Mauril Belanger celebrates 15 years as an MP, Please see BELANGER ANNIVERSARY on page 2
Posted Feb 12, 2010 By Desmond Devoy
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Desmond Devoy, Ottawa East EMC
Mauril Belanger, surrounded by family and supporters, celebrates his sixth election win in Vanier at the conclusion of the October 2008 federal election.
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EMC News - After 15 years in elected office, the one opponent that may have finally stumped Ottawa-Vanier MP Mauril Belanger is Twitter. 
Jessica Hinds
All Part of the Job: Ottawa-Vanier MP Mauril Belanger, and his wife Catherine, attending a 1930s-themed fundraiser in New Edinburgh last autumn.
"The one thing that has changed in 15 years is technology," he says in between sips of coffee during an interview at the Starbucks coffee shop in the Chapters book store at the intersection of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive on the morning of Wednesday, February 3.
"What's stopping me from using the social media stuff is because of the time," it would entail, he explains. "That's one thing I have to get my head around. Maybe I'll get my granddaughter to teach me!" he says with a laugh.
Tomorrow (Saturday, February 13) will be the 15th anniversary of Belanger's election to the House of Commons. A special celebration is being held this weekend in his honour, in the atrium of the Telesat Canada building, 1601 Telesat Crescent from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more information, call 613-992-4766. The soiree will be raising funds for the youth drug treatment facility for Francophone youth, which appears likely to be located at 300 Olmstead Street in Vanier, as well as for the Anglophone facility for the west end.
"I support that and so does (MPP) Madeleine Meilleur," he said. "It's going to happen."
Twitter and YouTube aside, the political landscape Belanger stepped onto in 1995 is markedly different from today's reality.
Belanger did not have the benefit of taking advantage of Jean Chretien's coat tails in the Liberal landslide of the 1993 federal election. While the federal Liberals have had a tough time of late, in 1995, Belanger faced the unenviable task of defending the budget of a government he was not yet even a part of.
"The biggest challenge at the time was that the government was preparing its budget," he recalled. The budget presented by Paul Martin, which is still talked about to this day, would be "the toughest budget Mr. Chretien's government had."
For a riding like Ottawa-Vanier, home to many civil servants, the big question leading up to budget day was "will there be, 10, 20 or 30,000 jobs eliminated from the public service? It was a fairly tough challenge to carry that."
But that's not all Belanger's Liberal crew had to worry about.
It may seem like ancient political history now, but in 1993, the separatist Bloc Quebecois had captured 54 seats to the Reform Party's 52. By 1995, Reform were within striking distance of displacing the BQ as the Official Opposition, and they were urging voters to send a Reformer to Parliament Hill to help tip the scales towards a federalist party.
"They had Preston Manning come through the riding four times," Belanger says. On the weekend before the by-election, new signs started springing up in the area, with the BQ symbol with a big red X through it. The implication was obvious.
But Belanger need not have worried. He ended up pulling out a victory with 60 per cent of the vote, not bad even in spite of low voter turnout. Even with a resounding victory, he was still glad to see the back of a bleak winter campaign, in which cold temperatures, grey skies and a flu, dampened his mood somewhat.
"I was very tired," he admitted. But "that night, I was very grateful."
Later on that month, like other by-election winners, Belanger had to go through one of parliament's more interesting customs, when he was "dragged" by Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Solicitor General Herb Grey to the speaker of the house, Gilbert Parent.
Gray, who would later become Canada's Deputy Prime Minister, became a source of inspiration for Belanger. He asked the elder statesman for some advice on his future in politics shortly after being elected.
"If you want to be here for a long time, tend to your base, tend to your riding," Gray counseled him. If he wanted to become a national figure, maybe angle for a good ministry or appointment, he counseled getting his face out into the media spotlight. "I've been more known as a riding MP than as a nationally recognized," figure, he said.
