James Moore (Canadian politician)

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James Moore
MP for Port Moody—Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam
In office November 27, 2000 – 2004
Preceded by	Lou Sekora
Succeeded by	riding dissolved
MP for Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam
Incumbent
Assumed office  2004
Preceded by	first member
Born	June 10, 1976 (1976-06-10) (age 32) New Westminster, BC
Political party	Canadian Alliance, Conservative
Occupation	radio host, webmaster

James Moore (born June 10, 1976 in New Westminster, British Columbia) is the Canadian Member of Parliament for Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam. He is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. Moore is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services and the Minister for the Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics.

Before being elected to Parliament, Moore was a student and hosted a campus radio program in Prince George, British Columbia. He was also the author of a website, "End the NDP", between 1996 to 1998. The website was a humorous representation of the New Democratic Party of British Columbia under Glen Clark.

Contents 1 Political career 1.1 Chuck Cadman bribery allegations 2 References 3 External links 4 Election results

[edit] Political career

He was elected to parliament in the 2000 federal election, beating former Coquitlam mayor and incumbent Liberal Lou Sekora, as a member of the Canadian Alliance Party. In 2003, the party merged with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to form the Conservative Party of Canada. In 2004, Moore was re-elected with 41% of the vote, down from 51% the previous election. He was re-elected by the same margin against another former Coquitlam mayor, Jon Kingsbury, in the 2006 election.

In parliament, Moore served in a variety of posts as a member of the official opposition, including transport critic, amateur sport critic, and public works critic. Some speculated he would be named to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cabinet, but this turned out not to be the case.

On February 7, 2006, Moore was appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister Public Works and Government Services. Principally, Moore will be responsible for answering questions regarding his department during Question Period. He also serves as Parliamentary Secretary to David Emerson, the Minister for the Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics.

Moore is known for having liberal views on social issues that sometimes put him in conflict with other members of his party. He was one of the few libertarians in the mostly socially conservative Canadian Alliance. In 2004, he voted in favour of same-sex marriage after conducting a riding-wide poll of constituents (54% supported the issue). The issue has proven controversial within his own riding, however. In 2006, an independent candidate (who was in fact a former member of the local Conservative riding association) ran against Moore on an explicitly anti-same sex marriage platform.

He is one of several members of the House of Commons to have started a blog, which he updated frequently during his bid for re-election in 2005. He shut it down shortly after, citing his newfound responsibilities as a Parliamentary Secretary as being incompatible with keeping a blog.

During a parliamentary session on December 5, 2007, Irene Mathyssen stood in the Chamber and accused Moore of looking at images of "scantily clad" women on his personal laptop computer. She openly questioned his integrity and said his actions "disrespected women". Mathyssen made the charge publicly before talking to Moore, and later when Mathyssen and Moore spoke in person about the incident, Moore explained that the woman in the image was of his girlfriend. Mathyssen has apologized for the incident, and was roundly criticized in the media for it. ^[1]

[edit] Chuck Cadman bribery allegations

PM Stephen Harper chose James Moore as his point man for handling opposition party questions in the daily Question Period, alleging misconduct on the part of two senior Conservatives, Doug Finley and Tom Flanagan. Dona Cadman says that prior to the May 19, 2005 budget vote her husband, Chuck Cadman, was offered a million-dollar life insurance policy in exchange for his vote to bring down the Liberal government.^[2] Political insiders wonder why Prime Minister Harper chose Mr. Moore as his point man for the controversial file, a pick made over four other senior Cabinet ministers from British Columbia, including Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day (Okanagan-Coquihalla, B.C.), who also is the political minister for the country's western-most province; Gary Lunn (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.), Minister of Natural Resources; Chuck Strahl (Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon, B.C.), Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs and David Emerson (Vancouver Kingsway, B.C.), Minister of International Trade. Sources speculated last week that "this issue is too sensitive and no B.C. Cabinet minister wants to touch it."

"James has been designated to be the spokesperson for this repetitive story and he's done a very repetitively solid job in repeating what he's supposed to repeat. From their perspective, it might be considered a good job because their perspective is stonewall, and give the same answer and not really respond to the questions at all. In that respect, he's a perfect repetitive naysayer, denier, and has done a very good job at being uninformative, non-responsive and steady," said Liberal MP Brian Murphy (Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe, N.B.) referring to Mr. Moore's answers to questions such as whether the Conservatives offered Mr. Cadman an alleged $1-million deal for life insurance.^[3][4]

Moore told a news conference June 4, 2008 that two top audio specialists found that the tape in which PM Stephen Harper confirms financial considerations had been offered to Chuck Cadman had been altered. But Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc, the critic for intergovernmental affairs, said on June 5, 2008 that the Tories have not been clear about what they claim was doctored on the tape. He said the Tories have also forgotten a huge part of the allegations -- the testimony of Cadman's widow, Dona Cadman. In her affidavit, Dona Cadman "repeats very clearly her recollection of her husband's words to the effect that two Conservative operatives... offered him a million dollar life insurance policy in exchange for his vote," said LeBlanc.^[5]

Tom Zytaruk, the reporter who made the recording said "I know I didn't doctor any tape. So in a sense all this stuff that [Conservative MP] James Moore is saying is meaningless. I know what happened."^[6]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official MP website
• Biography
• Parliament Webpage

[edit] Election results

Canadian federal election, 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	James Moore (incumbent)	19 961	41.12%		$73,294.85
	Liberal	Jon Kingsbury	13,134	27.05%		$60,974.96
	New Democratic Party	Mary-Woo Sims	11,196	23.06%		$25,808.51
	Independent	Greg Watrich	2,317	4.77%		$26,557.70
	Green	Scott Froom	1,623	3.34%		$1,530.93
	Libertarian	Lewis Dahlby	309	0.63%		$508.06
Total valid votes			48,540	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			141
Turnout			48,681	63.19%

Canadian federal election, 2004
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	James Moore (incumbent)	18,664	40.94%		$65,906
	Liberal	Kwangyul Peck	12,445	27.30%		$69,875
	New Democratic Party	Charley King	12,023	26.37%		$54,851
	Green	Richard Voigt	1,971	4.32%		$643
	Libertarian	Lewis Dahlby	276	0.60%
	Canadian Action	Pat Goff	111	0.24%		$869
	Communist	George Gidora	94	0.20%		$389
Total valid votes			45,584	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			169	0.37%
Turnout			45,753	62.96%

Canadian federal election, 2000
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Canadian Alliance	James Moore	28,631	49.68%		$59,661
	Liberal	Lou Sekora (incumbent)	16,937	29.39%		$71,922
	New Democratic Party	Jamie Arden	5,340	9.26%		$25,248
	Progressive Conservative	Joe Gluska	4,506	7.82%		$4,011
	Green	Dave King	839	1.45%
	Marijuana	Paul Geddes	818	1.41%		$647
	Canadian Action	Will Arlow	452	0.78%		$2,886
	Communist	George Gidora	98	0.17%		$189
Total valid votes			57,621	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			187	0.32%
Turnout			57,808	63.37%