Ronalee "Rona" Ambrose,
PC,
MP (born March 15, 1969) is a Canadian
politician and a Member of Parliament since 2004. She serves as the
Minister of Public Works and Government Services for
Canada, Vice-Chair of the
Treasury Board Cabinet committee,
Minister of State for Status of Women Canada and
Minister of Western Economic Diversification.
In the previous Parliament, she was Canada's
Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs,
Minister of Western Economic Diversification and
President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada. She has been a
Conservative member of the
Canadian House of Commons from
Edmonton–Spruce Grove since 2004. She is a former communication consultant and public policy consultant for the Alberta government. When the Conservative party was in opposition, she served as its Intergovermental Affairs critic.
Early life and education
Ambrose was born in
Valleyview, Alberta and grew up both in
Brazil and in
Parkland County, Alberta. In addition to
English, she also speaks fluent
Portuguese (Brazil's official language),
Spanish, and
French. Ambrose has a
Bachelor of Arts from the
University of Victoria and a
Master of Arts degree in
political science from the
University of Alberta.
Early political career
Ambrose was first elected as a Member of Parliament in the 2004 federal election.
On February 16, 2005, she made headlines after making a remark in Parliament directed at Liberal Social Development Minister
Ken Dryden saying "working women want to make their own choices, we don't need old white guys telling us what to do," in reference to the
Liberal national child care plan.
Ambrose calls herself a
libertarian and is a fan of
Ayn Rand novels such as
Atlas Shrugged and
The Fountainhead.
[1] She was a member of the
Trilateral Commission, as reported in Vancouver's
Georgia Straight, August 24, 2006.
Ambrose was temporarily the Conservative critic for International Trade, after the defection of
Belinda Stronach to the Liberal Party.
] Cabinet minister
In 2006, Ambrose successfully defended her seat in Edmonton–Spruce Grove with 66.8% of the vote in the riding. She was then appointed Environment Minister in
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government. She was shuffled out of that position on January 4, 2007, and appointed Minister of Western Economic Diversification, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and President of the Privy Council.
On October 30, 2008, Rona Ambrose was shuffled to the Department of Labour.
[2]
On January 19, 2010, Ambrose was appointed as the new Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada.
] Minister of the Environment
On April 7, 2006, Ambrose announced that Canada had no chance of meeting its targets under the
Kyoto accord and would have to set more "realistic" goals for cutting
greenhouse gases. "My departmental officials and the department officials from natural resources have indicated that it is impossible, impossible for Canada to reach its Kyoto target. And let me be clear. I have been engaging with our international counterparts over the past month, and we are not the only country that is finding itself in this situation." said Ambrose. On June 6, 2006, in a speech she clarified with the following: "So we became the first and only country to publicly state that we know we will not reach our Kyoto targets. This was met by controversy. But we will not be the last. However, no one that follows this debate in any serious manner was surprised to find out that after years of no action on climate change, meeting the onerous targets negotiated under the Liberals was not a reality."
On April 13, 2006, Ambrose was accused of stopping an
Environment Canada scientist, Mark Tushingham, from speaking publicly about his own novel. The science fiction novel, entitled
Hotter than Hell, posits an alternate future in which
global warming has made many parts of the world too hot to live in and has prompted a war between Canada and the U.S. over water resources. Tushingham was scheduled to speak in
Ottawa at his book launch about his book and his beliefs underpinning it. However, he claimed an order from Ambrose's office stopped him. In response, Ambrose's spokesperson claimed that the speech was billed as coming from an Environment Canada scientist, who would appear to be speaking in an official capacity, even though his book is a work of fiction.
[3]
On May 11, 2006, before the House of Commons, she said "We would have to pull every truck and car off the street, shut down every train and ground every plane to reach the Kyoto target negotiated by the Liberals."
[4]
She continued her May 11 speech: "Or we could shut all the lights off in Canada tomorrow -- but that still wouldn’t be enough -- to reach our Kyoto target we’d have to shut off all the lights AND shut down the entire agriculture industry.
"Or instead we could shut down every individual Canadian household, not once, not twice, not three times, but FOUR times over to meet the Kyoto target the Liberals negotiated for Canada.
"Or, we could do what the Liberals thought was the answer faced with the realization that the target they negotiated meant shutting down Canada’s economy -- spend the money overseas buying international credits -- the Liberals had set aside up to $600 per Canadian household to be sent overseas in order to help reach the Kyoto target they negotiated for Canada."
Ambrose was criticized by
Bill Graham,
Leader of the Opposition, on May 15, 2006 for chairing a
UN conference on
climate change despite admitting that Canada will not meet its
Kyoto Protocol targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ambrose, who was leading the May 15 to 26 meetings in
Bonn,
Germany, repeated her claim that Canada's targets under Kyoto are "unachievable." During Question Period that day,
Bill Graham asked the prime minister if he saw the "irony" in having someone who "despises" Kyoto to chair the meeting in
Germany. At the beginning of the
UN conference, Ambrose stated: "I have been very honest with Canadians after the release of our
greenhouse gas inventories that we will have great difficulty in meeting those targets. We believe they are unachievable."
Ambrose told a parliamentary committee that Canada had paid its debts under the Kyoto Protocol only to have an Environment Canada official point out that the bill was still unpaid.
[5]
Continued opposition discontent over Ambrose's conduct led the
NDP to table a motion in the Commons environmental committee calling for her resignation. The vote, which was held on June 21, 2006, saw the Liberals side with the Conservatives, thus defeating the motion. Had the motion passed, a vote would then have been held in the House of Commons, and, because this was deemed to be a matter of confidence, could possibly have triggered an election.
In August 2006 she stated that although the population of
spotted owls in British Columbia is only 17, she does not feel they are threatened and therefore they do not merit any special protection (The
Northern Spotted Owl is listed as Threatened or Endangered throughout its range in US and Canada).
On October 19, 2006, Ambrose introduced a
Clean Air Act that purported to reduce the level of greenhouse emissions starting in 2020, cutting them to about half of the 2003 levels by 2050. She also introduced other regulations to
industries and
vehicles as well as a possible cooperation between the federal government and the provinces to create a system that would report air emissions. In an interview with the media, Ambrose denied that the
Conservative government had abandoned the
Kyoto Protocol despite its previous opposition to it. However, industries will have until 2010 before they are expected to reduce emissions, and the government will not have final (and voluntary) targets ready until 2020.
Oil companies will have to reduce emissions on a per-barrel basis, reduction proportional to production basis.
[6][7]
Cabinet shuffles
News stories began to appear in late 2006 of a possible Cabinet shuffle that included shifting Ms. Ambrose from her environment portfolio. On January 4, 2007, Rona Ambrose moved from environment to become Minister of Western Economic Diversification, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs as well as President of the Queen's Privy Council. The Environment portfolio went to
John Baird, the former President of the Treasury Board. On January 19, 2010, Rona Ambrose succeeded
Christian Paradis and was named the
Minister of Public Works and Government Services. On April 9, 2010 she was also named
Minister responsible for the Status of Women after
Helena Guergis was dismissed from Cabinet.
Honours
Ambrose has the prenomial "the Honourable" and the postnomial "PC" for life by virtue of being made a member of the
Queen's Privy Council for Canada on February 6, 2006.
[8]
In 2008, Ambrose was #17 on the
Western Standard's "Liberty 100" top Canadian "pro-freedom activists, journalists, think-tankers and partisans."
[9] The Hill Times named Ambrose "Sexiest Female MP" in 2008 and 2009.
[10][11]
References
External links
