Opposition Member, 2006-2011
The three opposition parties united to bring down the Liberal government in late 2005, and a new election was called for January 2006. During the campaign, Volpe and Paul Martin announced that, if re-elected, their government would waive the $975 landing fee charged to immigrants. The Liberals were defeated, however, and the Conservative Party came to office with a minority government. Volpe was again re-elected without difficulty in his own riding. Following the election, he was named as official opposition critic to the President of the Treasury Board.
In early September 2006, Volpe announced that he would break with his party's official position and support a softwood lumber deal negotiated by the Conservative government with the United States of America. In November of the same year, Volpe was one of fifteen Liberal MPs who voted against a resolution from Prime Minister Stephen Harper that recognized the Québécois as a nation within Canada.
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Famous quotes containing the word opposition:
“The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)