Tom Kmiec

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Tom Kmiec
MP
Conservative Party National Caucus Chair
Incumbent
Assumed office
September 3, 2020
LeaderErin O'Toole
Preceded byHimself (House)
David Wells (Senate)
Conservative Party House Caucus Chair
In office
November 29, 2019 – September 3, 2020
LeaderAndrew Scheer
Erin O'Toole
Preceded byDavid Sweet
Succeeded byHimself (as National Caucus Chair)
Member of Parliament
for Calgary Shepard
Incumbent
Assumed office
October 19, 2015
Preceded byConstituency established
Personal details
Born (1981-07-31) July 31, 1981 (age 40)
Gdańsk, Poland
Political partyConservative
Children4 (Lucy-Rose, d. 2018)
ResidenceCalgary, Alberta
Alma materConcordia University (BA)
Regent University (MA)

Tomasz Kmiec MP (kuh-MICH; born July 31, 1981) is a Polish-Canadian politician who serves the Member of Parliament for Calgary Shepard in the House of Commons of Canada. Additionally, he is the Conservative Party of Canada's National Caucus Chair, and oversees meetings of the parliamentary caucuses of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition.[1]

Early life and education[]

Tom Kmiec was born in Gdańsk, Poland. His family emigrated to Canada and settled in Quebec. Kmiec was raised in Quebec and went through the French education system as part of the Bill 101 reforms. He is, hence, fluently bilingual in both of Canada's official languages. In 2005, he moved to Calgary. He is raising his three children, Maximillian, Jolie, and Enoch.

Kmiec graduated from Concordia University in Montreal with a bachelor's degree in Political Science. He then received his master's degree in American Government with a concentration in Terrorism and Homeland Security from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA.[2]

Career[]

Kmiec started his career as an intern in the office of then Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, Stephen Harper. Kmiec has since worked for cabinet ministers federally and provincially in Alberta in portfolios including: finance, immigration, sustainable resource development, and national defense.

Kmiec was elected in the 2015 Canadian federal election for the riding of Calgary Shepard. Kmiec has served on the Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations, the Foreign Affairs and International Development Committee, and the Finance Committee. The latter two represent the most senior committees in Parliament.[3]

On September 18, 2017, Kmiec was moved from his role as Deputy Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Deputy Shadow Minister for Finance. In this role, Kmiec was a strong voice for lower taxes, financial responsibility, and housing affordability.[4]

Kmiec was named deputy critic for foreign affairs for the Conservative Party of Canada on October 16, 2016 in a shadow cabinet shuffle by Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose.[5][6]

Prior to being elected as the MP for Calgary Shepard, Kmiec was the manager of policy and research with the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and worked for the Human Resources Institute of Alberta. This work received national coverage in the Globe and Mail and Maclean's magazine.

Kmiec is an advocate for the Kidney Foundation and served on the board of the southern Alberta chapter.

Pipelines and Energy Jobs

Since being elected in 2015, Kmiec has worked closely with Conservative caucus colleagues and interested parliamentarians from other parties to champion the construction of new pipelines by the private sector to get Canadian energy resources to new markets.

In the fall of 2016, Kmiec helped start the Alberta Jobs Taskforce in response to the growing energy jobs crisis in Alberta after unemployment reached 200,000[7]

Later, on November 27, 2017, Kmiec became the first MP to ask for an emergency debate in Parliament on the energy sector job-loss in Alberta. In his request, he outlined his disappointment with the Liberal government's inaction on the Alberta recession.[8]

On April 18, 2018, Kmiec moved a motion at Parliament's finance committee asking to set aside 4 meetings to understand the impact of the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline cancellation on Canada's economy and consider whether the federal government should use its constitutional powers to ensure that the pipeline is built. The Liberal MPs on the committee rejected the motion.[9]

Supporting Canadians With Rare Diseases and Disabilities

Kmiec is a vocal supporter for improving the government's processes to ensure that all Canadians living with a disability or a rare disease receive the benefits they are entitled to.[10]

On March 21, 2018, he tabled his first Private Member's Bill, Bill C-399 the Fairness for Persons with Disabilities Act, that aims to improve and expand access to the Disability Tax Credit.[11]

The Fairness for Persons with Disabilities Act would reduce the time to qualify for the Disability Tax Credit from 14 to 10 hours, include calculation of dosage into time to qualify for the credit and add medical food and medical formula to qualifying for the tax credit.[12]

On August 13, 2018, Kmiec’ s daughter, Lucy-Rose Evangeline Winfield Kmiec, died 39 days after her birth. Lucy-Rose was born with Trisomy 13, a rare chromosomal disorder also known as Patau Syndrome.[13] Following her death, Kmiec shared an emotional tribute to his daughter in the House of Commons. “Her short life was energetic and eventful. It has made me realize that life is much more than prizes, certificates and public recognition. Her great success is the incredible warmth she brought to my family and how she's been able to mature her older siblings into responsible caretakers without a spoken word” Kmiec stated.[14]

