158 quotes found
"Il est un temps où le courage et l'audace tranquilles deviennent pour un peuple aux moments clés de son existence la seule forme de prudence convenable. S'il n'accepte pas alors le risque calculé des grandes étapes, il peut manquer sa carrière à tout jamais, exactement comme l'homme qui a peur de la vie."
"Est Québécois qui veut l'être."
"Je n'ai jamais pensé que je pourrais être aussi fier d'être Québécois."
"On n'est pas un petit peuple, on est peut-être quelque chose comme un grand peuple."
"Si j'ai bien compris, vous êtes en train de me dire: à la prochaine fois."
"Mais j'ai confiance qu'un jour... y'a un rendez-vous normal avec l'Histoire que le Québec tiendra, et j'ai confiance qu'on sera là, ensemble, pour y assister."
"And I would like to say we've got no lesson on that score to take from the McConnells, from anyone that has been dominating Quebec like a bunch of Rhodesians! The white group. If we have colours here you feel it and that is something we will not stand any more. This paternalistic, WASP ... and it is that, typically, WASP arrogance of the ones that have been leading our government and to the slush funds that they contribute to leaving both of our hacked bodies by the road for too long."
"I want to govern provincially no more. I want national independence. […] I took time for this decision because I know all the perils of this mission. I want to ask you to struggle also in order that our country can be born in a close future."
"Je suis un homme de causes, de collectivité, pas un individualiste."
"Je suis un homme de cause, je ne suis pas un individualiste et je pense en mon âme et conscience que je ne pourrais pas servir la société comme je voudrais le faire avec ce niveau d'appui."
"Tous les partis devraient être féministes!"
"Less than fifteen cents to the province and more than twenty-five cents to Ottawa, this is far from being excessive!"
"This is about an admitted attempt, encouraged from outside, to challenge and break the State's authority. That is intolerable. Whoever deviates from this policy that I have established, privately or publicly, will be expelled from the Union Nationale."
"The period leaves no one indifferent. And that was our goal. We present the facts. It's up to the public to decide."
"The saying goes that after the death of every great man there's a long period of ingratitude. I find Maurice Duplessis's period is lasting pretty long."
"Over the last 40 years, talking about Duplessis has become like talking about the devil himself."
"If I never read a business page, my admiration for him would be complete."
"Before Duplessis died, we’d all go to church and make our sign [of the cross], and a year later we didn’t go to Mass any more. So we looked for another set of values, one that was all-enveloping, like the Church."
"Rome est tombeé."
"In a little while it will be all over. We may fail. But the rights for which we contend will not die. A day of reckoning will come to our enemies and of jubilee to my people. The hated yoke of English domination and arrogance will be broken in this land, and the long-suffering victims of their injustice will, with God's blessing, re-enter into the peaceful enjoyment of their possessions."
"Deeds are not accomplished in a few days, or in a few hours. A century is only a spoke in the wheel of everlasting time."
"We may be a small community and a Half-breed community at that — but we are men, free and spirited men, and we will not allow even the Dominion of Canada to trample on our rights."
"My people will sleep for one hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back."
"I have nothing but my heart and I have given it long ago to my country."
"We must cherish our inheritance. We must preserve our nationality for the youth of our future. The story should be written down to pass on."
"It is true, gentlemen, I believed for years I had a mission, and when I speak of a mission you will understand me not as trying to play the role of insane before the grand jury so as to have a verdict of acquittal upon that ground. I believe that I have a mission, I believe I had a mission at this very time. What encourages me to speak to you with more confidence in all the imperfections of my English way of speaking, it is that I have yet and still that mission, and with the help of God, who is in this box with me, and He is on the side of my lawyers, even with the honorable court, the Crown and the jury, to help me, and to prove by the extraordinary help that there is a Providence to-day in my trial, as there was a Providence in the battles of the Saskatchewan."
"I have not assumed to myself that I had a mission. I was working in Manitoba first and I did all I could to get free institutions for Manitoba. They have those institutions today in Manitoba and they try to improve them, while myself who obtained them, I am forgotten as if I was dead. But after I had obtained with the help of others a constitution for Manitoba, when the government at Ottawa was not willing to inaugurate it at the proper time, I have worked till the inauguration should take place and that is why I have been banished for five years. I had to rest five years. I was unwilling to do it. I protested. I said : Oh my God ! I offer you all my existence for that cause and please to make of my weakness an instrument to help men in my country. And seeing my intentions, the late Archbishop Bourget said "Riel has no narrow views, he is a man to accomplish great things" and he wrote that letter of which I hope that the Crown has at least a copy. And in another letter when I became what Drs. believed to be, insane, Bishop Bourget wrote again and said "Ye be blessed by God and man and take patience in your evil." Am I not taking patience I Will I be blessed by man as I have been by God? I say that, I have been blessed by God and I hope that you will not take that as a presumptuous assertion. It has been a great success for me to come through all the dangers I have in that 15 years. If I have not succeeded in wearing a fine coat myself I have at the same time the great consolation of seeing that God has maintained my views; that he has maintained my health sufficiently to go through the world and that he has kept me from bullets when bullets marked my hat."
"I am blessed by God. It is this trial that is going to show that I am going to be blessed by man during my existence, the benedictions are a guarantee that I was not wronged when by circumstance I was taken away from my adopted land to my native land."
