Thank you, I’m originally from Dieppe, actually. I grew up in Dieppe and now live in Moncton with my husband. Fun facts …… I’m the youngest of a family of ten children. I’m the baby of the family. So, I’m number ten. I grew up in Dieppe, had my education here. And I had a very successful career working as a front-line social worker. I started my career working in the mental health field with the Canadian Mental Health Association. And then I moved on to working with the Codiac Regional RCMP in Moncton as the Victim Services Coordinator. So, part of my career, I worked predominantly with victims of domestic violence and sexual violence and also worked with a lot of the major crimes that occurred in the city. I had a phenomenal career working in that field. And then from there I was actively involved in my community by volunteering for a lot of organisations and groups. I did a lot of work in the field of gender equality, pay equity and again advancing women’s issues. So yeah. And then in 2015, I got involved in politics and voilà, here I am.
Tell us about your career as a social worker and your political journey as well?
I started my journey in 2015. I was never really involved in politics really beforehand. I was asked to run provincially a few years prior to that, and at the time the timing was just really not good for me. My mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and I spent a lot of time with her and didn’t really want to be away. So, in 2015, I made the jump to run for the seat for Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe. It was a big leap because I enjoyed my career as a social worker very much. I also realised that if I wanted to effect change at a higher level, getting involved in politics was necessary. And also, we need to have more women involved in politics for better representation of our community, of our country. So, I made the jump. I won the nomination to be the Liberal candidate for Moncton-Riverview- Dieppe then from there was successful in the general election of 2015. And in the 2019 election I was successfully re-elected, and was again successful in the 2021 election. So, I just finished my seventh year (in Parliament) and I`ve also had the opportunity to serve previously as Minister of Health and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance. It’s been the real honour of my life and a privilege to serve in these capacities.
You mentioned the mantra getting into politics, tell us more about that?
I was used to being a frontline social worker to help individuals and I have always served my community in that capacity. So, I was on hand on a daily basis in crisis situations, working in my community all the time. Though, the environment may be different in politics, I still get to work with people in my community. I still get to meet people in my constituency office and in Ottawa, which is fantastic. Interestingly, part of the job as legislators in Ottawa is of course making laws and debating in the House of Commons. And that was something that I had never done before. So that was a bit of a shift.
I like to make sure that I meet my constituents when available and when I get invitations to attend different events, whether rallies or meetings, whatever the issues are, I make sure to attend because it helps me identify with the people. As a legislator, it’s important to make sure that we understand the pulse of the community and the challenges in order to bring solutions to challenges they may be facing.
How do you reach your constituents in regard to immigrants?
As I said, if you look back in Moncton 10 years ago when we just started to welcome immigrants (in our region) and now, the conversation has shifted a lot. We are seeing more immigrants arriving in our community, which is fantastic because we know that there’s a need for economic immigrants to help fill labour shortages. We also recognized that this contributes so much to our culture and the social fabric of our community. We needed to make sure that we are prepared to receive them properly, and also to make sure that the services are up to standard. Just to give you an example, we had a grand opening of the First (Hindu) Temple in the community last week. Though it took some time, finally our Hindu community has a temple. It means that if we want to keep our immigrants here, we have to make sure that we accommodate them well. Our community is becoming much more diverse, and it warms my heart when I see that.
What has been your greatest challenge as a woman in Parliament?
I’ll be frank. It’s still very much a challenge for women being in Parliament and in politics. First of all, often times when women are asked to run for office, we have to be asked more than once because we just don’t think that we have all of the qualifications that are needed. And no offence to men, they don’t even look if they’re qualified (when they ask them). They often don’t even wait to be asked. And again, that’s fine. They just want to do it. They do it. While women, we have to, again, usually be asked. You know, statistics show (women are asked) at least three or four times before accepting and making the leap. So, it’s getting better. We have a bit over 100 women sitting as MPs right now out of 338. But it’s still a challenge. Especially if you look at our social media, for example, the comments that are made on our sites compared to men, you know, it’s very sexist. It’s misogynistic. So, there’s still a lot of challenges there but again, we have to make sure that representation is there, both women and men, but also diversity. You know what I mean? If you want to have a Parliament that is going to come up with good social policies, we have to make sure that we represent you and our country. I’m very proud of our party, the Liberal Party in that respect, that when we recruit our candidates, we really make sure that diversity is key in all its forms to represent this great country.