On December 3, 2018, Kmiec supported an amendment to the Budget Implementation Act that would have created a new 12-week bereavement leave for parents dealing with the death of a child. The Liberal MPs on Parliament's finance committee voted against creating this bereavement leave, and the amendment was defeated. Under the current law, fathers who lose a child are entitled to only five days of leave from work—three paid and two unpaid—while the wording regarding leave for mothers is vague and unclear. Kmiec remains committed to ensuring that parents who experience the loss of a child are allocated up to 12 weeks of bereavement leave.[15]

Housing Affordability

Kmiec is an outspoken critic of barriers to housing affordability facing young Canadian families. He has been vocal in questioning the Liberal government's mortgage lending rules and increases to mortgage insurance fees charged by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).[16]

Kmiec has repeatedly called for a full parliamentary review of the B-20 Mortgage Stress Test, that was introduced by the Liberal government in January 2018. He has published a series of articles on the topic and has moved two motions at Parliament's finance committee asking for a study of the mortgage lending rules.[17] The Mortgage Stress Test is estimated to have prevented 100,000 Canadians from purchasing a home, slowed mortgage growth by nearly 12 percent, and will delete some 200,000 jobs from the economy by 2021.[18]

Parliamentary Friends of the Kurds

Kmiec created the "Parliamentary Friends of the Kurds", a parliamentary group aimed at establishing dialogue between Canadian and Kurdish lawmakers and fostering positive relations between Canada and the Kurdistan Region.[19][20] Kmiec, along with NDP MP Gord Johns and fellow Conservative MP Michael Cooper traveled to Washington DC in March 2016 to meet with officials from the Kurdistan Regional Government.[19]

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

Kmiec was the first Parliamentarian to unearth the Liberal government's $256 million pledge to the China-controlled Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which was hidden inside the Liberal government's 2017 omnibus budget, Bill C-63.[21][22]

Kmiec criticized the Liberals’ decision to gift $256 million to the AIIB, which is funding the construction of three new energy pipelines in Asia while the Liberal government opposes and stalls the construction of energy pipelines in Canada. Kmiec called on the Liberal government to cancel Canada's participation in the AIIB through a series of motions at parliament's finance committee, but the Liberal MPs on the committee voted down the motions.[23][24]

Human Rights and Religious Freedom

Kmiec is an active advocate for human rights and religious freedom around the world. He was a vocal supporter for Canada's created in response to the death lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was beaten to death in Russian custody.

In response to the religious persecution of Montagnards highlanders who practice De Ga Protestantism and Ha Mon Catholicism in Vietnam, Kmiec tabled a petition calling upon the Government of Canada to demand that the Vietnamese government stop its abusive policies against these groups. The petition further demanded that future trade agreements with Vietnam would be contingent on their adherence to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that under the Sergei Magnitsky Act, sanctions would be applied against Colonel Vu Van Lau and Senior Lt. Colonel Pham Huu Truong.[25]

Kmiec is also an advocate for Canada to support the minority Uyghur population in China's Xinjiang region, who are being targeted for their religious beliefs and detained in internment camps. In May 2019, Kmiec questioned the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board regarding their investments in two Chinese companies — Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. Ltd. and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co. Ltd. — that are involved in the manufacturing of surveillance equipment used to repress Uyghurs in Western China. Kmiec has urged the CPPIB to divest their holdings in these companies.[26]

Electoral record[]

2019 Canadian federal election: Calgary Shepard
Party Candidate Votes % ±% Expenditures
Conservative Tom Kmiec 58,614 75.0 +9.13 $41,477.43
Liberal Del Arnold 8,644 11.1 -13.59 $13,154.34
New Democratic David Brian Smith 6,828 8.7 +1.87 none listed
Green Evelyn Tanaka 2,345 3.0 +0.39 $3,079.74†
People's Kyle Scott 1,709 2.2 - $15,461.75
Total valid votes/expense limit 78,140 100.0
Total rejected ballots 441
Turnout 78,581 69.8
Eligible voters 112,660
Conservative hold Swing +11.36
†Amount as submitted from C1 of Part 6 of the Candidate Campaign Return.
Source: Elections Canada[27][28][29]
2015 Canadian federal election
Party Candidate Votes % ±% Expenditures
Conservative Tom Kmiec 43,706 65.87 –9.64 $153,176.93
Liberal Jerome James 16,379 24.69 +17.50 $7,037.44
New Democratic Dany Allard 4,532 6.83 –4.30 $10,097.24
Green Graham MacKenzie 1,734 2.61 –2.95 –
Total valid votes/Expense limit 66,351 100.00   $241,369.87
Total rejected ballots 208 0.31 –
Turnout 66,559 67.9 –
Eligible voters 98,085
Conservative hold Swing –13.57
Source: Elections Canada[30][31][32]