"When I see British people sitting in the court to try me, remembering that the English people are proud of that word "Fair play," I am confident that I will be blessed by God and by man also. Not only Bishop Bourget spoke to me in that way, but Father Jean-Baptiste Bruno, the priest of Worcester, who was my director of conscience, said to me: "Riel, God has put an object into your hands the cause of the triumph of religion in the world, take care, you will succeed when most believe you have lost." I have got those words in my head, those words of J. B. Bruno and the late Archbishop Bourget."
"But last year, while I was yet in Montana, while I was passing before the catholic church, the priest, the Revd. Father Frederick Ebeville, curate of the church of the Immaculate Conception at Benton, said to me "I am glad to see you, is your family here?" I said yes ; he said "Go and bring them to the altar, I want to bless you before you go away " and with Gabriel Dumont and my family we all went on our kness at the altar, the priest put on his surplice and he took holy water and was going to bless us. I said will you allow me to pronounce a prayer while you bless me; he said yes, I want to know what it is. I told him the prayer, it is speaking to God "My father bless me, according to the views of thy Providence which are beautiful and without measure." He said to me : "You can say that prayer while I bless you " Well he blessed me. I pronounced that prayer for myself, for my children and for Gabriel Dumont. When the glorious general Middleton fired on us during three days and on our families and when shells went and bullets went as thick as mosquitoes in the hot day of summer, when I saw my children, my wife, myself and Gabriel Dumont were escaping, I said that nothing but the blessing without measure of Father Frederick Ebeville could save me, and that can save me to-day from these charges."
"Even if I was going to be sentenced by you, Gentlemen of the Jury, I have this satisfaction that if I die, I will not be reputed by all men as insane, as a lunatic. A good deal has been said by the two Revd Fathers André and Fourmond. I cannot call them my friends, but they made no false testimony. I know that a long time ago they believed me more or less insane. Father Fourmond said that I would pass from a great passion to great calmness, that shows great control under contradiction and according to my opinion and with the help of God, I have that control."
"The agitation in the North-West Territories would have been constitutional and would certainly be constitutional to-day, if, in my opinion, we had not been attacked."
"I know that through the grace of God I am the founder of Manitoba; I know that though I have no open road for my influence, I have big influence concentrated, as a big amount of vapour in an engine. I believe by what I suffered for 15 years, by what I have done for Manitoba and the people of the North-West that my words are worth something, if I give offence I do not speak to insult. Yes, you are the pioneers of civilization, the Whites are the pioneers of civilization, but they bring among the Indians demoralization. Do not be offended ladies, do not be offended. Here are the men that can cure that evil, and if at times I have been strong against my true friends and Fathers, the Reverend Priests of the Saskatchewan, it is because my convictions are strong. There have been witnesses to show that immediately after great patience, I could come back to the respect I have for them."
"As to religion what is my belief? What is my insanity about that? My insanity, Your Honors, Gentlemen of the Jury, is that I wish to leave Rome aside inasmuch as it is the cause of division between the Catholics and Protestants. I did not wish to force my views because, in Batoche, to the Half-breeds that followed me I used the word Carte blanche. If I have any influence in the New World it is to help in that way and even if it takes two hundred years to become practical, then after my death that will bring out practical results, and then my children will shake hands with the Protestants of the New World in a friendly manner. I do not wish those evils which exist in Europe to be continued as much as I can influence it, among the Half-breeds. I do not wish that to be repeated in America, that work is not the work of some days or some years it is the work of hundreds of years."
"I am glad that the Crown have proved that I am the leader of the Half-breeds in the North-West. I will perhaps be one day acknowledged as more than a leader of the Half-breeds, and if I am, I will have an opportunity of being acknowledged as a leader of good in this great country."
"I prefer to be called one of the flock. I am no more than you are, I am simply one of the flock, equal to the rest. If it is any satisfaction to the doctor to know what kind of insanity I have, if they are going to call my pretensions insanity, I say, humbly, through the grace of God I believe I am the prophet of the New World. I wish you to believe that I am not trying to play insanity, there is in the manner, in the standing of a man, the proof that he is sincere, not playing. You will say, what have you got to say? I have to attend to practical results. Is it practical that you be acknowledged as a prophet? Is it practical to say it. I think if the Half-breeds. have acknowledged me, as a community, to be a prophet. I have reason to believe that it is beginning to become practical. I do not wish for my satisfaction the name of prophet. Generally that title is accompanied with such a burden, that if there is satisfaction for your vanity there is a check to it."
"The ministers of an insane and irresponsible Government and its little one the North-West Council made up their mind to answer my petitions by surrounding me slyly and by attempting to jump upon me suddenly and upon my people in the Saskatchewan. Happily when they appeared and showed their teeth to devour, I was ready; that is what is called my crime of high treason and for which they hold me to day."
"If you take the plea of the defence, that I am not responsible for my acts, acquit me completely, since I have been quarrelling with an insane and irresponsible Government. If you pronounce in favour of the Crown, which contends that I am responsible, acquit me all the same. You are perfectly justified in declaring that having my reason and sound mind I have acted reasonably and in self-defence, while the Government, my accuser, being irresponsible and consequently insane, cannot but have acted wrong, and if high treason there is, it must be on its side and not on my part."
