Sven Heyde

Posted by admin on Mar 21, 2007 in Volume 14 Issue 1 | 0 comments

Mark Warawa, Langley’s Member of Parliament, was home from Ottawa recently on a two-week break. I met up with him at his constituency office on Glover Road where we discussed his role in Ottawa and his views on domestic and foreign issues.

Warawa is a busy person. On the weeks when he is in Ottawa, he flies out of Langley on Sunday afternoon, and flies home Friday night. His days in Ottawa start at 8 a.m., and involve readings to prepare for the day, briefings, two committee meetings, interviews, lunch and dinner on the run, and a couple of hours answering emails. His day ends at 10 or 11 at night. He does this for two-thirds of the year; the rest of the time he is in Langley working even harder.

Warawa serves as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of the Environment, which is the political version of a deputy minister (an appointed position). As secretary, he is responsible for taking the Minister’s place at any event the Minister cannot attend. He has to give speeches related to environmental policy, answer questions on the Hill, and meet with people in the Minister’s stead.

To begin, I asked Warawa what he thinks is necessary to reverse the damage we are doing to the environment.

“The key to moving forward is for everybody to be willing to do their part,” he said. In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Warawa believes we need “a change in lifestyle, a change of paradigm, how we look at things, how we live.”

“Because of global warming, we need to densify, and provide efficiencies to make public transit work,” he said. “We’re used to building bigger and bigger homes on bigger and bigger lots.” People need to think about what their priorities are, Warawa added. For example, if we lived closer to our work or school, we might find we could get along fine without a car.

As we spoke about foreign wars, Warawa shared his frustration regarding the crisis in Darfur, which he called genocide. He lamented the fact that the government of Sudan is not doing enough, and that other governments are not stepping in. Before the war in Afghanistan, Warawa noted that there were mass executions, and that women and girls had little rights and couldn’t attend school.

“It’s a battle for the freedom of those people,” he said. “We’re there because the Afghan people want us there, and they want freedom; and we’re there to rebuild. That is our goal as peacekeepers, but there are a lot of evil people that don’t want us there, but the good people of Afghanistan do.”

“I think we have a moral obligation to be there,” he added, “and to do that, we have to have a well-equipped military.”

Turning our discussion to local matters, I asked Warawa what advice he had for students interested in entering politics. He was quick to point out that each of us is already in politics. If we don’t involve ourselves, then “we’re handing the reigns over to someone else to make decisions for us,” he said. “If we do that, then we don’t have any right to complain when they’re doing a bad job.” Warawa believes that politics is not a spectator sport.

When the topic of student representation on TWU’s Board of Governors was raised, Warawa said that he thinks “it’s healthy for everyone that’s involved with Trinity to have input. You need to hear all the perspectives.” Whether or not this means students should be on the Board, however, he said is up to the Board’s discretion.