Michelle Rempel Garner (''née'' Godin;
born February 14, 1980) is a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
politician who sits in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
as the
member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) for the
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
riding of
Calgary Nose Hill
Calgary Nose Hill (formerly Calgary—Nose Hill) is a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1997.
Geography
It consists of the part of the City of Calgary clockwise wi ...
. A member of the
Conservative Party, she was initially elected to represent
Calgary Centre-North
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, making ...
in the
2011 federal election and served as a
minister during
Stephen Harper's premiership.
On November 9, 2021, Rempel Garner was named the Conservative
critic of natural resources by Opposition leader
Erin O'Toole
Erin Michael O'Toole (born January 22, 1973) is a Canadian politician who has been the member of Parliament (MP) for Durham since 2012. A member of the Conservative Party, O'Toole served as the party's leader and the leader of the Official ...
.
She sits on multiple Parliamentary Standing Committees including the Standing Committee on Natural Resources (December 9, 2021 – Present), Standing Committee on Health (October 9, 2020 to August 15, 2021), Industry, Science and Technology (February 18, 2020 – August 18, 2020), and Citizenship and Immigration (September 21, 2017 – September 11, 2019).
Early life and career
Rempel Garner was born in
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...
,
Manitoba
, image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg
, map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada
, Label_map = yes
, coordinates =
, capital = Winn ...
. She is of partial
Franco-Manitoban
Franco-Manitobans (french: Franco-Manitobains) are French Canadians or Canadian francophones living in the province of Manitoba. According to the 2016 Canadian Census, 40,975 residents of the province stated that French was their mother tongue. In ...
ancestry through her father.
She completed a degree in economics at the University of Manitoba,
and helped to pay her way through school by playing as a classically-trained pianist.
Prior to being elected, Rempel Garner worked as the director of the University of Calgary's Institutional Programs Division. She is credited with leading a redesign of the University's service delivery model which resulted in sponsored research funding revenues increasing from $7 million in 2007 to over $100 million in 2009. She had also previously worked in the technology commercialization division of the University of Manitoba.
Federal politics
Rempel Garner became involved in federal politics by volunteering with the federal riding association of
Diane Ablonczy
Diane Ablonczy (née Broadway; ; born May 6, 1949) is a former Canadian Member of Parliament who served in the House of Commons of Canada. Ablonczy represented Calgary ridings from 1993 to 2015, sitting first with the Reform Party of Canada, ...
,
and she later served as president of the
Conservative Party riding executive for her riding of
Calgary—Nose Hill.
After the resignation of
Jim Prentice
Peter Eric James Prentice (July 20, 1956 – October 13, 2016) was a Canadian politician who served as the 16th premier of Alberta from 2014 to 2015. In the 2004 federal election he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada as a candidat ...
, Rempel was encouraged to run for his old seat of
Calgary Centre-North
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, making ...
by members of the Calgary business community and the Conservative party, but only decided to do so after talking with
Rona Ambrose
Ronalee Ambrose Veitch ( , Name at birth, née Chapchuk; born March 15, 1969) is a Canadian former politician who was Interim leader (Canada), interim leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Conservative Party and the Leader of the Official ...
.
Rempel was acclaimed as the Conservative Party of Canada candidate in Calgary Centre-North on December 17, 2010, in anticipation of a by-election to replace Prentice. The uncalled by-election was superseded by the
2011 federal election. In the 2013 federal riding redistribution, Rempel Garner's riding was split into the two ridings of
Calgary Confederation
Calgary Confederation is a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2015. It was created in 2012 from the electoral districts of Calgary Centre-North (70%), Calgary West (2 ...
and Calgary Nose Hill. Since this redistribution, Rempel Garner has run as a Conservative in Calgary Nose Hill.
Following Rempel Garner's election to the
House of Commons of Canada, she was appointed
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment on May 25, 2011. She received positive media coverage in late 2011 for her strong performance during
Question Period
Question Period (french: période des questions), known officially as Oral Questions (french: questions orales) occurs each sitting day in the House of Commons of Canada, in which members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers (i ...
, and was seen as a rising star within the Conservative
caucus.