"The Court. has done the work for me, and although at first appearance it seems to be against me, I am so confident in the idea which I have had the honor to express yesterday, that I think it is for good and not for my loss. Up to this moment, I have been considered by a certain party as insane, by another party as a criminal, by another party as a man with whom it was doubtful whether to have any intercourse. So there was hostility and there was contempt, and there was avoidance To-day, by the verdict of the Court, one of these three situations has disappeared. I suppose that after having been condemned, I will cease to be called a fool, and for me it is a great advantage. I consider it as a great advantage. If I have a mission, I say "If " for the sake of those who doubt, but for my part it means "Since," since I have a mission, I cannot fulfil my mission as long as I am looked upon as an insane being-human being, at the moment that I begin to ascend that scale, I begin to succeed."
"I wish to take notice that if there has ever been any contradiction in my life, it is at this moment, and do I appear excited? Am I very irritable? Can I control myself?"
"I am contradicted at this moment on politics, and the smile that comes to my face is not an act of my will, so much it comes naturally, from the satisfaction that I prove that I experience seeing one of my difficulties disappearing. Should I be executed, at least if I were going to be executed, I would not be executed as an insane man, it would be a great consolation for my mother, for my wife, for my children, for my brothers, for my relatives, even for my protectors, for my countrymen. I thank the gentlemen who were composing the Jury for having recommended me to the clemency of the Court. When I express the great hope that I have just expressed to you, I don't express it without ground, my hopes are reasonable, and since they are recommended, since the recommendation of the Jury to the Crown is for clemency."
"I think the verdict that has been given against me is a proof that I am more than ordinary myself, but that the circumstances and the help that is given is more than ordinary, are more than ordinary, and although I consider myself only as others, yet by the will of God, by his Providence, by the circumstances which have surrounded me for fifteen years, I think that I have been called to do something which at least in the North-West nobody has done yet, and in some way I think that to a certain number of people the verdict against me to day is a proof that maybe I am a prophet, maybe Riel is a prophet. He suffers for it."
"Can you imagine feds saying we don't like your answers."
"Well, in a case like this, what do we do? We spit in our hands and we start over!"
"It is true, it is true that we were beaten, but in the end, by what? By money and certain ethnic votes, essentially."
"I believe instinctively in a God for whom I am prepared to search."
"As long as my colleagues and I have anything to do with the government of this province, we will see to it that Alberta continues to lead the world in the great fight to secure for every man, woman and child complete and permanent freedom from fear and worry and from social and economic insecurity."
"The decline in natural-gas revenues has been dramatic and the degree to which we are dependent on oil revenues, it is time for us to consider an increase in corporate and personal tax."
"I’ve been shaped by the people I’ve met along the way. I’ve had great role models and I’ve had great mentors and a little bit of good luck. Now as a leader in a political movement I want to pay that forward."
"Whenever we go into a pulp town I breathe deep and it reminds me of a positive time in my youth."
"My obligation is to the people of BC, and I will defend that until I am no longer premier."
"These are extraordinary events. Not measured before, not contemplated before. [the extreme weather events of 2021 will lead to a host of initiatives to help communities adapt in the future] but there was nothing, nothing that could have been done [to prepare for] a three-times-the-historic-high volume of water travelling through Merritt in one day."
"If you don’t vote, then somebody who looks like me is going to vote, some senior person, older than me, some white person."
"They had beautiful kids, and affluence but the sexual energy had become muted, and Kathleen knew ‘there had been a wild woman in me that hadn't been around for a while,’"
"“I waited 18 years for her,” says Rounthwaite. “Basically, from the time I met Kath in 1973, I was just waiting — through her marriage, through my (own) relationship (with a woman) — I just waited all those years.”"
"It was during a “group therapy” organized by Wynne that she realized she had “feelings” for a woman in the group who had a crush on her. It was during a weekend getaway with her best friend Jane Rounthwaite to examine a cottage the family wanted to purchase that Wynne began a homosexual affair, breaking her marriage vow to Phil .. After the weekend at the cottage, Rounthwaite moved in with Wynne, while her husband moved down to the basement. To the adults this “made sense,” the author writes, but to the three little children “whose lives were being turned inside out, it didn’t.”"
"A government serves people, and when a government delivers services, they deliver them to real people — people who live, who laugh, who cry, who suffer, who yell out in pain, who love and are loved."
"I know that housing is top of mind for so many people in North Vancouver. Sixteen years of neglect have allowed our real estate market to get out of control, our rental rates to skyrocket. Waiting lists on our subsidized housing stock run miles long. This issue has generally left hard-working individuals and families behind. It is a huge mess. And now that we have a government made up of people who are ready to work for people, it also means that we now have a government that is actually interested in cleaning up that mess."
"We must support this budget because climate change and poverty, opioid overdoses, homelessness and hopelessness are real issues. It should not be a question of whether or not we can afford to resolve them but a question of whether we, as a society, can afford not to. From regulations that manage climate change and the environment to the distribution of social funding and poverty reduction, governments provide the fundamental framework within which companies operate and within which people live, work, succeed, suffer or die. It is a heavy burden, and there are never easy answers. But I am optimistic because I know that the decisions and choices this government has made are informed by learning from the mistakes of the previous government. These are priorities that put people first, not profits. And these are choices that help the many, not the very few at the top."
"Housing affordability — I think it would be fair to say — is the number one issue across the province. There are, of course, many other extremely important issues, but housing affordability seems to be at the crux of it all. In my community, over and over, I hear from renters who tell me that if they lose their home in their current rent-controlled apartment, they will end up on the street. In my community, there are 750 members of the population who are homeless."
