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 ...
Manitoba
, image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg
, map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada
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riding of
Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette
Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette (formerly known as Dauphin and Dauphin—Swan River) was a federal electoral district in Manitoba, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1904 to 2015. Its population in 2011 was 74,8 ...
Taishan __NOTOC__
Taishan may refer to:
*Mount Tai or Taishan (), Shandong, China
* Taishan District, Tai'an (), named after the Mount Tai, a district in Tai'an, Shandong, China
*Taishan, Guangdong (), a county-level city of Jiangmen, Guangdong, China
** G ...
Manitoba
, image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg
, map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada
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, capital = Winn ...
as a child. Mark's father and grandfather had emigrated from China to Canada some time previously, but were unable to bring their families with them as a result of provisions in the
Chinese Immigration Act
The ''Chinese Immigration Act, 1885'' was a Canadian Act of Parliament that placed a head tax of $50 () on all Chinese immigrants entering Canada. It was based on the recommendations published in the Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration in 1 ...
of 1923. Mark accompanied his mother when she fled China in 1953, and subsequently settled with his family in the Manitoba community of Gilbert Plains.
Education
Mark has a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
Bachelor of Education
A Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) is an undergraduate professional degree which prepares students for work as a teacher in schools. In some countries such as Tanzania and Kenya, additional tasks like field work and research are required in order fo ...
degree from the
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.Dauphin town council in 1991, and became the town's
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
in 1994.
Federal politics
Mark was first elected to the House of Commons in the federal election of 1997, running as a candidate of the Reform Party in the riding of Dauphin—Swan River. From 1997 to 2000, Mark was one of only three Chinese-Canadian MPs in the House of Commons.
The Reform Party dissolved itself in 2000 in favour of the
Canadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance (french: Alliance canadienne), formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance (french: Alliance réformiste-conservatrice canadienne), was a centre-right to right-wing federal political party in Canada that existed ...
, and Mark ran as a candidate of the new party in the federal election which followed.
On September 12, 2001, Mark left the Canadian Alliance caucus to sit as a member of the
Democratic Representative Caucus
The Democratic Representative Caucus, also called the Democratic Representative Association, was a parliamentary group in the 37th Canadian Parliament consisting of Members of Parliament who left the Canadian Alliance in 2001 in protest against th ...
, in alliance with the Progressive Conservative Party.
The DRC came to an end on April 10, 2002, when Stephen Harper replaced Day as Canadian Alliance leader. Every other member of the DRC requested to be re-admitted to the Alliance; Mark did not join them, but instead decided to sit as an "Independent Conservative", with the intention of rejoining the Progressive Conservatives at their annual party convention later in the year; he had been a Progressive Conservative before the early 1990s. Mark formally joined the Progressive Conservatives on August 27, 2002.
In December 2003, the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party formally merged to create the new Conservative Party of Canada. Mark supported the merger, and formally joined the new party's caucus on February 2, 2004. Mark was easily re-elected in the Canadian federal election of 2004.
In 2005, Mark alleged that Treasury Board President and Liberal MP
Reg Alcock
Reginald B. Alcock, (April 16, 1948 – October 14, 2011) was a Canadian politician. He represented the riding of Winnipeg South in the House of Commons of Canada from 1993 to 2006 and was a cabinet minister in the government of Prime Minister ...
offered him an ambassadorship if he were to resign his seat. Alcock responded by saying, "Frankly, if I was going to recruit somebody, I'd go a little higher up the gene pool." Mark called this comment racist and filed a complaint with the
Canadian Human Rights Commission
The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) was established in 1977 by the government of Canada. It is empowered under the ''Canadian Human Rights Act'' to investigate and to try to settle complaints of discrimination in employment and in the pr ...
. As the CHRC does not publish its investigations, it is not possible to know the outcome of this case.
Criticism and complaints
While a sitting MP, Mark gained a reputation as "an outsider" within the Conservative caucus. Mark is and has been an outspoken critic of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister's Office, and several sitting and former Conservative MPs. He frequently complained that Harper was controlling, and he responded by refusing to attend Conservative events. Mark has called Harper a " fascist" and complained that he runs a "top-down
dictatorship
A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship a ...
". He says that the
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
is controlled by the United States' Republican Party, and that the Republican Party installed Stephen Harper as the Canadian Prime Minister in order to sell out Canada to the United States.
