways for people to get a little bit of action on an issue," he said. "And I'm proud to say that I am one of the top MPs for presenting petitions. I believe I'm in the Top 10."
One issue that Viersen plans to focus on in the coming year is to continue to fight against Bill C-21, which would re-classify several models of firearms making them illegal.
"In the dying days of 2022, Justin Trudeau introduced an amendment that would ban millions of hunting rifles. This is the first time since I've been an MP that we've got the Liberals on the run," he said. "Every time we've accused them of going after hunting rifles, ordinary tools that farmers and hunters use, they've said, 'No, we are not doing that'. But now they've tipped their hand."
Viersen noted that several members of the Liberal and NDP caucuses, especially in northern and rural ridings, have voiced their displeasure over the amendment.
"A lot of Justin Trudeau's firearm shenanigans over the last seven years haven't affected most firearms owners, given the types they were going after, but this amendment has the potential of impacting every firearms owner."
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