"The revitalization of Indigenous languages is not simply an exercise in translating words. It’s the beginning of the healing of cultures, through which an expression of world view emanates. It speaks to a person’s core identity. Ideas, values, feelings, aspirations, hopes and dreams are communicated in ways that sometimes cannot be done in any other way. It’s about grounding a person; tearing down the walls of isolation; reconnecting them to their ancestors, their community, their family, their environment, their Creator and, indeed, even themselves."
"I get that the job of an opposition is to oppose. I get that. But they’re supposed to at least oppose on behalf of the people, not themselves. Let me read a quote from the leader of the B.C. Liberals from last year: “We currently have a government where we’re in opposition, and our job is to convince the public that we should form government once again.” I find this quote completely demonstrative of the power motive that drives that party. The role of an opposition party is to challenge government to implement the best possible policies and legislation for the public by ensuring that differing views are expressed and defended, not to plot their way back into power. This motion and the fractured narrative that they’re trying to build is just another pitiful example of how they’re more concerned about playing politics than they are of actually helping people, more concerned about confusing the public than they are in supporting them. I don’t know, and I don’t think they know anymore, who they represent. They are flailing, because without big money in politics, without their big corporate donors telling them what to do, they’re learning the ugly truth of it all. They don’t know how to work for people."
"We need to talk about car infrastructure, like roads and bridges. Electric vehicles take up the same amount of space on the road as a gas vehicle. Congestion issues aside, expanding and maintaining car infrastructure is expensive, both in dollars and GHGs. For instance, the cement industry is one of the largest producers of man-made carbon dioxide in the world, producing, by some estimates, 8 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions. That means that if the cement industry were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of CO2 in the world, after China and the U.S. While it is critically important that we electrify our transportation system as soon as possible, there are problems with focusing only on electric vehicles to achieve reductions in the transport sector. That’s exactly why our CleanBC plan doesn’t do that and why it includes so much more than that. Critically important, CleanBC includes a strong emphasis on more environmentally and socially responsible modes of transportation, like public transport and active transportation, along with the recognition that we need to reduce travel distances for people, by building complete communities where people live, work, play, study and shop without going very far. CleanBC demands that we build safe cycling, walking and rolling infrastructure whenever we upgrade bridges or interchanges, and makes an expansion of our public transportation network a top priority."
"Our economic and financial system is captured by the fossil fuel industry, and I say this extremely seriously. It’s not just B.C. We see it across Canada. Canada was economically built on resource extraction. I think that it’s important to acknowledge that, and it’s important to respect and be grateful for what resource extraction has done for our country and be grateful for what petroleum products have brought to civilization. But just because we have come from a place where fossil fuels have been embedded into our economic and financial system doesn’t mean that we need to continue forward in that way. We have to transition. We have seen…. I have seen in my time as an MLA here how captured our entire system is by this industry, how it influences the way that individuals see their options for prosperity in certain parts of the country. We have seen the way that it limits the kinds of choices that governments feel like they can make. I have learned about how many wars, how many regime changes, how many sanctions have been placed on countries around the world, based on whether or not they will or won’t play ball in terms of fossil fuel and gas and petroleum exports — in particular, with the United States. This is something that we all need to grapple with as we go forward into actually meeting our climate targets, because it’s not just about emissions. Emissions on their own won’t release us from the grasp of the fossil fuel industry."
"I come from a generation…. I’m a millennial, an elder millennial, probably on the earlier end, in terms of the years that millennials are considered to be millennials. I remember when we, as a generation, sounded the alarm on intergenerational inequality — not just financial inequality, not just on wealth and income, but also on climate and the environment. As a generation, we were told to shut up. We were called “lazy, entitled, naive.” We were told to stop whining, to go get a job. “Come back to the table when you have more experience. Then talk to us about what’s going on. Go out and work really hard, and stop being lazy. Give up your avocado toast and your lattes, and then everything will be fine.” You know what? That’s what we did. We went out, we got jobs, and we put our concerns aside for a while. We lived in smaller homes, rode our bikes, took public transit, composted and recycled, and it didn’t fix the problem. It did not fix the problem, and now we are back. But this time, we won’t stay silent, and you can’t get rid of us. We are in your workforce. We are in your streets. We are supporting people who are even younger than us and encouraging them to speak up, not sit down. We are also in your city councils, and yes, we are in your legislatures. Not that many of us, mind you. Out of 87 MLAs in the B.C. Legislature, only three of us are millennials, despite making up the largest voting bloc today. We make up only less than 3.5 percent of the people who sit in this House and make laws for future generations."
"As the Parliamentary Secretary for TransLink, I have the privilege of supporting a government and an organization committed to public transit. As a public transit and SeaBus user myself, I love encouraging people to take and support environmentally and socially responsible modes of transportation. Public transit is good for urban mobility and good for people—health-wise, mobility-wise, and to enable strong economic and social justice through the reduction of inequality by providing mobility to all."
"The choice we made to support TransLink in ensuring that public transit service is available to people as we restart will play a critical role in supporting the workforce as they return to work. Our government’s steadfast commitment as a funding partner in the Mayors’ Council’s 10-Year Vision, the largest transit investment in history, will result in continued transit improvements throughout the region, making life better for everyone."
