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By Jeremy Appel on September 1, 2018.



jappel@medicinehatnews.com

After the Conservative party convention in Halifax last week, Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner MP Glen Motz says the Tories are united and ready to take on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2019.

“That was loud and clear,” he said.

Motz insists Quebec MP Maxime Bernier, who announced he was leaving the party on the eve of the convention, has no support among Conservatives, including many former supporters.

Bernier was narrowly defeated in last year’s leadership race, losing on the final ballot with 49 per cent of the vote to Saskatchewan MP Andrew Scheer’s 51 per cent.

A motion on phasing out supply management, a policy staunchly advocated by Bernier, was shelved from discussion, but Motz says this had nothing to do with Bernier’s “little stunt he tried to pull that had zero impact, except to unify the party.”

The elected National Policy Committee ranks what motions are prioritized based on policies put forward by all 338 electoral district associations, according to the party’s Rules for Constitution and Policy Discussions for the convention.

“There was a whole raft of policies that time did not permit even to get to,” Motz said.

“There’s no correlation with (Bernier’s departure) and to suggest that would be irresponsible.”

Motz defended a controversial motion passed to end the practice of guaranteed citizenship for babies born to non-citizens in Canada, as a safeguard against “birth tourism,” which he called a “major concern in this country.”

The motion was sparked by an official petition from Richmond, B.C., which has 10,882 signatures and was supported by local Liberal MP Joe Peschisolido.

The petition calls birth tourism an “abusive and exploitative practice,” which allows people to take advantage of Canada’s generous social programs without contributing to them.

“We’re going to safeguard against any abuse,” said Motz. “That’s the issue. We’ll restore fairness, order and compassion to our immigration system.”

The resolution didn’t specifically mention birth tourism, but countering it is the spirit of the policy, he added.

Other successful motions include a proposal to reverse the Liberal government’s demand that groups sign an attestation in favour of abortion rights before they receive funding for summer students; moving the Canadian embassy in Israel to the contested city of Jerusalem from Tel Aviv; and increasing defence spending to at least 2 per cent of gross domestic product, as recommended by NATO.

Motions to re-open the abortion debate and declare pornography a “public health risk” were narrowly defeated.

On the energy file, delegates voted to support the revival of the Energy East pipeline and revoke the federal carbon tax imposed by the Liberals.

Motz says the party is working on a policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without carbon taxation.

“We’ll be sharing that when it’s ready to be shown and it’ll certainly demonstrate that … we can be responsible to the environment (without) penalizing industry and a really overburdened and taxed Canadian population,” he said.

All motions passed at the convention are non-binding, so they aren’t guaranteed to be in the party’s election platform.