Not much of a public speaker, is he?

Our MP, Ryan Leef, posted the following on his Facebook page today. It is the Hansard listing of his response to Joe Comartin in the house during the debate on Bill C-6.

Mr. Speaker, I was certainly encouraged to hear the member talking about evidence-based solutions. We are hearing this now in the wee hours of the night. When we ask that question of the NDP opposition, it is only going to be their solutions that are satisfying to them.

We heard much earlier in the evening about talking from the heart, and new members of Parliament being here. I, as a new member of Parliament, would rather talk from my heart and not from scripted notes that we had a feverish debate on earlier.

I would like to say that back in 1910, Inspector Fitzgerald of the RCMP led a group of RCMP officers from Fort McPherson to Dawson City to deliver the mail. That became famously known as the Lost Patrol. That issue, that commitment to deliver the mail, was done because they understood the needs of communication and commerce in the north. They did so on December 21, four days from Christmas.

They were not battling pensions. They were not worrying about wages. They were doing this because they understood how important commerce and communication was to the north and to the people of Canada.

Can the member please tell us, where have we lost that idea that this service to the north is so important? What is so wrong with a Conservative government trying to protect that and re-instill that for Canadian people?

Keep in mind that the Lost Patrol were doing a ceremonial mail delivery and the leader of the patrol got lost and every member died because he probably didn’t have any real experience in the country they were crossing.

That aside, is our Member asking the postal workers to carry the mail to their deaths? He seems to think that postal workers shouldn’t worry about their wages and pensions and, if their job is unsafe, just keep going. Hey, what’s the worst that could happen?

Actually, the worst that could have happened in the House didn’t. This irrelevant comment was made to Joe Comartin, one of the A-List debaters in the House and one known to not suffer fools gladly and has been known to verbally draw blood. His response was far more gentle than expected… he just treated Leef like a 10-year old.

Mr. Speaker, I know he is a new member of the House, and it is probably not fair for me to say this to him so I will say it to the two ministers who are here.

I would suggest to the member that he walk across the chamber and tell those two ministers to do their job. He should ask them to go to the Prime Minister and tell him to pick up the phone, call the CEO of Canada Post, and tell him to unlock the doors, honour the collective agreement, and go back to the negotiating table. If he wants to get something done and he wants it done right now and he wants to get those workers back to work who want to work, that is what he should do.

I, for one, would not be so willing to post such a comment on my page. Incidentally, he still hasn’t announced if he’s taking an 18% pay cut or changing his gold-plated pension plan. I’m not holding my breath for that to happen as he has already broken his main campaign promise less than two months into the job…