"As a woman who has worked in male-dominated industries my entire life so far, I am sadly no stranger to casual sexism. Like many women in these situations, I found myself making choices about the way that I act, dress, or carry myself to avoid having sexist interpretations read into my interactions – interactions such as, for instance, deliberately speaking closely with an elder who is very hard of hearing. It is a burden that women should not have to bear while they are simply trying to live their lives and do their jobs. The video of BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson watching on as a multi-term BC Liberal North Shore MLA sexualized my interactions with another multi-term BC Liberal North Shore MLA is a deeply uncomfortable characterization of my efforts to extend kindness across partisan lines. However, this is not about me. Young women deserve a province that encourages them to take on leadership roles without fear of sexism. If we want more young women and people of colour to enter politics, we must commit to creating environments that respect them. The comments and reactions in that video do the exact opposite."
"Young women deserve a province that encourages them to take on leadership roles without fear of sexism. If we want more young women, and more people of colour to enter politics, we must commit to creating environments that respect that."
"Campaigns are normally very, very social. Politics is absolutely a team sport. And doing all of these campaign activities from separate homes and not being able to gather … it’s far more challenging to feed off each other's energy, even on the Zoom call."
"Votes are not owned, they're earned. And I will continue to work hard every single day for as long as I have the honour of serving North Vancouver-Lonsdale to deserve their support."
"Do not despair, my dear friends; instead, let us redouble our commitment to life beyond the pandemic in the actions we must take today."
"Sad and disappointed to see campaigns underway to cancel supportive housing for vulnerable women and their children. I know that #NorthVan is more compassionate than this. Join me building support for this project: https://letstalkhousingbc.ca/north-vancouver-west-16"
"Right now, the region is more interested in looking at options for rapid transit than they are for more lanes on those bridges, especially given that our local road networks can't quite handle more volume of traffic. People on the North Shore want choice."
"Climate change is real. Climate change is deadly. Climate change is here. The changes we must make to address this crisis will at times be as difficult and uncomfortable as they are necessary. It won't be easy, but I've found reasons to be hopeful. People are demanding more to be done and pushing govts (incl ours) to deliver that change..."
"British Columbia has experienced an extreme weather event and we are seeing the impacts of the climate emergency in real-time. Although the atmospheric river has now passed, floods and mudslides continue to impact safe travel throughout the province."
"Here's the thing: I'm not in politics to play games. I try to be thoughtful about when, where, how I express myself, but I'm obstinate on some issues; even recalcitrant at times. So I want to be up front to whoever becomes our new leader about what they can expect from me. When I envision a hopeful future, I see a sunset to the fossil fuel industry; complete, walkable & bikable communities connected by mass transit throughout the province; universal housing for everyone who needs it; families who don’t have to worry about their kids’ futures. For a future everyone can thrive in, we need to act on #ClimateChange as a Grand Challenge of our time. As important as it is to cool people down, put out fires, rebuild infrastructure, it's also not enough. We have to prevent these catastrophes from occurring to begin with. I want a leader who believes that addressing the #ClimateEmergency is a moral imperative; who will take an unambiguous stance against the expansion of fossil fuel extraction, including LNG, and end measures designed to incentivize the industry. I'm really worried about the serious environmental, social, and economic impacts of car dependency and believe that we can't afford to further entrench it. I’ll be pushing you for legislative reform and increased investments to make 🚍🚶🚴🧑🦽 truly viable choices for people. Expect me to be outspoken at the tables you appoint me to. Know that I hate bullshit and being pushed around. We need to be unafraid of facing down established power, especially when the stakes are high. Let's challenge the failures of capitalism with public solutions."
"I want to sincerely thank everyone who has reached out to encourage me to enter the leadership race. I've been humbled and overwhelmed by the number of people who wanted to pledge their support; your faith in me means more than I have the words to describe. Politics is a weird and often frustrating arena to work in. What keeps me centred, grounded, and *going* is being able to spend time face-to-face with the people of our North Vancouver community. With everything that keeps me busy as an MLA and Minister of State, I really cherish the limited time I have to connect with and directly serve local community members. I know that being Premier isn't for me. I've been speaking with David Eby. He's a person of great integrity and someone that I've respected and admired since before I was elected. I've made my priorities around action on climate very clear to Dave. I believe that he can lead our province into a thriving future and will support him if he runs."
"The reality is that the climate crisis has arrived and it is here in British Columbia. Those are not one-off events. They will continue to take place. They will continue to hit British Columbia even as we do work to take on climate change and make progress on climate action. We’ve got to be ready.”"
"I became an MLA because I could no longer stand idly by while I learned more and more about how the previous government was hurting the people I loved. They were hurting members of my family, my community, my neighbours, my colleagues, my friends — and hurt they have been."
"British Columbians can see through rhetoric that contradicts their own lived experiences. Under the previous government, while the province enjoyed a surplus, it was the people of British Columbia, the people of North Vancouver, my parents, my family members, my community, my friends, my colleagues who paid and paid dearly for it."
"A government serves people, and when a government delivers services, they are delivering them to real people. These are people who live, people who laugh, who cry. These are people who suffer, who yell out in pain, who love and are loved. These are the people we love."
