A week of Pageantry and Platitudes in Ottawa Concludes with a Snoozer of a Throne Speech

A speech as notable for what it didn’t say as for what it did say

Before I dive into this week’s throne speech and the first week back in Ottawa, I’d like to start by taking a moment to thank the people of Thornhill who have entrusted me with the privilege of representing them in the House of Commons for a second term.

Almost four years ago, I convinced the voters in my community to take a chance on some unknown quantity – a rookie in elected politics – who was following in the footsteps of a beloved and long-serving Conservative MP.

And this time, the honour feels more profound – because this time I’ve earned their support and trust with the largest mandate in the riding’s history based on a record of service and advocacy for the very things they sent me to Ottawa to do.

The love and support from over 44,000 people in Thornhill for me, for my team, and for our party are things I will never take for granted and I am humbled that the people from the place where I was born and raised have sent me to be their voice in Ottawa.

For those who supported me – and for those who didn’t – I promise that I will serve Thornhill well on Parliament Hill, but more importantly, in and around our community.

Of course, it was my name on the ballot but this wouldn’t have been possible without an amazing team of staff, volunteers, friends, and allies – the people who came out every day during an election and many, many days before that in the freezing cold or the pouring rain, who answered phones and put up signs, who knocked on doors and who supported this movement with their hard-earned money. It’s not lost on me that we came up short overall, but that makes all this even more important.

Most of all, I’d like to thank my family – those related by blood and those who I’ve acquired along the way: the ones that tell you that you’re not eating enough, that a fruit roll-up is not lunch, the ones honest enough to tell you look tired or that your jacket doesn’t match, the ones that push you do one more event or force you to go home when they know it will help more.

Politics is a family business, and I have the best family in the business.

I’m part of what some call the “young orphan” club. I’ve lost both my parents – but their story, like the story of so many in this country, is the exact embodiment of a version of the Canadian promise. My parents gave up everything in the former Soviet Union to pursue a life here in Canada – a place where they could live safely, speak openly, and worship freely. Despite being an engineer back in Odessa, my dad drove a taxi to put me, my brother, and my mom through school.

He worked harder than anyone I knew, he followed all the rules, he made endless sacrifices – but he knew that his dedication would lead to a better life for his family and for his kids.

That was the version of the Canadian promise – that a Lantsman could go from the front seat of a cab to the front row of Parliament in just one generation.

The story of my parents is an extraordinary one – but it’s not a unique one. It’s a story I heard over and over at the doorsteps in my community and across the country during the last campaign.

It’s a story that makes this nation the greatest one on Earth – but it’s a story that’s slipping out of reach for far too many who no longer believe that Canada’s promise exists.

Young people who can’t afford to buy a home in the neighbourhood where they grew up despite saving their money, going to school, and getting a good job.

New immigrants who are working 3 jobs just to get by because their credentials aren’t recognized here.

Single moms who are finding it harder and harder to get by each month because they’re left with less and less and less.

These are the people who are the backbone of this country – many of whom voted Conservative for the first time this election – but they’re also the ones who have been falling farther and farther behind after a lost Liberal decade.

None of that magically disappears after an election. None of that is actually any better than it was before it.

That’s why their voices are exactly what’s going to drive my continued work in politics.

It has now fallen to a new Prime Minister to fix what the last one broke – to restore the promise that this nation used to hold for so many. He was elected on a mandate of change and of new ideas.

But a mandate that started out with lofty expectations and unbridled optimism already seems to be returning to the ground. It seems like we’re settling back into the same old Ottawa instead of the new one we were promised.

You can look all around to see it: look at the cabinet that keeps 13 of the old Trudeau Ministers, including the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Minister of Industry.

You can look at the people who are now getting power and making decisions in this government and the policies they’re pushing. The Minister for Culture and Identity is a literal convict who doesn’t think we should build pipelines or roads at all and said as much just a few weeks ago. He now has official authority to act as the Minister of the Environment if the need arises.

And you can look at the Throne Speech. A speech as notable for what it didn’t say as for what it did say.

The Prime Minister says he wants to get big projects built but refuses to repeal the very laws stopping the building.

He says he wants to cut spending but offered no numbers, no targets, and no credibility after a decade of Liberal waste – all while hiding the budget until this fall. He literally promised in his Tuesday morning Throne Speech to cap operating spending at 2% yearly and the same afternoon his government introduced a bill boosting overall spending by 8%. But still, no details.

And he says he wants to make our streets safer but no mention of repealing Liberal catch-and-release laws that are turning offenders loose on our streets. So, more words, no details.

On that note: it was also incredibly concerning that the explosion of antisemitism in this country got no mention in the Throne Speech and has received no attention whatsoever from this Prime Minister.

He and his government have been silent as Jews in Canada are getting shot at, harassed, and excluded from public life. Hundreds of thousands of people are living in fear in this country and the Prime Minister has said nothing.

According to contemporary logic, you can now shoot Israeli diplomats in Washington, and it’s not “murder,” it’s “resistance.” You can cheer it on from a tenured university post, a TikTok account, or your failed Green Party campaign — just as long as you believe the victims had it coming for existing while Israeli.

We’ve gone from “Free Palestine” chants to a full-blown free pass for extremism — just as long as the targets are Jews who look a bit too complicit for comfort. Forget nuance, forget humanity — if you squint hard enough, anyone with a Hebrew name or Israeli cousin becomes a war criminal.

When 56,000 people showed up for a Walk for Israel in Toronto this weekend, no one was shocked that it came on the heels of two assassinations. The only surprise was that it happened in D.C. and not on home soil — this time.

Meanwhile, union leaders praise “fruitful resistance” and former candidates shout that murder is “100% justified.” All because peaceful protest didn’t cut it? Apparently, death threats and bullets are just the next step in the handbook of people who used to claim to be fighting against violence.

Governments mumble, campuses rage, and no one seems too bothered — as long as it’s Jews being targeted. That’s because our moral outrage comes with terms and conditions.

This isn’t new. For Jews, this playbook is painfully familiar — and history has shown how it ends. So, forgive them if they seem less shocked and more braced.

Because at this point, the question isn’t if it escalates. It’s who’s next.

When the masked mob chants ‘globalize the Intifada’, they mean it – and it’s happening here on our streets, in this country. The Prime Minister hasn’t lifted a finger yet to stop that.

Exploding antisemitism is one amongst a large number of out-of-control crises – many of them created or made worse by Justin Trudeau.

Crime and chaos on our streets, drugs and disorder on every corner, sky-high home prices and unaffordability, instability and weakness abroad.

I sincerely hope – for the sake of our country and its people – that the Prime Minister and his government will be successful.

When they have good ideas and do good things, Conservatives will support them.

But when they fall short or forget who it is that they serve, we will oppose them with every fiber of our being.

But I’ll refuse to be silenced on the things that matter to my community under the guise of those yelling about blindly supporting complacency from government in the interest of being polite.

And Conservatives, under the leadership of Pierre Poilievre, will never waver from our mission to make Canada the freest, proudest, strongest and most prosperous nation on Earth – as it should be

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