Rempel Garner played a role in the multi-partisan effort to create
Sable Island National Park Reserve
Sable Island (french: île de Sable, literally "island of sand") is a small Canadian island situated southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and about southeast of the closest point of mainland Nova Scotia in the North Atlantic Ocean. The island i ...
.
On November 21, 2012, Canadian
newsmagazine
A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or n ...
''
Maclean's
''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian persp ...
'' named her as one of their "Parliamentarians of the Year" in the "Rising Star" category, which Rempel repeated on November 24, 2014. Rempel was recognized as the MP with the 7th biggest social media influence in November 2013. The 2013 ''
Hill Times'' Annual Most Valuable Politician & All Politics Poll awarded Rempel 2nd place in the "Best Up-and-comer MP" category behind
Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...
.
Along with three other Albertan politicians, Rempel Garner is a signatory of the
Buffalo Declaration, which charges that "Alberta is not ... an equal participant in confederation" and likens the relationship between Alberta and the rest of Canada to "colony, rather than equal partner." Signatories have proposed structural and policy solutions to address these issues.
Rempel Garner has also been a vocal advocate for legal firearms ownership in Canada. In May 2020, Rempel Garner sponsored Parliamentary Petition E-2574, which aims to reverse the federal government's executive order that banned 1500 "assault style" weapons. This became the most signed e-petition in Canada's history with over 230,000 signatures.
Rempel Garner was one of the co-chairs of the 2013
Conservative Party of Canada's national convention held in Calgary.
Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification
On July 15, 2013, she was appointed Minister of State for
Western Economic Diversification. She was then the youngest female cabinet minister in Canadian history.
In this role, Rempel Garner aimed to improve the delivery and efficiency of the department's services by focusing its attention on commercializing technology in emerging sectors such as green energy. To this end, she oversaw a series of investments that aimed to "accelerate technology development and performance validation, as well as the commercialization of key instruments associated with the underground storage of carbon dioxide (CO2)."
Such projects aim to further Canada's international climate change efforts and help keep the Canadian energy sector competitive.
These investments have included WINN, a $100 million five-year initiative that offered repayable contributions for small and medium-sized enterprises with operations in Western Canada, especially in emerging sectors such as clean energy, as well as the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure program, which saw $150 million delivered to communities across Canada for critical and legacy infrastructure projects.
During her time as the Minister of State, Rempel Garner also highlighted the importance and growing international demand for British Columbia's wine industry with strategic investments for the industry in partnership with UBC Okanagan.
In opposition
On November 20, 2015, Rempel Garner was appointed the Official Opposition Critic for
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. In this role, she was an advocate for human rights and advocated for the protection of ethnic minorities, including the
Yazidis
Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The ma ...
. In 2016, a motion put forward by Rempel Garner, which acknowledged the genocide of the Yazidis and called on the government to expedite the processing of Yazidi refugees coming to Canada, passed unanimously. Rempel Garner also sponsored Parliamentary Petition E-1310 during this time, which petitioned the government to explicitly condemn the practice of
female genital mutilation in its guide for new citizens. Rempel Garner tabled a bill amending Canada's bestiality laws in December 2017, which stalled at first reading. Approximately a year later, a government bill addressing the same concerns was tabled by Justice Minister
Jody Wilson-Raybould.
![Erin O'Toole and Michelle Rempel Garner in July 2021](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Erin_O%27Toole_and_Michelle_Rempel_Garner_in_July_2021.jpg)
From November 2019, Rempel Garner served as Conservative Shadow Minister for
Industry and Economic Development. In this role, she has advocated for policies that would compel companies to be more transparent on their data collection practices. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rempel Garner called for greater oversight and transparency from the federal government on state-sponsored cell phone contact tracing applications, calling for express consent and strict limits on data collection.
As Critic for Innovation and Economic Development, Rempel Garner also supported potential legislative solutions to address the lack of reliable internet access in Canada, which is a barrier to equality of opportunity and economic growth for many Canadians. To this end, in May 2020, Rempel Garner launched the Conservative Party's ‘Connect Canada’ consultation initiative for action on rural internet access. The initiative delivered a report outlining policy proposals that would aim for all Canadians to have access to affordable and reliable internet by the year 2021.