"Although my parents did the best that they could, like most families, they were not perfect. There were many years when life at home was not good. So I stayed away from that home for as much as possible. I hung out, out of the house, after dark, maybe far longer than I should have. I snuck out at night. I skipped classes. I was aggressive. I was argumentative. I was combative. My grades dropped significantly. It was a public school teacher that turned it all around for me — a public school teacher that noticed that something wasn’t quite right and that I was squandering my potential. I remember her coming up to me in the halls of my high school one afternoon after school. She grabbed me by the shoulders, turned me around and said: “Bowinn” — pardon me — “what are you doing? You’re ruining your life. You need to snap out of this. You need to do this better.” I turned my life around. Instead of hanging out after dark, I spent a lot of time at my school, in after-school programs. I put a lot more effort into my classes. I eventually graduated and went to UBC. I became an engineer, and now I’m an MLA. But what would have happened to me if my teachers had been too stressed out, too overworked, too under-resourced to be able to notice that I was struggling? What would have happened? What happens to the people who attend schools when schools are no longer able to function as the critical component of the social safety net that they are? What happens when children are not caught before they fall? I wonder, often, what would have happened to me if I had grown up not in the ’90s but under back-to-back B.C. Liberal governments."
"I will be supporting this throne speech because climate change, poverty, opioid overdoses, homelessness and hopelessness — these are all real issues. I do believe that this should not be a question of whether or not we can afford to resolve them, but rather a question of whether we, as a society, can afford not to."
"My English name is Bowinn Ma, but in Chinese, it’s Ma Bo Wen. Ma literally translates as “horse,” which is the family name, and Bo Wen literally translates to “plentiful script.” But what it means can be roughly translated as “ocean of knowledge” or “broad scholar.” It means someone who has a broad understanding of many things and someone who has the wisdom to use this knowledge in a good way. It represents what my parents and grandparents had hoped I would become as an adult. In English, my name is just a name, a series of sounds used to identify me. But in my traditional language, those two simple syllables are a culmination of all of the hopes and dreams that my family have had of me since my birth — aspirations that could never truly be translated properly across cultures in as succinct a way."
"I’d like to talk very specifically today about the issue of urban congestion, as I recognize that rural and remote communities face and experience transportation challenges very differently."
"We, as a society, have grown so car-centric that we somehow have allowed ourselves to fall into the trap of believing that personal vehicles are the only way to get around in an urban setting and that failing to invest every transportation dollar into roadways is somehow a disservice to society. I absolutely insist it is not. We must recognize that when it comes to transportation planning, the goal is to move as many people and as much goods around as possible, as time-efficiently as possible, for as little money per trip as possible, expending as few GHGs as possible, while ensuring safety is a core consideration. Doing that means being more of what I might refer to as being mode-agnostic and mode-diverse. Cars, bikes, buses, trucks, trains, gondolas, ferries, SeaBuses and shoes — they are all valid ways to get around. It is not about cars; it is about people. And people can move around in a whole lot of different ways. For the North Shore, our commitment to public transportation as a way forward is absolutely critical. You know what? Whether it’s more SeaBuses, more buses, new routes or aspirational concepts like underwater tunnels for transit, SkyTrain to the North Shore, or more, it’s time for us to shift the conversation from the question of how we move cars around to how we move more people around. That’s why we must also commit to encouraging active transportation options as a way to allow people the choice of leaving their cars at home so that existing roadway capacity can be better utilized for goods movement and used by people who depend on their cars to get around. If done properly, biking infrastructure is an effective way of keeping cars off of our roads. Let’s be absolutely clear, however. Being pro–public transit and pro–active transportation doesn’t mean that the family of six that depends on their car to shuttle their children to school and soccer games should be forced to leave their car at home. It means that the options to allow other people, like myself, to get off of the roadways and onto my bicycle or onto a bus is available so that that family of six can get around in their vehicle more quickly. It also means that the ability for their children to travel by bus on their own when they’re old enough and responsible enough exists so that their parents are not transporting them around until they have their own driver’s licence or their own vehicle. It is about choice. It is about health. It is about freedom. It’s about people."
"Let me be clear as well that improvements of public transit and rapid transit do help drivers as well, because if we can provide people with options for moving around, then even though not everybody can leave their car at home every single day and take the bus, if we can give people the options to take the bus, then that actually leaves more room on the roads for drivers."
"I’m trying to be compassionate and I’m trying to be generous. But I have some serious, serious issues with a lot of the policies that the BC Liberals have represented, certainly the policies that Andrew Wilkinson represents. And while I’ve not been shy about criticizing the BC Liberals and occasionally naming Andrew Wilkinson as the leader there, I also recognize that there is definitely a portion of the population that Andrew Wilkinson speaks to. So if you are somebody who is very wealthy, yeah, I would understand why Andrew Wilkinson would kind of speak to you that way. ... I think that there is something to his personality that I also find distasteful and distrustful, but more important than that, it’s what his policies would do to British Columbians. And I actually think that a lot of them would harm the average British Columbian a lot."
"My tweets have shown up in BC Liberal attacks during Question Period [in the BC Legislature] a number of times. I’m a little bit surprised because they raise it like their own shit don’t stink. I’m actually surprised by how shameless they are about it often. I know that their MLAs also say incredibly ludicrous things online. And if I were them, I might be concerned about throwing stones in a glass house."
"I do avoid attacking individual MLAs with the exception of naming Andrew Wilkinson, because I believe that as the leader of the party, he should be willing to stand by all of the positions that the party takes and be responsible for the actions of his MLAs."
"I’m only the third NDP MLA to serve a community on the North Shore since World War II. So, I mean, history says that I will probably lose my seat at the next election, honestly. So I’m focused on working as hard as possible for my community in the time that I have. And if I do lose my seat, I really hope that it’s because the people have found someone better to represent them and not because the BC Liberals have destroyed me with a dirty campaign."
