Sopuck tackles several hot-button issues

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This article was published 27/12/2018 (2505 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

From firearms and pipelines to China and carbon taxes, there are a number of issues Robert Sopuck will be keeping an eye on as he heads into his last year in federal politics as the Conservative MP for Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa.

Speaking to The Brandon Sun during his Christmas open house at Farmery Estate Brewery in Neepawa last week, Sopuck shared his thoughts on timely matters, such as the detention of two Canadians — Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — in China for allegedly endangering the country’s national security.

The move has been seen as retribution for the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecommunications company Huawei and daughter of its founder, in Vancouver for allegedly doing business with Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.

Although believed to be unrelated to the former two, it was revealed this week that a third Canadian, Sarah McIver, is also being held in China for having allegedly worked there illegally.

While critical of many of the federal government’s initiatives, Sopuck did align himself with the Liberals on this matter.

“In this particular case, I’m on the government’s side, simply because we have an extradition treaty with the United States and that treaty is very clear. When either country asks the other country to detain somebody who they suspect of some criminal activity, each other country has to honour the extradition treaty,” he said.

“So in this case, the Canadian government is caught in the middle and China, honestly, I’m very suspicious of. I don’t think they want to play by the rules of international law, and I think it’s completely unjustified of them to detain these three citizens of Canada.”

When it comes to other issues, such as the recent legalization of cannabis, Sopuck said he didn’t think the federal government was prepared for it.

Winnipeg police issued a ticket one hour after legalization on Oct. 17 for consuming cannabis in a car. Meanwhile, the Brandon Police Service and Blue Hills RCMP are still waiting on the arrival of the Dräger DrugTest 5000, a saliva-screening tool used to test for cannabis impairment.

“This idea that legalized cannabis will drive organized crime out of the market is simply nonsense in my view, and we have the perfect policy experiment with legal cigarettes,” Sopuck said.

“We have these legal, high-tax cigarettes, and you can’t advertise, and they’re hidden behind curtains in stores, and ostensibly that was to eliminate the illegal trade. Well, it didn’t do it. Organized crime is heavily involved in the trade of illegal cigarettes, and I will guarantee you that organized crime will continue to be involved in the marijuana trade.”

Similar to his Conservative colleagues, Sopuck is also against the carbon tax, which will be imposed on provinces, including Manitoba, that refuse to have one.

While of the opinion the federal government has the authority to levy a carbon tax, Sopuck said it will hurt rural and low-income people the most, while doing nothing to help the environment.

Drawing on his past life in environmental science, Sopuck said he favours the approach of adaptation and mitigation, where methods are put in place to directly respond to climate change — he used the creation of the Red River Floodway as an example — while natural areas such as wetlands and woodlands are preserved to sequester carbon.

He said it’s the reason why he is a proponent of the provincial government’s Made-in-Manitoba Climate and Green Plan, which he publicly supported in the House of Commons in March. Sopuck also supports the move by some provinces to take the federal government to court.

“Our forests, our landscapes, are tremendous carbon sinks, and nobody gives us any credit for that, and we’re probably one of the largest carbon sinks in the entire world,” he said.

“And again, if the Manitoba Green Plan is implemented, if it were implemented across the country, we would easily fulfil our greenhouse gas obligations.”

Pipelines have remained a constant issue this year, with recent developments which include protests in support of pipeline construction, cuts to oil production by the Alberta government to prevent an oversupply, and a federal $1.6-billion injection into the oil and gas industry.

Sopuck, who worked in the oilsands doing environmental assessments, said he agrees with Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer in declaring pipeline projects in the national interest in order to get them built.

“It just baffles me why (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau is allowing Canada to import all this Saudi Arabian oil that is not produced to the highest environmental standards that ours are, yet he’s stalling on all these pipelines, especially Energy Easy, that would replace foreign oil,” he said.

“Bottom line, I’m a strong proponent of these pipelines and history will bear me out.”

Sopuck also remains opposed to the Liberals’ proposed firearms legislation, Bill C-71. Among the measures included in the bill are expanded background checks that cover a person’s entire personal history, as opposed to five years.

“I believe in the background checks,” he said. “I have a PAL (Possession and Acquisition Licence), I own quite a number of firearms, I’m an avid hunter. The background check thing is fine, but I think they’re going overboard.”

Sopuck added that the legislation also punishes law-abiding citizens, without targeting guns and gangs.

“You have to target the criminals, and you have to make sure that the punishment fits the crime, so any crime committed with a firearm needs to have maximum punishment.”

With the next federal election expected for October 2019, Sopuck said he will spend the next year helping Dan Mazier, the former Keystone Agricultural Producers president who will run as the Conservative candidate in Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa.

“We need to ensure that what we’ve been doing in the last little while, in terms of protecting and defending the rural way of life, continues, and I have no doubt that Dan Mazier will continue that,” Sopuck said.

But with Maxime Bernier trying to pull away Conservative voters with his newly formed People’s Party of Canada, Sopuck said he and others will remember what happened in 1993 after the Progressive Conservatives were reduced to two seats following a major split in the party.

Sopuck expects some voters to bleed over to Bernier, but he didn’t believe the People’s Party leader would even win his own riding, calling the former Conservative a “traitor to his oaths.”

“He was elected as a Conservative, and when he broke that oath, he broke faith with a lot of people,” Sopuck said.

Having served in Parliament since 2010, Sopuck hopes to use the remaining months in his term to visit every community in his riding, something he regretted not doing sooner.

But as he travels the constituency, he said he remains humbled by the gratitude he receives for the work he has done.

“I think I did all right, but as I said, you can always do more.”

» mlee@brandonsun.com

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