Joy Smith

Joy Ann Smith

Joy Smith, September 23, 2009
Member of the Canadian Parliament
for Kildonan—St. Paul
In office
June 28, 2004 – 2015
Preceded by First Member
Succeeded by MaryAnn Mihychuk
MLA for Fort Garry
In office
1999–2003
Preceded by Rosemary Vodrey
Succeeded by Kerri Irvin-Ross
Chair of the Standing Committee on
Health
In office
November 15, 2007 – November 17, 2013
Minister Tony Clement
Leona Aglukkaq
Rona Ambrose
Preceded by Rob Merrifield
Succeeded by Ben Lobb
Personal details
Born (1947-02-20) February 20, 1947
Deloraine, Manitoba
Political party Canadian Alliance (2001-2003)
Conservative (2003-present)
Spouse(s) Bart Smith
Residence East St. Paul, Manitoba
Profession Music teacher
Religion Christian

Joy Ann Smith (born February 20, 1947) is a Canadian politician. She served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba between 1999 and 2003, and was in the Canadian House of Commons from 2004 to 2015.

Education and business career

Smith was born in Deloraine, Manitoba. She holds a Master's Degree in Education from the University of Manitoba (majoring in Math and Science), and a music diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. She worked as a teacher for twenty-one years before entering political life, and in 1986 received the Hedley Award for Excellence in Research. During the 1990s, she served as a liaison for private and home-schooling groups.

Smith is also an entrepreneur. She published a book entitled Lies My Kid's Teacher Told Me in 1996, and a follow-up entitled, Tools of the Trade a few years later. She was also the owner of Gem Records for a time. In 1996, she was nominated for Manitoba's Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Career in provincial politics

Smith was elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1999 provincial election, as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the south-central Winnipeg constituency of Fort Garry. She narrowly defeated New Democrat Lawrie Cherniack by thirty votes, in one of the closest constituency races of the campaign. The New Democratic Party won the election, and Smith served as the Progressive Conservative critic for education and justice.

Fort Garry was a top NDP target in the 2003 election, and Smith lost the constituency to New Democrat Kerri Irvin-Ross by eighty-seven votes.

Career in federal politics

In 2002, as justice critic for the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives, she spoke against a bill which provided adoption rights to same-sex couples in that province. Smith argued that her party did not oppose same-sex adoption rights as such, but that the proposed legislation was flawed.[1] In a June 2005 parliamentary debate on same-sex marriage, she stated that, "If (her daughter) decides to get married, she will know that the meaning of marriage is the union of a man and a woman. If she chooses otherwise, it will be her choice." The result of the bill, she said, would be to "cause marriage to just go away with the stroke of a pen." She also claimed the bill was discriminatory against married couples.[2] The Toronto Star reported that Smith broke down in tears during the debate.

In the 2004 federal election, Smith campaigned as a Conservative candidate in the north Winnipeg riding of Kildonan—St. Paul. She had previously been nominated as a candidate of the Canadian Alliance, where she was the Manitoba organizer for Stockwell Day's bid for leadership, before that party merged with the Progressive Conservatives in 2003-04.

Smith narrowly defeated Liberal candidate Terry Duguid, 13,582 votes to 13,304. Smith was named Manitoba caucus chair, giving her a seat on the Conservative Party's Planning and Priorities Committee.

She is also a committee member on the Status of Women Group, Ukrainian-Canadian Parliamentary Group, Canada-Israel Parliamentary Group and Canada-USA Relations Parliamentary Group.

In 2004, Smith was selected to be part of the Canadian delegation assigned to travel to Ukraine and observe a court-ordered repeat of the second round of voting the Ukraine presidential election.

Smith defeated Duguid again by a significantly larger plurality in the 2006 federal election, as the Conservatives won a national minority government. Smith along with the Conservative government were re-elected in the October 2008 federal election to another minority government. In 2006, Smith introduced a private member's bill, asking parliamentarians to condemn human trafficking and come up with a comprehensive plan to combat the problem.

In February 2007, Smith put forward motion C-153 to put a national action plan in place to combat human trafficking, and the House of Commons passed the motion unanimously.[3] Smith began developing the plan in 2008 and continued to work on it for several years.[4] She sought to have the plan developed and established in order "to rescue and restore the victims and prosecute the offenders" of human trafficking.[5] The plan was established by the Government of Canada on June 6, 2012 as the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking.[6]

Also in 2007, Smith introduced a private member's bill called the Clean Internet Act (Bill C-427). The bill was passed unanimously, and set in place a strategy to combat human trafficking globally by opposing such trafficking across international borders, specifically in the case of women and children being trafficked for sexual purposes.[7] In her words, the bill would "... prevent the use of the Internet to distribute child pornography, material that advocates, promotes or incites racial hatred, and material that portrays or promotes violence against women."[8] Part of the bill proposes a "know your subscriber" requirement for ISPs and would mandate them to deny Internet access to offenders. Also, it proposes to give special searching powers to the Ministry of Industry. The above features have led it to be criticized as something that "... would not look out-of-place in countries that aggressively censor the Internet."[9]

In her column, "Sex traders, keep your hands off our children!" (The Province, July 29), Smith asserted that "the aver-age age of entry into prostitution in Canada is between 12 and 14 years of age."[10] In October 2010, Smith conducted the inaugural Honouring Heroes Award Ceremony at Eastview Community Church, an annual event recognizing people who have fought to support victims of sexual trafficking.[11]