References[]

  1. ^ Nov 6, Rachel Emmanuel Published on; 2019 10:25pm (2019-11-07). "Scheer's leadership safe for now". iPolitics. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  2. ^ "About Tom". Tom Kmiec. Retrieved 2017-02-07.
  3. ^ "Tom Kmiec – Member of Parliament – Members of Parliament – House of Commons of Canada". Ourcommons.ca. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  4. ^ "Private member's motions – Tom Kmiec – 42nd Parliament, 1st Session – Members of Parliament – House of Commons of Canada". Ourcommons.ca. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  5. ^ "OFFICIAL OPPOSITION SHADOW CABINET AS OF OCTOBER 16, 2016" (PDF). Gallery.mailchimp.com. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
  6. ^ [1][dead link]
  7. ^ "Treat Alberta job losses as national crisis, MPs urge government". Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  8. ^ "The Speaker, "Request for Emergency Debate" on Feb. 28th, 2019 | openparliament.ca". openparliament.ca. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  9. ^ "Finance Committee on April 18th, 2018 | openparliament.ca". openparliament.ca. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  10. ^ "Disability Tax Credit | Tax Fairness Legislation | MP Kmiec". Fairness For Persons With Disabilities Act. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  11. ^ https://www.pbo-dpb.gc.ca. "Cost Estimate for Bill C-399 "Fairness for Persons with Disabilities Act"". PBO-DPB. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  12. ^ "Figure 2.12. Budgetary cost of the R&D tax credit". doi:10.1787/888932894494. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. ^ August 16, James Wood Updated; 2018 (2018-08-16). "Calgary MP Tom Kmiec mourning death of newborn daughter | Calgary Herald". Retrieved 2019-10-19.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ "Tory MP Honours Daughter He Lost After Only 39 Days". HuffPost Canada. 2018-10-15. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  15. ^ "Alberta mom disappointed with Ottawa's 'no' vote on infant loss leave". Global News. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  16. ^ SUN, Toronto; Opinion; Columnists; Email, Share KMIEC: Liberal failures block young Canadians from home ownership Tumblr Pinterest Google Plus Reddit LinkedIn; Tumblr; Pinterest; Plus, Google; Reddit; LinkedIn (2019-03-16). "KMIEC: Liberal failures block young Canadians from home ownership | Toronto Sun". Retrieved 2019-08-27.
  17. ^ June 19, Tom Kmiec Updated; 2018 (2018-06-19). "Opinion: Let's study impact of mortgage stress tests on home ownership | Edmonton Journal". Retrieved 2019-08-27.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ June 21, Calgary Herald Updated; 2018 (2018-06-21). "Kmiec: Mortgage changes reduce chance of owning a home | Calgary Herald". Retrieved 2019-08-27.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ a b "Canadian MPs visit KRG Representation in Washington to discuss parliamentary group on Kurdistan". Kurdistan Regional Government – Department of Foreign Relations. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  20. ^ "Friendship Groups - Interparliamentary Activities - Diplomacy - Parliament of Canada". Parl.ca. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  21. ^ Canada, Conservative Party of. "Liberals Building Pipelines in Asia". Pipeline Priorities. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  22. ^ Government of Canada, Public Services and Procurement Canada. "Information archivée dans le Web" (PDF). publications.gc.ca. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  23. ^ "Azerbaijan: Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP) – Approved Project – AIIB". Aiib.org. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  24. ^ Times, The Hill (2018-12-12). "Finance bureaucrats, House committee need to stop working in silos on budget planning, says ex-PBO Page". The Hill Times. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  25. ^ "Vietnam: Montagnards Harshly Persecuted". Human Rights Watch. 2011-03-30. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  26. ^ "CPPIB challenged to divest from Chinese firms tied to abuses against Uyghurs – Canadian Business". Canadianbusiness.com. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  27. ^ "Forty-Third General Election 2019 - Official Voting Results: List of candidates by electoral district and individual results". Elections Canada. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  28. ^ "Forty-Third General Election 2019 - Official Voting Results: Voting results by electoral district". Elections Canada. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  29. ^ "Candidate Campaign Return". Elections Canada. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  30. ^ "Forty-Second General Election 2015 - Official Voting Results: List of candidates by electoral district and individual results". Elections Canada. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  31. ^ "Forty-Second General Election 2015 - Official Voting Results: Voting results by electoral district". Elections Canada. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  32. ^ "Candidate Campaign Return". Elections Canada. Retrieved 21 September 2021.

External links[]

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