Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MP Alex Ruff is looking back at 2022 as a year that brought with it, some welcome changes.
“I really think we finally saw that transition with the pandemic, moving on,” says Ruff, adding, “I personally believe the pandemic is over, it doesn’t mean that COVID is still not around, but we saw that transition really, at the start of the summer.”
He continues, “The fall fairs, all the events we had, the barbecues etc. It was just great to get out and see people face to face and events somewhat back to normal.”
Unique to this year in particular, was Ruff’s distribution of Platinum Jubilee Coins. Ruff and a few other members of parliament decided to have their own platinum jubilee coins created after the federal government did not announce plans to observe the milestone in 2022 in honour of 70 years of service of Queen Elizabeth II, as it had with other jubilees.
Ruff put a call out to the community to nominate those they felt were deserving of a jubilee coin for their contribution to the community. Some 70 residents of Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound were recognized, many at an event in the summer.
In February, Russia invaded Ukraine, and after sanctions against Russia and Canada’s public commitment to send supplies and aid to Ukraine and its military, numerous Canadians were banned from Russia, including members of parliament, with Ruff among those banned. throughout the year, Ruff has been advocating for some of Canada’s armoured military vehicles tat are no longer being used, to be donated to Ukraine. “Unfortunately, that demand is still there,” says Ruff.
Ruff sat on the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities. He says it allowed him to advocate for issues that matter to constituents.
He also sat on the Special Committee on Afghanistan to review the events related Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban and the Canadian government’s contingency planning in relation to it as well as its evacuation efforts. That committee submitted a report to parliament in June. It made 37 recommendations including that the government ensures its applications for Afghans to come to Canada are processed immediately, expanding the scope of who can come to Canada, which organizations can help in that process, as well as a recommendation to support of some of those organizations. It also recommended Canada insist girls in Afghanistan have access to schooling, and that Taliban leaders not be exempted by the UN Security Council from travel bans.
It also recommended the government immediately to ensure registered Canadian organizations have the clarity and assurances needed to deliver humanitarian assistance without fear of prosecution for violating Canada’s anti-terrorism laws.
Ruff says he’s still working with an all party group of MPs and a non-profit to try to get nine Afghan women MPs who are still stuck in Afghanistan, to safety.
He’s also on the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians.
He says of his committee work, “One of the great things about being involved in politics is being able to learn and get exposed to different things, so I’ve had that opportunity this year.”
Meanwhile, in the House of Commons, Ruff has been speaking against bans affecting legally owned firearms since he was elected in 2019, but in late November, the Liberal Government introduced amendments to Bill C-21, which was the handgun freeze bill passed earlier this year. The amendments included a long list of guns to be banned, some of which are used by hunters and farmers. Ruff has recently spent time speaking at the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, questioning experts about the impact such an amendment would have.
He has also spoken against the Liberal government’s Bill C-5 which reforms sentencing under the Criminal Code and Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. It removed all mandatory minimum penalties previously under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, as well as 14 Criminal Code offences. Several firearms offences in the Criminal Code are among those that had mandatory minimums removed, including discharging firearm with intent, robbery with a firearm and weapons trafficking.
Another focus for Ruff has been affordability for seniors. Recently, he highlighted the issue in the House of Commons, saying during question period, Nov. 24, “First, I want to understand what the Liberal government is doing for those seniors aged 65 to 74, and I want them to give me a list of concrete measures that support the people in that demographic. Second, will the government stop punishing seniors, especially those living with disabilities, by committing to no new tax increases on gas, groceries and home heating?”
Ruff has been a vocal critic of the Arrive Can app which was created during the pandemic and was a requirement for travel during that time. He’s spoken about how that negatively affected some members of the riding who aren’t familiar with the use of apps, as well as those who are Mennonite or Amish who don’t make use of smart phone apps.
He has been critical of the government’s use of the Emergencies Act to address blockades and protests against pandemic related mandates— and was one of over 20 MPs who signed a letter supporting a motion to challenge the government to revoke the Act after parliament voted in favour of its use.
On a more local level, in September, Ruff gathered local leaders and organizations to talk about housing. The goal was to bring stakeholders together to discuss local housing challenges.
In April, Ruff and a delegation of MPs accompanied Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay to Europe for Vimy Ridge Day. While there, MPs visited the Vimy Ridge Memorial as well as the museum and other important memorial sites,”It was a unique opportunity for the 105th anniversary of Vimy,” says Ruff, adding, “It was the 15th anniversary of me losing my six soldiers in Afghanistan in 2007.” Six members of his troop 22B, of the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment were killed in Afghanistan by an IED on April 8th, 2007. Ruff took the opportunity to pay tribute to those soldiers while there.
He says he also visited all the Canadian Cemeteries while there and looked up and visited all the gravestones of people from Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound. “So anybody out there that thinks they had one of their family member that served in the First or Second World War and passed on in the France area or in the Netherlands or Belgium, I likely have a picture– I likely visited their grave, so feel free to reach out to the office and I can verify that fairly quickly,” says Ruff who notes, he took pictures of all those headstones.
The delegation also visited Juno Beach, famous for the WWII D-Day battle that took place there. The Canadian visit came at a time when a portion of the beach was at risk of being purchased by a condominium company, a prospect that was upsetting to many. Ruff says there was some work behind the scenes to resolve that issue. Now Canada and France are putting money up to protect that land from being sold for development.
Looking ahead at 2023, Ruff says he’ll continue to try to push the government to make life more affordable for Canadians.
“Inflation is still at these record highs,” says Ruff, who adds, “people are struggling… a lot of people eating at food banks. I think the government really needs to do things to help get inflation under control.”
He adds, “Obviously the firearms file is something that means a lot to our area and to law-abiding firearms owners right across the country,” says Ruff, who says the government appears to be backpedaling a little bit on recently proposed amendments to Bill C-21. “We’ll see where that comes out. I’m going to still stay involved in that file.
“Lot’s of rumours about another potential election. You never know what Trudeau is going to do this year, so we could be seeing that.”
Ruff says he’s also confident Huron-Bruce MP Ben Lobb’s private member’s bill on removing the carbon tax for farm fuels will make its way through the senate.
As for day to day areas of focus in the riding, “Anything I can do to help out our farmers, our ag sector, small businesses and our seniors,” says Ruff, noting those are things that will keep him very busy.