2011 a “remarkable year for Canada”

Times Reporter

 

It’s officially 2012, and many people have taken the time to reflect on 2011, including MP Kevin Sorenson. 

“I think 2011 was a remarkable year for Canada, I tend to look at our country both domestically, both from home and from abroad. Some of the challenges we faced were certainly challenges that weren’t of our making,” said Sorenson.

“Our challenges were economic and those global economic challenges came mainly from the United States and Europe. In spite of that Canada is ranked as the number one country in the G7 as far as creating jobs and so our economy relative to other economies remains fairly strong.”

Sorenson said there have been almost 600,000 new jobs created since 2008 when the recession began. The economy was the major challenge and he said they know going into 2012 it’s going to continue to be a challenge. 

“Our government is committed to positioning Canada well, as far as a strong economy, continuing to bring down our deficit. Those are going to take some tough measures and some difficult measures perhaps in this next budget and that’s what we’re working on now,” said Sorenson.

While the economy was a constant concern, there were a number of accomplishments made throughout the year.  

“In the last year we’ve had some great accomplishments. We had an election in 2011 and Canadians have rewarded our conservative government of Canada with a majority government,” said Sorenson.

“That was, politically, a huge accomplishment and again I was very grateful to the people of Crowfoot in 2011 for speaking so clearly and giving us a strong mandate.”

He said many promises made over the last few elections have finally come to fruition such as giving more marketing freedom to farmers. Sorenson said there was a legislation brought forward that would keep a Canadian Wheat Board but would eliminate the monopoly where every farmer had to sell their wheat to the Canadian Wheat board.

There have also been tougher measures brought forward to fight crime and there has been a new legislation brought forward that will see more aggressive tactics when it comes to fighting terrorism in Canada. 

Sorenson is hoping to see the long gun registry become a piece of history by the end of February or early March. 

“On behalf of our government and our Prime Minister I’m wishing everyone a very healthy and happy New Year,” said Sorenson.

“Like every year there’s going to be challenges for our country, and also individually, and we don’t know what this New Year holds but we know as a government we’re going to have to keep working hard to position Canada in a good stead and we certainly wish health and happiness to everyone in the new year.”

First up for Sorenson in 2012 is a trip to Japan. He said the Harper government is currently working on a free trade agreement with Japan and Sorenson himself will be in discussion about Canada importing more Alberta beef into their country. He will be spending eight days meeting with the Japanese diplomats and discussing issues that are mutually beneficial to both countries.