In 2012, Smith presented human-trafficking-related Bill C-10 to the Senate of Canada. The bill was eventually passed as the Safe Streets and Communities Act, a policy of the Canadian government.[12] While Smith was in Ottawa to present Bill C-10, she was also scheduled to speak on the talkback panel in conjunction with the human-trafficking-related play She Has a Name.[13]

Smith proposed and claimed to be working on, in July 2013, a bill that disallows access to pornography online for all Canadians by default unless they choose to opt in, similar to earlier legislation put forward in the U.K. by British Prime Minister David Cameron. Details of what content specifically would be deemed "pornographic" and blocked were not provided.[14]

She did not run for re-election in 2015.[15]

Electoral record

Canadian federal election, 2008
Party Candidate Votes%∆%Expenditures
ConservativeJoy Smith 19,751 53.40% +10.27% $64,584
New DemocraticRoss Eadie 12,093 32.70% +12.53% $25,719
LiberalLesley Hughes 3,009 8.14% -25.33%
GreenKevan Bowkett 1,685 4.60% +1.89% $101
Christian HeritageJordan Loewen 233 0.63% – $1,302
IndependentEduard Hiebert 214 0.58% +0.06% $3,872
Total valid votes/Expense limit 36,985100.00%$78,899
Total rejected ballots 156
Turnout 37,141
Canadian federal election, 2006
Party Candidate Votes%∆%Expenditures
ConservativeJoy Smith 17,524 43.13% +5.83% $58,321
LiberalTerry Duguid 13,597 33.47% -3.06% $70,764
New DemocraticEvelyn Myskiw 8,193 20.17% -2.35% $16,314
GreenColleen Zobel 1,101 2.71% +0.64% $0.00
IndependentEduard Hiebert 213 0.52% – $3,521
Total valid votes 40,628100.00%
Total rejected ballots 137
Turnout 40,765
Canadian federal election, 2004: Kildonan–St. Paul
Party Candidate Votes%Expenditures
ConservativeJoy Smith 13,582 37.30 $53,156
LiberalTerry Duguid 13,304 36.54 $64,174
New DemocraticLorene Mahoney 8,202 22.53 $32,688
GreenJacob Giesbrecht 756 2.08 $1,929
MarijuanaRebecca Whittaker 290 0.80 not listed
Christian HeritageKatharine Reimer 278 0.76 $1,475
Total valid votes/Expenditure limit 36,412 100.00 71,091
Total rejected ballots 117
Turnout 36,529 60.19
Electors on the lists 60,689
Percentage change figures are factored for redistribution. Conservative Party percentages are contrasted with the combined Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative percentages from 2000.
Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada.
Manitoba general election, 2003: Fort Garry
Party Candidate Votes%∆%Expenditures
New DemocraticKerri Irvin-Ross 3,852 46.75 +3.29 $21,049.74
     Progressive Conservative Joy Smith 3,765 45.69 +1.93 $29,935.35
LiberalTaran Malik 562 6.82 −4.45 $13,984.00
     Independent Didz Zuzens 61 0.74 +0.74 $395.34
Total valid votes 8,240 99.34
Rejected and declined votes 55
Turnout 8,295 63.49 −11.60
Electors on the lists 13,066
Manitoba general election, 1999: Fort Garry
Party Candidate Votes%∆%Expenditures
     Progressive Conservative Joy Smith 4,436 43.76 $28,543.84
New DemocraticLawrie Cherniack 4,406 43.46 $29,325.00
LiberalTed Gilson 1,143 11.27 – $9,808.98
     Manitoba Party Denise Van Rooyen 116 1.14 $1,032.59
Total valid votes 10,101 99.64
Rejected and declined votes 37
Turnout 10,138 75.09
Electors on the lists 13,502

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ Thomas S. Axworthy (February 11, 2009). "Canada can join Obama to end human trafficking". Toronto Star. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
  4. ↑ Mia Rabson (September 15, 2010). "Make buying sex illegal, city Tory MP urges: Bolster fight against human trafficking". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
  5. ↑ Joy Smith (January 27, 2011). "Canadians being trafficked here at home". Winnipeg Sun. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
  6. ↑ "The Harper Government Launches Canada's National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking". Public Safety Canada. June 6, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
  7. ↑ Lana Michelin (May 15, 2012). "Playwright tells story of human trafficking". Red Deer Advocate.
  8. ↑ MP Joy Smith presents clean Internet act to House. www.joysmith.ca. Available at: http://www.joysmith.ca/news_details.asp?ID=402. Accessed on: April 23, 2007.
  9. ↑ Conservative MP Introduces 'Clean Internet Act'. michaelgeist.ca. Available at: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1884/125/. Accessed on: May 1, 2007.
  10. ↑ Lowman, John. "The Province - Joy Smith was wrong". The Province. The Province. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
  11. ↑ Alexandra Paul (October 17, 2010). "MP honours anti-sex-trade crusaders: Smith, activists take aim at Craigslist". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Where is God at the Fringe?". CFEQ-FM. July 19, 2012.
  13. ↑ Shannon LeClair (April 20, 2012). "She Has A Name returns". Strathmore Times. Retrieved July 30, 2012.
  14. ↑ "Canadians should have to 'opt in' to internet porn, MP says". CBC News. July 23, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2014.
  15. ↑ "Tory MP Joy Smith leaving Winnipeg riding, Jeff Browaty eyes seat". CBC News. January 13, 2015. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
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