John Williamson represents the electoral district
of New Brunswick Southwest. Like his leader, he
has degrees in economics. Before becoming an MP,
he worked in the Prime Minister`s Office and as the
head of of a right-wing non-profit organization called
the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
In 2006, while he was the head of the CTF, Williamson
reached out to First Nations with an article titled "Canada's
Teepee Republic," in which he equated the lack of accountability
of First Nations leadership with "banana republics".
Later that same year, the CTF criticized the government's 1998
"statement of reconciliation and apology" to First Nations people
"who experienced sexual and/or physical abuse", saying:
"Were Indian residential schools perfect. Of course not.
But what was the alternative? Should the federal government
not have provided education for aboriginal children?"
He was also not a fan of the Conservatives Temporary Foreign
Worker Program:
"I’m going to put this in terms of colours but it’s not meant to
be about race, it makes no sense to pay ‘whities’ to stay home
while we bring in brown people to work in these jobs."
But perhaps his shining moment (to date) was when he rose
in the House of Commons in 2013 following the Conservative
government`s termination of the long-gun registry in 2013.
To celebrate the momentous occasion, Mr. Williamson
chose to paraphrase civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
"Free at last, free at last," said Mr. Williamson,
"Law-abiding Canadians are finally free at last."
The Reverend King died from a bullet fired in 1968
by an assassin using a long gun.
