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The annual meeting of the Canadian Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary
Association was held on November 17, 2004. The main purpose of the meeting
was the election of a Chair and a new Executive.
Sarmite Bulte was re-elected as Chair of the Canadian Branch. First elected
as a Liberal Member of Parliament in 1997, Ms. Bulte represents Parkdale-High
Park in the House of Commons. She is a former Chair of the Standing Committee
on Canadian Heritage and Chair of the Sub-Committee of International Trade,
Trade Disputes and Investment. In August 2000 she was appointed Parliamentary
Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage and re-appointed to this
position after the 2004 election. She served as Canadian Regional Representative
on the International Executive of the CPA from 2000 to 2003.
Federal Branch Activities
The level of activity during the last year has reflected the impact of
the federal general election and the fact that Canada hosted the 50th CPA
Conference which turned out to be the largest CPA Conference ever with
more than 640 participants. It was also an historic one with the election
of the first Chair of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Lindiwe Maseko
MPL, Gauteng, South Africa. A series of constitutional amendments were
also adopted which opens a seat on the International Executive Committee
for the Chair and a commitment for access to funding for any special Commonwealth
Women Parliamentarians projects in the coming years.
Roger Gallaway attended the 53rd Westminster Seminar held in London from
March 2-13, 2004 and reported that he had found the seminar to be extremely
useful to him in is then role as Parliamentary Secretary to the Government
House Leader.
In April Senator David Smith replaced Sue Barnes Regional Representative
who was not able to attend the mid year Executive Committee Meetings in
Kampala, Uganda. Speaker Dan Hays also attended the meetings on behalf
of Speaker Peter Milliken in order to brief members of the International
Executive Committee on preparations for the 50th CPA Conference.
Senator Laurier Lapierre represented the Canadian Branch at the 16th CPA
Seminar which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in May 2004.
Senator Terry Stratton represented the Canadian Branch, CPA at this past
years annual UK Parliamentary Visit which occurred in the middle of the
Federal Election campaign.
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