After five years of governing with a minority government, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and our Conservative party have been given a vote of confidence by the Canadian electorate. On May 2, Canadians sent 167 Conservative MPs to Ottawa. I am blessed to be one of them.

PHOTO CREDIT - GuyLauzon.ca

Cornwall - Jun. 6, 2011 - After five years of governing with a minority government, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and our Conservative party have been given a vote of confidence by the Canadian electorate. On May 2, Canadians sent 167 Conservative MPs to Ottawa. I am blessed to be one of them.

Governing with a minority government was challenging at times. When we would introduce legislation to reflect what we had campaigned on, the opposition parties would gang up and oppose it. If they voted for the legislation in the House, they would often use Parliamentary Committees to destroy, or, change the intent of pieces of legislation. Often they would even defeat legislation in the Senate after supporting it in the House. These actions wasted a great deal of valuable parliamentary calendar time and resources.

But what does a Majority Conservative government mean to the constituents of Stormont, Dundas and South Glengarry? I believe it will mean a great deal to them. To begin with, it means the budget presented by Finance Minister Flaherty in March will finally be debated and voted on in Parliament. When the budget is finally passed it will mean that 800,000 of our lowest income seniors will begin receiving an additional $600.00 per year.

It will also mean 128,000 volunteer firefighters will qualify for a $3,000 tax exemption. There are a host of other tax savings and cost cutting measures included in the budget that will come to fruition.

A Majority Government also means we will be able to pass legislation placing limits on how long senators can sit in the upper chamber. We will also table legislation to crack down on human smuggling and illegal immigration. The budget will also include a provision that eliminates direct public subsidies for political parties, something I have been advocating for some time.

Further, a majority government means we will be able to bring forward legislation to scrap the much despised long gun registry. We will also be tabling our omnibus law and order legislation, as well as, a bill to increase the seats in the House of Commons to better reflect population growth in some provinces like Ontario, BC and Alberta.

A Majority Conservative Government will certainly mean a great deal too each and every constituent of SD & SG!