In June 2020, Rempel Garner passed a motion with support from other opposition parties to have the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology study the effects of foreign takeovers and the ''Investment Canada Act''.
In September 2020, Rempel Garner was appointed Official Opposition health critic by
Erin O'Toole
Erin Michael O'Toole (born January 22, 1973) is a Canadian politician who has been the member of Parliament (MP) for Durham since 2012. A member of the Conservative Party, O'Toole served as the party's leader and the leader of the Official ...
.
In this role she has been critical of the Liberal Party's COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
In 2022, Rempel Graner wrote an article in favour of
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
during the debate on the
2022 Canadian federal electoral redistribution
The federal electoral redistribution of 2022 is a redistribution of electoral districts ("ridings") in Canada following the results of the 2021 Canadian census. The Constitution of Canada requires that federal electoral districts which compose ...
.
Controversies
In 2018,
The Canadian Press
The Canadian Press (CP; french: La Presse canadienne, ) is a Canadian national news agency headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Established in 1917 as a vehicle for the time's Canadian newspapers to exchange news and information, The Canadian Pre ...
ranked one of Rempel Garner's news releases as containing "a lot of baloney" on its "baloney meter", which it describes as "a project ... that examines the level of accuracy in statements made by politicians". This was in reference to claims that Canada was facing a "crisis" in regards to migrant accommodation. Rempel Garner responded to this allegation by alleging that the news organization was working as a "spin tool" for the
Prime Minister's Office. ''
The Sprawl'' criticized her response, arguing that it is part of a pattern whereby Rempel Garner "mimics the worst of American politics and attacks the media’s credibility" and opined that "her anti-media rants veered into full-on conspiracy theory."
In 2020, Rempel Garner made headlines for working from Oklahoma, US as a sitting Canadian MP during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. Following news reports, Rempel Garner indicated she had left Canada for an “unexpected and urgent private personal matter”.
The ''
National Post
The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...
'' reported in August 2020 that since the pandemic began in March, "there has been no indication that the Conservative MP had returned to Canada."
Rempel Garner has been accused of blocking users on
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
. The hashtag #BlockedByRempel trended on Twitter with replies from Canadians who alleged that they had been blocked by Rempel Garner. She claims to have been a victim of gendered social media abuse and to have received threats of violence in her role as a female Parliamentarian.
Rempel Garner won a court case against a Toronto area man who threatened her with violence over social media.
In 2018, APTN national news reported that Rempel blocked an Indigenous youth representative on Twitter, and the report asked whether "this move sets a 'dangerous precedent' for politicians facing criticism online." The ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...
'' revealed that "it only took Rempel about five minutes to block his Twitter account after he turned to social media to critique her stance on immigration." "It’s not the fact that she blocked me personally that’s upsetting me,” the deputy youth leader said. “It’s the fact that this is an elected member of Parliament. She’s a Canadian politician and she’s taking these kinds of steps to block out this kind of information from Canadian citizens.”
Honours
In 2010, Rempel Garner was named one of Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the "Future Leaders" category by the Women's Executive Network. In November 2014 Rempel was named one of Calgary's Top 40 Under 40 by ''Avenue'' magazine.
In 2016, Rempel was selected as one of the
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...
’s
Young Global Leaders
Forum of Young Global Leaders, or Young Global Leaders (YGL), was created by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum. The YGL, a non-profit organization managed from Geneva, Switzerland, is under the supervision of the Swiss government ...
.
Rempel Garner was named one of "Alberta's 50 Most Influential People of 2016" by Alberta Venture Magazine, citing her "strong debate performances in the House of Commons" and "her fierce support of women in politics".
In 2018, Rempel was ranked third on the list of "Most Valuable Politicians" by The Hill Times.
Electoral record
References
External links
*
Official website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rempel Garner, Michelle
1980 births
Women members of the House of Commons of Canada
Conservative Party of Canada MPs
Franco-Albertan people
Franco-Manitoban people
Living people
Members of the 28th Canadian Ministry
21st-century Canadian politicians
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta
Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada
Politicians from Calgary
Politicians from Winnipeg
University of Manitoba alumni
Women in Alberta politics
Women government ministers of Canada
21st-century Canadian women politicians