One month ago, we asked our Facebook fans ‘what is the best thing in your riding?’ We wanted them to take a picture of whatever that was and post it on our page. As people uploaded photos, others voted for the one they felt was the best thing. We now have a winner.

Melinda Lee from Moose Jaw sent us the photo above. She said ‘The best thing about our riding is that we are the home of the Snowbirds & Mac the Moose.’ The people of Moose Jaw emphatically agreed and Melinda racked up hundreds of votes.

Melinda wins the #FAQMP parliamentary price pack. Congratulations Melinda and thanks everyone for participating!

Last week, we asked you about Statistic Canada’s latest data release based on the first voluntary survey. Stats Can itself said the data was less reliable compared to the cancellation of the mandatory long form census. So how did you feel? Here are the results. 92% of you are worried about how the new data will affect government policy. Only 5% said they were happy to trade reliable data for their new privacy.

Tony Clement wrote in 2010, ‘Do you believe that the government should be asking you what time you leave for work in the morning? Whether your house needs renovations? Or how many bedrooms you have?…We believe this new approach strikes a fair and reasonable balance between ensuring the federal government has the basic information every government requires, and protecting the privacy of Canadian citizens.’

It seems that most of you are comfortable telling the government when you leave for work and how many bedrooms you have.

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If you’re thinking about immigrating to Canada, I’m not confident you should watch my interview with NDP Immigration critic Jinny Sims. Our show is wall-to-wall pissed off people, viewers who write in to ask about our immigration system.

Sims’ interview has the record of receiving the highest number of questions on a single topic, the residency questionnaire. This is a questionnaire that permanent residents receive regarding their application for Canadian citizenship. To be fair, in the past becoming a Canadian citizen wasn’t very tough. Basically you had to spend three of the next four years in Canada. But now residents who receive the questionnaire need to prove that they have resided in Canada and are not, as the proponents of the questionnaire allege, simply using our citizenship to get a passport to make traveling aboard easier.

The problem our viewers have with the questionnaire is that it can delay their application an additional 4 years. These are people who have already been waiting years and paying taxes but they are unable to vote, get the Canadian passport, or run for public office. Sims’ vowed to hold Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and his government accountable but when I pushed her for specifics she said what is really needed is a change of government.

Speaking of backlogs, there were lots of live-in caregivers, temporary foreign workers, doctors caring for refugees, and people on the safe country list, who wrote in with questions. I suspect these people know all to well the problems with our immigration system. Perhaps it’s the rest of Canada that needs to watch.

Last week, we asked you, “Who is to blame for problems with the Temporary Foreign Workers program?” Here are the results.

Overwhelmingly, people selected Government as the problem for failing to enforce regulations. 15% picked corporations and only 2% thought Canadians were at fault for not working those jobs in the first place.  The 2% is the most interesting. Yes, this issue made headlines recently because of the RBC IT workers but if we were having this conversation a year ago, it would be about farm workers.  Would the poll results have been different in that context?

Regardless, the government is listening and Jason Kenney announced changes to the program. Amoung others, Kenney is increasing the price of a work permit for foreign workers and he’s getting rid of the rule that allowed companies to pay foreign workers 15% less than Canadians.   If you voted for the Government in this poll, comment below and let us know if you’re happy with their response.

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The thing that interested me most when preparing for my interview with Sean Casey was his interest in transgendered rights. He is, after all, an MP from Prince Edward Island and that isn’t the kind of issue that leaps to your mind when you think of the land of potatoes and Anne of Green Gables. But when NDP MP Randall Garrison introduced his bill, Casey (who sat on the committee that debated it) was a vocal defender.

Bill C-279: The Gender Identity Bill, sought to amend the Criminal Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act by improving the protections given to transgendered people.  Casey has been especially critical of the bill’s detractors, particularly those who refer to it as the Bathroom Bill and implied that trans people are pedophiles.  As Casey stated in parliament, “It is an entirely offensive and erroneous implication to suggest that transgendered people would be lurking late at night in bathrooms should this bill pass.  These purveyors of fear and intolerance are often the same people who claim same-sex marriage would lead to the downfall of marriage or that same-sex marriage would lead to rampant polygamy. It was pure nonsense then and it is pure nonsense today.”

