Humbled and Impressed

March 10, 2008

Simultaneously humbled and impressed. That's how many of us felt as five women took centre stage at our weekly caucus meeting in Ottawa this week.

These were not ordinary women. It was not simply the fact that they were MP's that caused fellow MP's to feel a certain affinity towards them. It was the fact that the very act of them getting elected was literally a life and death matter. You see, these women were visiting from Afghanistan.

They were elected only three years ago in the first ever democratic elections in the history of that war torn country. They ran for office under threat of death from the extremist elements of that fundamentalist nation. They go to work every day in their home country wondering if they will be the target of some misogynist extremist who believes they are contravening holy writ.

They were here expressing with unbridled thanks their gratitude to a nation, Canada, which is willing to send her sons and daughters into harm's way onto their foreboding battlefields to protect them.

It was an inspirational time, listening to these women speak glowingly about our country, and how we were making a huge difference in the lives and the hopes of their people.

Back here on the home front there was an interesting reaction from economists as the quarterly job creation numbers were posted.

Regular readers of this column will recall that I have mentioned a number of times that if a government abides by the sound economical principles of paying down debt and keeping taxes low then businesses will want to invest and grow, creating more employment opportunities. Well, we have been following those fiscal practises for the last two years. And the results continue to impress.

Last week's New Job Report declared that 43,000 new jobs were created in Canada despite the economic difficulties south of the border.

As the Parliamentary session continues we will make sure to keep government spending under control so that our costs do not become your burden.