Ted Menzies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ted Menzies (born February 18, 1952 in Claresholm, Alberta) is a Canadian politician. He currently represents the electoral district of Macleod in the Canadian House of Commons.

1 In opposition
2 Portfolio in Conservative government
3 References
4 External links

[edit] In opposition

A farmer, Menzies was elected into the Canadian House of Commons as a Conservative in the 2004 federal election in the riding of Macleod. He was elected by over 27,000 votes more than the Liberal candidate, Chris Shade. During the 38th Canadian Parliament he served as the opposition critic for International Cooperation and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the opposition critic for International Trade and Internal Trade.

[edit] Portfolio in Conservative government

After the Conservative victory in the 2006 federal election, he was appointed as parliamentary secretary to Josée Verner, who is presently the Minister for International Cooperation, Minister responsible for Official Languages, and Minister responsible for La Francophonie.

On February 10, 2006, Menzies received some news coverage when it was revealed that despite being the parliamentary secretary responsible for La Francophonie, he did not speak French. His appointment was criticized by New Democrat Yvon Godin (an Acadian).

In his defence, Menzies replied that "we have two official languages in this country. Not just French. Not just English. We have two official languages." He argued that the best means of representing both languages was with a francophone minister with an anglophone parliamentary secretary. ^[1]

It was subsequently specified that he was appointed parliamentary secretary to Josée Verner "exclusively to support the Minister in her foreign aid files only."[2]

Preceded by Grant Hill, Conservative	Member of Parliament for Macleod 2004 – present	Incumbent

	Alberta Caucus serving in the 39th Canadian Parliament.
Senators	Tommy Banks (Lib), Joyce Fairbairn (Lib), Daniel Hays (Lib), Elaine McCoy (PC), Grant Mitchell (Lib), Claudette Tardif (Lib)
Members of Parliament	Diane Ablonczy (Con), Rona Ambrose (Con), Rob Anders (Con), Leon Benoit (Con), Blaine Calkins (Con), Rick Casson (Con), Ken Epp (Con), Peter Goldring (Con), Art Hanger (Con), Stephen Harper (Con), Laurie Hawn (Con), Rahim Jaffer (Con), Brian Jean (Con), Jason Kenney (Con), Mike Lake (Con), Ted Menzies (Con), Rob Merrifield (Con), Bob Mills (Con), Deepak Obhrai (Con), Jim Prentice (Con), James Rajotte (Con), Lee Richardson (Con), Monte Solberg (Con), Kevin Sorenson (Con), Brian Storseth (Con), Myron Thompson (Con), Chris Warkentin (Con), John Williams (Con)