"I mean what I say and I try to say what I mean."
"Over the last three years I have been thoroughly impressed with Bowinn Ma. There are few elected officials who work harder for their community and it is evident that she cares deeply about people. Bowinn has been a breath of fresh air in the Legislature and is one of our strongest voices in the fight against climate change. I certainly hope she is re-elected in North Vancouver-Lonsdale."
"Like C.D. Howe, she's an engineer-turned-politician. I think she's one of a new generation of elected leaders who gets the climate crisis."
"The way Bowinn comports herself is beyond reproach. She’s an extraordinary woman, a young woman of colour who has broken barriers as an engineer, broken barriers as a student at the Sauder business school, and also broken barriers as a compassionate, forward-looking member of the legislature. And she is now, again, blazing a trail for women around British Columbia and, indeed, around the world that you can do anything, and you do not have to tolerate sexist jokes. You can stand up to that, and I’m very proud of her and, quite frankly, proud of the hundreds of thousands of British Columbians who are responding positively to her message."
"Bowinn Ma is a legislator of singular democratic integrity. To thrive in the challenges facing the North Shore and BC — from a sustainable COVID recovery to climate justice — we absolutely need to re-elect Bowinn."
"Sorry I was late this morning, I had to take two showers to wipe the tire marks off my back. In saying that, I’d be more than happy to be thrown underneath the bus for my brother any day, by the way."
"I’m in favour of getting rid of all taxes, as much as we can."
"Absolutely I smoked pot in high school. I don’t like drugs. I don’t even take Aspirin. I don’t drink. I haven’t drank since I’ve been 18 years old... I despise drugs and I’ve done everything I can to stop drugs in my community."
"I brought my kids down there and I wouldn’t bring my kids back when there’s buck-naked men running down the street."
"You've ruined the community. You can't destroy a community like this. People have worked 30 years for their home. My heart goes out to kids with autism. But no one told me they'd be leaving the house. If it comes down to it, I'll buy the house myself and resell it."
"You can be racist against people who have a drinking problem. You can be racist against people that eat little red apples."
"He can go to hell, I don’t even care. This is not normal in democracy. It is a full out jihad against us right now."
"I can’t stand that little bitch."
"If I ever get to the provincial level of politics, municipal affairs is the first thing I would want to change. I think mayors across the province deserve stronger powers. One person in charge, with veto power, similar to the strong mayoral systems in New York and Chicago and L.A."
"It’d be important to be able to communicate with part of our country that speaks French — I love Quebec, I love Quebecers."
"Sex ed curriculum should be about facts, not teaching Liberal ideology."
"I can't think of a more life-changing procedure for a young woman than an abortion... I don't know too many parents that would approve any of their kids going on a field trip without their knowledge. I don't see anyone ever approving an operation on their children when they're 12- and 13-years-old without approval."
"My friends, a new day has dawned on Ontario! A day of opportunity, a day of prosperity and a day of growth. We’re going to turn this province around, so our children and their children will always be proud to call Ontario home. We will make sure Ontario is the greatest place on Earth to live, to do business and to raise a family. And we will make Ontario once again the engine of Canada."
"All I heard everywhere I went was buck-a-beer, buck-a-beer, buck-a-beer. So sometimes the media, ourselves even, we live in a bubble and you don’t realize some of the kitchen table issues people want to get done."
"They do not get to just walk away from this. We will demand answers about where the money went. A lot of the Liberals got rich, really really rich, under Kathleen Wynne and off the backs of the taxpayers of Ontario."
"I think we all know what kind of crazy Marxist nonsense student unions get up to. So, we fixed that. Student union fees are now opt-in."
"Hey Michael, it’s Doug Ford calling. Thanks so much for the message my friend. Uh, you know something? I love those polls. They make me laugh. But Michael, you got to be very, very careful when you tell someone that they’re corrupt. Very, very, very careful. OK, my friend? I’ll talk to you later."
"What boggles my mind: we’re pouring, pouring money into autism, and focused on it, listening to the experts, not the bunch of politicians, but listening to the experts. We’re helping them and they’re protesting? I don’t know. I question that."
"God bless the president Donald Trump and don’t get me wrong. Full disclosure: I’m a big Republican, I’m a supporter, conservative-minded and Jason’s probably more conservative than I am. But, you know, this protectionism, it’s just not going to work."
"We have a bunch of yahoos out in the front of Queen’s Park sitting there protesting that the place isn’t open, as they are breaking the law. And putting everyone in jeopardy, putting themselves in jeopardy, putting workers in jeopardy and god forbid one of them ends up in the hospital down the street."
"Am I frustrated? Yeah I am frustrated but I have confidence in the team. I will be like an 800-pound gorilla on their backs every single day if I have to until I see these numbers go up."
"People shouldn't be sharing anything. I don't care if it's those doobies, joints, whatever you want to call them, or drinks, or anything; just don't share 'em, simple. And wear a face covering."
"I don’t get. I just don’t get it. If we weren’t so backlogged on MRIs, I’d send you to the MRI to get your brain scanned because I just don’t think there is anything in there."
"Nothing is more important than getting these vaccines. If I was in his [Justin Trudeau's] shoes … I’d be up that [Pfizer] guy’s ying yang so far with a firecracker he wouldn’t know what hit him. I would be outside that guy’s house every time he moved."