Following the announcement of his resignation, Mark complained that the nomination race for his successor was rigged, and allowed
Robert Sopuck
Robert Sopuck (born July 11, 1951) is a Canadian politician who served as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada from 2010 to 2019. First elected in a by-election on November 29, 2010, Sopuck represented the riding of Dauphi ...
to be acclaimed without competition.
Following his resignation as an MP, Mark stepped up his criticisms of the Harper government. He complained that the nomination race for the Conservative candidate following the resignation of
Labrador
, nickname = "The Big Land"
, etymology =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Canada
, subdivision_type1 = Province
, subdivision_name1 ...
MP
Peter Penashue
Peter Penashue, (; born April 9, 1964) is a Canadian politician from Newfoundland and Labrador. He was elected as the Conservative Party of Canada Member of Parliament for the riding of Labrador in the 2011 federal election. Penashue was the fi ...
was rigged because Harper "wants a candidate he can control". He also complained that the nomination race to replace
Merv Tweed
Mervin C. Tweed, MP (born August 6, 1955 in Medora, Manitoba) is a retired politician in Manitoba, Canada. He represented Brandon—Souris in the House of Commons of Canada from 2004 to August 31, 2013. Prior to that he was a member of the Le ...
was rigged, and that the eventual successor,
Larry Maguire
Larry Maguire (born June 1, 1949) is a politician and activist farmer in Manitoba, Canada. Formerly a Progressive Conservative MLA in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in a by-election on No ...
, was just a "rubber stamp" for Harper. Mark was featured prominently in the book ''Tragedy in the Commons'', where almost every chapter quoted Mark's complaints about the way Harper's government was run.
Mark complained that the Conservatives' Constituent Information Management System (CIMS) was a secretive database used to track and control Canadians' information and voting preferences, and said that Harper could simply "switch off" this system to punish an MP.
Parliamentary work
For his tenure as an MP, Mark was always a " backbencher".
In 2001, as the Alliance's parliamentary critic for Immigration, Mark was responsible for expressing his party's position on the Liberal government's
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act
The ''Immigration and Refugee Protection Act'' (''IRPA'') is an Act of the Parliament of Canada, administered by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), that replaced the '' Immigration Act, ...
, which he did during the immigration controversy involving the Sklarzyk family who, as a result of an administrative error, was deported from Canada to Poland in May 2001. He also contributed to the parliamentary committee's work in drafting the final version of the bill, and was generally regarded by MPs from all parties as having made several constructive criticisms to the legislation.
However, on June 13, 2001, Mark's position on the bill was undercut by Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day, who delivered a speech in parliament supporting tighter restrictions against refugee claimants and reduced opportunities for rejected claimants to appeal to the Refugee Board. Day's comments diverged from Mark's stated position on several particulars, and his speech was regarded as very surprising by many other MPs in the House of Commons. For example, Liberal MP
Steve Mahoney
Steven W. Mahoney, (born July 18, 1947) is a Canadian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1987 to 1995, and a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1997 to 2004. In the latter capacity, he served as ...
referred to Day's comments as "treachery" towards Mark, for which he was ruled out of order by the Speaker.
In 2005, Mark's private members' Bill C-331 (Internment of Persons of Ukrainian Origin Recognition Act) was passed by the House of Commons and Senate of Canada, eventually resulting in the establishment of the Endowment Council of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund, supporting educational and commemorative projects recalling Canada's first national internment operations of 1914–1920.
Federal resignation and return to municipal politics
Mark announced in June 2009 that he would be resigning before the next federal election. On August 16, 2010, he announced that he would step down as an MP on September 15 to campaign for another term as mayor of Dauphin. However, he
lost
Lost may refer to getting lost, or to:
Geography
*Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland
* Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US
History
*Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
to Eric Irwin.
Return to federal politics and switch to Green Party of Canada
Mark announced on November 13, 2014, that he would be running as an independent candidate for the 2015 federal election in
Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa
Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa is a federal electoral district in Manitoba. It encompasses a portion of Manitoba previously included in the electoral districts of Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, Brandon—Souris and Portage—Lisgar.
Dauphin ...
, which includes nearly all of his old riding. Mark announced that he is now a member of the Green Party of Canada, but would still seek election in 2015 as an independent candidate. Mark finished a distant fourth behind Sopuck, garnering only eight percent of the vote.
Electoral record
^ Change is from the total of Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance votes in the 2000 election.
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Note: Canadian Alliance vote is compared to Reform Party vote in 1997 election.
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