One way in which he has done this has been through his monthly coffee houses, the idea for which came from an offhanded, if somewhat critical comment, from a voter. In 1997, when he was again out on the campaign trail, one voter told him that "I haven't seen you since the last election."
Belanger stopped and said, "You're absolutely right."
He mulled the situation over and instituted a monthly coffee house, usually held on a Saturday morning, 10 times a year.
"That has been the best advice that gentleman has given me," said Belanger. "It's a very, very effective way of keeping in touch with the community." No relevant topics are off the agenda, but "the only rule is civility." But this usually isn't an issue since "you have to trust the people and their civility."
Even by keeping it local - which is not hard for him to do compared to other MPs since he could walk to his constituency from the Hill - he still managed to make it into the cabinet of Prime Minister Paul Martin in 2003.
"There's a whole process beforehand to be screened," before one is accepted into cabinet, revealed Belanger. "There was a pool of MPs that they would look at," he said, who were subjected to an RCMP background check. One of the Prime Minister's staffers, and a lawyer, grilled him with "a fairly detailed questionnaire." Some of the questions were quite personal, and on one of the questions, "I told one of them that it was none of their damn business." But, even with that saucy retort, "I met whatever bar they set."
One evening in December of 2003, Paul Martin called Belanger and told him "'I'd like you to be in cabinet', and you say thank you, thank you very much."
Belanger was to be the new Deputy Leader of the Government in the House of Commons as well as Chief Government Whip. But Martin had added a new element to the second job.
"There'd never been a whip that had been in cabinet (before)," said Belanger of the whip's Minister of State position at the cabinet table. Halfway through the Martin government, Belanger had a lot on his plate. Indeed, maybe a little too much. From 2004 to 2005, he was the Minister Responsible for Democratic Reform and, simultaneously, from 2004 to 2006, the Minister Responsible for Official Languages. He was also the Associate Minister for National Defence from 2004 to 2006, and Minister for Internal Trade from 2005 to 2006. "Second go around, I had too many responsibilities. I learned my lessons," he said. "You can't give too much or you'll drive yourself to an early grave."
On the local political front, two issues dominated a number of subsequent elections. In June 1997 and November 2000, the drive to save the Montfort Hospital was top of voter's minds, while the October 2008 vote centred around the interprovincial bridge issue.
"We turned the entire organization around to reflect that," he said of the latter issue, getting his volunteers, in concert with various community associations, to drop off leaflets to get residents to attend the public open house on the issue at Lansdowne Park in October of 2008.
"If we didn't have a good turnout, that was it," for some manner of compromise on the issue, he said. The meeting turned out to be very well attended and, as a result, "suddenly, the NCC had to take notice."
Of the constituency matters that he has tended to over the years, one story stands out in his mind as particularly moving.
A female refugee from Cameroon took refugee in a church in Sandy Hill. Belanger lobbied for her to be able to stay and have her case appealed even after she had been turned down.
"Through fairly interesting use of legality, we showed that she had not been treated correctly by the IRB (Immigration and Refugee Board)," he said.
In time, the lady was granted residency and Belanger felt good about the role he had had, in having a "direct influence on the life of a human being."
He was also proud of helping get La Nouvelle Scene, 333 King Edward Avenue in Lowertown, off of the ground, and now it is "one of the busiest theatre houses in the city."
Through all of the hariness in a politician's life, his one constant has been his wife Catherine.
"I'm very lucky. Some people end up elected and their spouse does not like that life," he said. "She's always been extremely patient. If she doesn't like it, she's never said it!" He admitted though that, because she is a public servant, "we've had to be very careful," because "we don't want her to be put in a delicate situation."
Belanger is the proud grandfather to three young children, and "I take my granddaughter to the November 11 event at the cenotaph in Vanier. I waited until she was old enough."
Belanger, who will be 55 in June, is a long way from retirement, and has not yet tired of civic life.
"I'm a candidate in the next election and after that, I'll take it one at a time," he says. "I'm happy where I am. The vibes that I get are positive."
ddevoy@thenowemc.ca
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