In August 2017, you were named Canada’s Minister of Health, can you tell us some of the challenges you encountered and how you overcame them?
The health department is quite a big portfolio. We know that it’s always in the news and of course it`s always an honor to serve in that capacity. Part of my responsibilities was a huge piece of legislation that I was asked to work on, and to make law: the legalization of cannabis. That was a huge feat, but we were ultimately successful in getting it done. But it was a big, big responsibility. I was also saddled with the task of putting in place a new food guide that was based on science, and that wasn’t implemented by industry. So, the health portfolio probably has been my biggest challenge, but it was a great experience for me meeting and working with all provinces and territories because we belong to a federated country.
As such, we know that the health portfolio really is in the jurisdiction of the provinces. The federal government of course provides funding and again, we take care of kind of the public health part of it. But again, we know that health is a very important portfolio—one that Canadians care about a lot. And we also know that Canada’s health care system may not be perfect, but it’s still a universal health care system that is free for all Canadians and that`s a very valuable asset for our citizens.
What would you do if a constituent called in distress and needed urgent help?
I will say my social worker experience had prepared me well for that. So, prior to entering politics, I dealt with crisis situations day in and day out. My day was filled with crises, so I guess it comes natural to me when people contact the office. Now, sometimes, most times when people call the office, sometimes it’s regarding federal-related programmes, and that’s really what we can help them with. But if someone comes to my office with respect to a need that they have, while it may not be in my realm of responsibilities, that doesn`t mean you throw your past 25 years as a social worker out the door. So, if we can help or refer them to get them the help that they need, we certainly will do so. I’m not at the office all the time of course because of my parliamentary and ministerial responsibilities and commitments, but I’m very blessed that I have staff who are really, really fantastic ambassadors and work with the clients that I work with on a regular basis. So, we’ll certainly try to help them to defuse the situation as much as possible and also to make that referral to the appropriate agency where people can connect them to the help. We deal with a lot in the office here, we deal with a lot of immigration-related questions. People have questions. While we’re not immigration officers, if we can get status updates on files, we want to do that. We also get a lot of inquiries regarding Service Canada-related matters, passports, employment insurance. Anything that touches the federal government. They call us and from there we are able to do that troubleshooting for them. We get a lot of calls just because people don’t understand the different levels of government, like what the federal government takes care of, what the provincial government takes care of and what the municipality takes care of. So sometimes we have to kind of make those referrals back and forth and we do that as well.
Can you tell us the major bills you have pushed in Parliament and why?
Right now, we have a bill before the House of Commons and it’s the modernization of the Official Languages Act. We had our first act in Canada in 1969 and right now, we are working on bringing the legislation for official languages into the 21st century. And I’m hoping that this legislation will be passed into law by the end of this year. It’s really my hope! It would be my greatest Christmas gift if we could get that done because I know that it will really have a positive impact on people. And again, if I can get that done, it will certainly be a historic moment and it would be a huge accomplishment.
My motivation is really to serve my community because it is an honor and a privilege to serve and accomplish some projects, especially being a woman. When you see the change that you can affect in your community, the investments that you can bring your community—it’s pretty amazing to be one of 338 people in Parliament in Canada. It’s a real privilege to serve in this capacity, a privilege that I don’t take for granted. Every day I walk up the Parliament Hill and I look at the buildings, I’m usually in awe. I can’t believe that I am fortunate enough to represent my community because I come from a very humble background.
What do you do outside the work hours?
We work a lot for long hours of course, and we do travel back and forth so, there’s not a lot of free time but, when I do have free time, I do appreciate spending time with my family and my husband as much as possible. In my free time, I also like to get out in the community as much as possible. I certainly enjoy nature and going out for nature walks in our beautiful city.
What is your advice for young people who want to go into politics?
I do try to mentor young people as much as possible especially women and my advice to them is that the sky is the limit. We live in an area where you can follow your dreams. Don’t be scared, just find a way to get it done because there are NO obstacles that cannot be overcome. They should also surround themselves with people who believe in them.
Leave a Reply