Ruff Looks Back At First Year As MP For Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound

Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound Conservative MP Alex Ruff’s first year in Parliament was an unusual one by any standard due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite far fewer MPs physically in the House of Commons at times and fewer events in his riding of Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound, the year was also a busy one which saw the announcement of numerous pandemic response funding programs, the prorogation of Parliament, a Conservative leadership race, and Ruff’s appointment to the Conservative Party’s leadership team.

Much of the MP’s business was done virtually during more than one lockdown in 2020.

“I think my military background better prepared me than most of my colleagues. I’m used to a bit of chaos,” says Ruff, noting the concept is not unfamiliar to him, “I’m used to that, I’ve done deployments overseas where you’re locked in basically, on a base, or you’re working with very few amenities.”

Ruff retired from the Canadian Armed forces after his last deployment in Iraq earlier in 2019.  After the retirement announcement of 16-year Conservative MP Larry Miller, Ruff campaigned in that year’s election to win the riding of Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound on October 21st, 2019, with 46.1 per cent of the vote.

“We were only sitting there for a couple of weeks before the Christmas constituency break,” says Ruff noting, when the house resumed in January, there was a lot to learn. He was also named to the Veteran’s Affairs Committee for a period of time, where he advocated for reducing the backlog on veterans disability benefit claims that number in the tens of thousands.

The announcement of the resignation of Andrew Scheer created a leadership race which Ruff says kept a number of MPs busy in the new year once they decided who they were supporting, “As everybody knows, I supported our new leader Erin O’Toole right from the get go,” says Ruff, who has known O’Toole since they both attended the Royal Military College in the 1990s.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit, locking down the country in March and significantly limiting the number of MPs in the House for safety reasons, which Ruff says, “Threw everything into a bit of a loop where we were doing this virtual sort of special committee. It wasn’t real Parliament, but we kept that going and obviously the focus there was on how do you make sure the best legislation was passed.”

He says since the fall, the House of Commons has been, “Back to that sort of full, normal process of parliament with the ability for all of the MPs to participate in this hybrid fashion.”

In September, Ruff was appointed to Erin O’Toole’s leadership team as Deputy Conservative Party Whip, and says, “It’s been keeping me busy learning a lot more of the procedural aspects of how things run in the House of Commons.”

• Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MP Alex Ruff Named To Conservative Leadership Team

During his first year as MP, Ruff has been advocating for greater access to rural broadband internet, pushing for more answers on a federal firearms ban and Canada’s missed BSE controlled risk list deadline for cattle farmers. He’s supported more funding for the Canada Summer Jobs Program (now open for applications until Jan 29 2021), as well as continually asked for greater eligibility for the Canada Emergency Business Account.

Since his first question in the House of Commons as MP on Dec 12th 2019, Ruff has been asking why, after Canada had to wait 11 years, the federal government missed the application deadline for the cattle industry to be taken off the world BSE Controlled Risk list (Bovine Spongiform Encepholopathy). Canada has been cut off from various beef markets around the world because it is on the list.

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Ruff asked the government, what measures were put in place to ensure future deadlines will not be missed. He says the Ministry of Agriculture’s answer in November of “All stakeholders work constructively together,” is not a sufficient answer in his view. Ruff says he wants to understand why the chance to apply was missed, adding, “If it was due to anything that the government can control, have we fixed it?” He says, “It’s not about fault, It’s about making sure we’re prepared to do it again.”

He has also been pressing the government for a definition for the 1,500 firearm models the Federal Liberal Government banned under the description of ‘military assault firearms’ this past May, but Ruff says he hasn’t gotten what he feels is a clear answer to that question.

In November of 2020, the Federal Government responded to Ruff’s request for a definition of a ‘military style assault firearm,” answering it banned the firearms saying they are not ‘reasonable for hunting or sporting purposes” based on the following principles: (1) “semi-automatic function with sustain rapid-fire capability (tactical/ military design with large magazine capacity), (2) modern design, and (3) are present in large volumes in the Canadian market. It included firearms with 20 mm or greater bore size and muzzle energy over 10,000 joules.

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Ruff has also been asking if any Liberal MPs have taken the Canadian Firearms Safety Course, something he feels is helpful in understanding Canadian firearms laws, and is a course he took this past year as well. “They referred to the fact that Minister Blair has done firearms training in the police, but he hasn’t done the course.” Ruff took the course himself after retiring from the military saying he learned new things from it, “Not about the safe handling of a firearm. I’m very proficient and safe with any firearm, but understanding what I’m allowed to do and not allowed to do…If you possess a firearm, and what the laws are in Canada, that’s what that course teaches you,” says Ruff.

Looking ahead to 2021, he says, “I can pretty much guarantee I’m still going to submit another firearms related question and I am definitely going to submit another ag question as well with BSE because, again, very frustrating when they refuse to answer a very simple question.”  He says, “I’m not going to stop asking these questions until I get answers.”

While Opposition MPs continue to demand greater detail from the Federal Liberals on COVID-19 vaccine rollout timelines and quantities, the pandemic is not over yet.

Ruff says this past year, he’s been doing what he can to raise awareness on social media about local charity food drives and other programs and is encouraging everyone this season to connect with one another, “Continue to reach out to people, especially these winter months and during this lockdown….Don’t be afraid to call somebody or email somebody or zoom, Facebook or Facetime, whatever tool you’re using to reach out and connect with somebody that you know might be isolated.”