"REESTAY A LA MYZA"
"We will never stop issuing MZOs for the people of Ontario, the people that need housing. There are 40,000 people moving in the GTA, the fastest-growing region in North America. If it was up to the NDP they’d be living in mud huts right now."
"We have a premier in this province who's told us many times now that our existing hospitals have no capacity to deal with the wait-lists"
"We have thousands of animals that have perished. We have many, many more that are in difficult situations and we’re seeing an animal welfare issue develop."
"There will have to be euthanizations that happen. But there are also animals who have survived that are going to be in critical need for food in the next 24 hours."
"The conversations we are having with farmers who have suffered losses due to the flooding are guiding our governments in developing a comprehensive AgriRecovery package that will help our agriculture producers return to production."
"Healthy soils are vital for growing food on B.C. farmland, and our government is committed to supporting producers move toward regenerative agriculture practices that will improve soil health"
"Regenerative agriculture is a strong defence against the effects of climate change and implementing these practices will help ensure we have a resilient ecosystem, while strengthening local food security"
"Our governments have committed to work together, and listening intently to farmers and producers so we can provide the support needed to help them get back on their feet, with their farms back in production"
"By replacing B.C.'s agricultural watchdog with someone with no background in agriculture, the B.C. Liberals are making it clear that their attack on the ALR has only just begun"
"The cost of ALR land has been driven up because of speculation .... speculators buy up farm land, but they're not intending to be farmers"
"Our government is committed to helping businesses share the story of food from farm to table, and traceability systems help to do that. Strengthening these systems demonstrates how companies are working to keep local food safe and accessible to consumers"
"Mission staff are the team behind the team always working to prepare athletes for success. With such a strong team supporting them, I’m confident our athletes will be poised to achieve their personal best"
"B.C. food hubs create new opportunities for small- and medium-sized businesses and strengthen food security, so British Columbians can rely on locally grown and processed food now and for generations to come"
"BC Fruit Works is part of our government’s Tree Fruit Industry Stabilization initiative as we look at ways to co-ordinate various agencies through an industry labour strategy"
"As Agriculture ministers, we're always looking at ways to make sure our programs and policies are working for farmers, producers and processors across the country. I look forward to continuing to build strong relationships across Canada and working together for Canadian food production and security"
"Throughout the entire COVID-19 pandemic, B.C. Minister of Agriculture Lana Popham has not publicly acknowledged the community health risk concerns regarding fur farms in B.C., even despite continuous outbreaks at fur farms in our province"
"If you are in the Sumas Prairie and have not already evacuated, you must do so immediately. Do not stay for livestock or property. Flood conditions have escalated quickly and pose a significant risk to life . This event is anticipated to be catastrophic. Residents who cannot evacuate safely are asked to call 911 and report your location immediately."
"I have also been in contact with Bill Blair, federal Minister of Emergency Preparedness, to request federal assistance on this incident and the flooding situation in general. This includes Canadian Armed Forces ground and air support"
"His friends and family swear they knew that once Mike Harris found politics, it was just a matter of time until he made it to the top. If pundits marvel at how he defied the polls to tap into grassroots discontent, they also might note that he did not have to go far to hear those rumblings"
"We need healthy and sustainable communities so current and future generations have every opportunity to live full meaningful lives."
"We need to properly support and advance innovation for new clean tech as society transitions from fossil fuels."
"Today, people want to be able to stay connected while on the road. Expanded wireless service helps meet that desire for people travelling in the area and residents alike"
"Now there is a chance to look at what people want, what people value and what makes it home."
"Tuxedo is where my grandparents raised my father and where Jason and I have raised our children. For us, it's home."
"It goes back to wanting to end one chapter in my life before starting another chapter. I do have some irons in the fire and some exciting things coming in the near future."
"It goes back to wanting to end one chapter in my life before starting another chapter."
"Serving as (legislature member), minister and the first woman premier has been the honour of a lifetime."
"I believe in this party."
"Heather’s extensive experience in government and regulatory affairs will help to strengthen the WestJet Group’s relationships with communities across the country as we pursue ambitious growth in service of all Canadians."
"Her strengths were that she was a conciliator. She listened to people, she took advice and she was someone who operated within a team."
"Every student deserves a quality education in a school that can meet their learning needs and set them on a path to success in the future"
"When you get elected, you have to make some tough decisions. And what we’re doing is we’re being honest with Albertans about the things we need to do"
"We’re identifying problems and we’re fixing them. It takes a little bit of time to address all of the problems, but look, I didn’t create them. I’m just here to solve them. And so, I’m looking forward to continuing to hear feedback from Albertans"
"We know that it is 18-to-34-year-olds that have no idea about the Holocaust, they don’t even think that it happened. They don’t even understand that Israel was offered to the Jews who were misplaced, displaced, so they have no connection to how it started. They don’t understand that it was a crappy piece of land with nothing on it – you know, there were several hundred thousand people but other than that, it didn’t produce an economy. It couldn’t grow things it didn’t have anything on it, and that it was the folks that were displaced that came and had been living there for generations and together they worked hard ..."
"I was a Cabinet minister in B.C.’s New Democratic Party government earlier this year when I made an impolitic remark about the quality of the land on which Israel was founded."
"Rustad rebate (The largest tax cut on housing in BC history. $3,000 per month of rent or mortgage will be exempt from provincial income taxes.)"