During my interview, I asked Casey about his riding’s interest in the bill and he admitted that trans rights weren’t the first thing on the minds of many PEI’ers, although he did say that there is a small and vibrant trans group on the island.  “The gay pride events are always huge and there was, actually shortly after my speech, there was an event at the University of Prince Edward Island with respect to transgendered rights.”

The other reason I wanted to know more about Casey’s interest in trans rights is because I am about to start working on a documentary about transgendered people. My research is focused on the discrimination they face and how they overcome it. I think it’s safe to say that in Canada and probably every country in the world, trans people have it tough. According to surveys of trans-people in Ontario, the mental pressures they face are enormous. 96% have been told that being trans is not normal, 73% have been made fun of and 64% of trans people suffer from some form of depression. A 2010 US study by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force found 41% of trans people have attempted suicide at least once in their life.  That is 25x higher than the general population.

In April, Bill C-279 passed. I asked Casey why he believed trans people need their own special protection. He replied, “Even if this doesn’t give any further rights but this is simply a nod to the transgendered community, yes, that’s good enough.  If this doesn’t change the law one bit but it sends a positive message, that’s fine. The level of discrimination, the level of hate directed at those who many of us see as different, the level of intolerance…it needs to be said. And this is a marginalized group in our society and marginalized groups deserve to be supported.”

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The Temporary Foreign Worker program made headlines last month after Canadian employees at the Royal Bank reported they were training their replacements. Despite the Immigration Minister’s program tweeks, the furvour has not died down. Upcoming #FAQMP guest Jinny Sims tackle the program’s flaws. Visit the site on May 16th to see her full interview.

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You know the expression ‘there’s no such thing as a stupid question’? Well I disagree. When preparing for my interview with NDP MP Fin Donnelly, I’m pretty sure asking him, “Did your interest in banning shark fining come from your name?” would be really stupid. Or how about, “Did you swim 35 kilometres across the Georgia Straight to raise awareness about shark fining because of your name?” Equally stupid. And if you don’t know what shark fining is – don’t worry, you’re not stupid – we talked about it. Basically finning is when people catch sharks, remove their fins including the tale, and throw the often live, finless body back into the ocean to slowly die. The fins are made into a tasteless soup eaten predominately by Chinese people. Learning this made me want to ask Fin (as a rule I avoid calling politicians by their first name, but thought I’d break it here for effect) a few question that I thought were pretty smart.

I live in Toronto, just blocks from Chinatown. A few weeks ago, I noticed a group of young white activists posting signs around the neighborhood telling people to stop eating shark fin soup.  Fin’s riding of New Westminster-Coquitlam and Port Moody near Vancouver contains a larger number of Chinese-Canadians. So I wanted to know if he was concerned about being a white guy opposed to this Chinese delicacy. But according to Fin, “Chinese-Canadians are leading the way” when it comes to banning shark fining. When he surveyed his constituents – asking the question in both Mandarin and Cantonese - over 75 percent supported banning fins from being imported into Canada. Fin also noted, “The government of China has taken shark fin soup off of their public banquet menu. So even the government of China recognizes this is something they do not want to contribute to.”

With all this support, Fin was hopeful that his private members bill C-380 would pass in its second reading this March. The bill aimed to ban the import of shark fin to Canada and would also enshrine in legislation Canada’s ban on shark fining. But it was defeated. It seems that it is the Canadian government and not Chinese Canadians who are keeping the shark fin business alive in this country. Guess my question about whether he was concerned about upsetting Chinese Canadians was pretty stupid too. For more of my interview with Fin Donnelly watch the live stream on Thursday, May 2^nd 2PM ET.

The results of last week’s poll are in. We asked you, “How do you feel about the newest Trudeau ad from the Conservative Party?”

After 1040 votes, these are the results. It’s surprising that more people didn’t pick ‘Meh’ considering the stereotype of Canadian apathetic toward politics. Almost all the votes piled up on either side and in the end 62% said you thought the ads were awful and hurt our democracy. Tough words.

It will be interesting to see if this sentiment lasts beyond the life of this particular instance. Maybe the 2015 election will introduce Canada’s first ever Compliment Ad.

The ad in question: