Marc Dalton

Marc H.J. Dalton is a Canadian politician. He is the current Conservative Member of Parliament for Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge after the 2019 Canadian federal election. He was a BC Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia following the 2009 and 2013 provincial elections for the riding of Maple Ridge-Mission.

Biography and personal life

Dalton was born in the Canadian Forces Base of Baden-Soellingen in Germany. His father served in the Royal Canadian Armed Forces, and he spent much of his childhood traveling and living between different bases throughout Canada. Marc is Cree Métis on his father's side and French Canadian on his mother's (née Beaudoin). He is a member of Métis Nation BC. He has 5 other siblings and is the oldest of the group. In his early teenage years Marc’s family settled in the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows region of British Columbia. Growing up Marc enjoyed playing sports and was a member of the student council team while in High school.

Marc went on to study at Simon Fraser University, where he obtained his Bachelor in French and History and his Master’s in Educational Leadership. At the age of 16 he volunteered with a non-profit evangelical organization that supported communities in Central America and Canadian inner cities. Through his time working with communities in Central America he learned Spanish, making him trilingual in French, English and Spanish.

Marc’s Christian faith is another important aspect of his personal life and after completing his education Marc took on the call to become a Pastor and served in the Vancouver area for a period of time. Prior to entering politics Marc married his wife Marlene and raised three children, while working as a teacher. Marc taught at both the elementary and high school levels in the 42nd Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District. He worked as a teacher for 17 years and taught primarily French Immersion and Socials Studies. He also served in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves shortly after graduating and is a member of the Royal Canadian Legion.

Political career

In 2009, Dalton took a break from teaching and ran as an MLA for the Maple Ridge – Mission region. He went on to win and represented the district for two complete terms as a BC Liberal. As an MLA Marc served as a Parliamentary Secretary for independent schools and was a member of the ‘Experience the Fraser’ steering committee, which was a trails and tourism project. As an MLA he also served as the Parliamentary Secondary to the Minister of Aboriginal Relations.

After getting re-elected in 2012, Marc advocated for renaming the BC Liberals, as he argued it was confusing for voters who may not know that it was a centre-right Party. He reasoned that federal Conservative voters might have a hard time voting for the BC Liberals even though they share much of the same values.

In 2015, Marc ran for the Federal Conservative Nomination of Maple Ridge - Pitt Meadows where he lost to the long-time Conservative MP Randy Kamp. After the nomination he returned to the BC Liberals where he served as a backbench member until 2017. In 2019, Marc ran again in the federal election for the Conservative Party, this time winning and beating out the Liberal candidate Dan Ruimy by over 3000 votes. As a member of 43rd Parliament, Marc served as a Member of the Covid-19 Pandemic Committee, Public Safety and National Security Committee and the Official Languages Committees. He is also a member of numerous Parliamentary Associations and Interparliamentary Groups. Marc was re-elected again in 2021 and still serves as a member of the Official Languages Committee but now also serves as the Chair of the BC Caucus. While in office Marc has been vocal and actively involved in legislation focused on reducing the Carbon Tax.

Controversies

While running in the 2009 British Columbia general election, an email written to a colleague from 1996 while Dalton was a schoolteacher was released by the NDP due to "homophobic comments", according to MLA Spencer Herbert. The email was a response to concerns over overreach in proposed policy changes to address bullying in which Dalton wrote:

"I am not against homosexuals as people, but I do not support their lifestyle choices. I believe homosexuality is a moral issue. Most of us agree on many morals: respect, honesty. kindness. There are also many behaviours and acts that most of us wouid not condone: rape, robbery, assault, drunken driving, pedophilia, incest and so on. There are other moral issues that large segments of our seciety do not see eye to eye: gambling, abortion, adultery, pornography. I believe that homosexuality fits in this category.”

Dalton released an apology, stating he didn't intend to be offensive or hurtful.

In his capacity as Member of Parliament for Pitt Meadows - Maple Ridge, Dalton crafted a tweet met with controversy during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada on April 13, 2020. In his post, Dalton stated regarding seniors, "Most deaths are in care homes where average life expectancy is 2 yrs & 65% usually pass in the 1st yr. Time to start moving Canada back to work?" The post was removed after being up for several minutes. When questioned about the incident by media organizations, Dalton's office responded with the following, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the hundreds of Canadians who have lost loved ones because of COVID-19. I personally have an uncle in a care home who I love dearly who has contracted coronavirus."

On January 3, 2020, as Member of Parliament for Pitt Meadows - Maple Ridge, Dalton retweeted an opinion column from ''The Washington Examiner'' on Twitter titled,
"The transgender movement’s message for girls: Your privacy concerns are bigotry"
' " Dalton defended his re-posting of the article stating he's not pushing the issue aggressively, but spoke about it previously when he was MLA. “It’s concerning for women and for children and young girls to be in a place where there’s someone undressing right in front of them with male genitalia. ... it has to work for everybody,” Dalton said.

Political positions

Conversion therapy

On June 22, 2021, Dalton along with 61 other Conservative caucus members and one independent voted against Bill C-6, ''An Act to amend the Criminal Code (conversion therapy)''. This bill, if fully passed, would criminalize the act conducting conversion therapy on LGBTQ2+ individuals, even if they have consented to it.

Carbon tax

On numerous occasions in the 44th Parliament, Dalton has spoken in the House of Commons to contest and censure the carbon tax introduced by the Liberal Government in 2018. He cites that as the driving force behind the inflation and the increased cost of living. He wants to repeal the policy in order to reduce the cost of living.

LGBTQ

In 2014 as an MLA, Dalton voted against an amendment to the Vital Statistics Act that would allow transgender or gender non-binary individuals to change registered sex designation from their sex assigned at birth to reflect their gender identity.

Electoral record

Federal

Provincial

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See also

*British Columbia Liberal Party

References

External links

ReelYou - Marc DaltonMarc Dalton, MLA for Maple Ridge-MissionExperience the FraserMarc Dalton, MPFederal Election 2015: Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge riding results , Globalnews.caPitt Meadows-Maple Ridge MP critical of drug decriminalization
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dalton, Marc
1960 births
BC United MLAs
Canadian Mennonites
Canadian schoolteachers
Conservative Party of Canada MPs
Indigenous Members of the House of Commons of Canada
Living people
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from British Columbia
Métis politicians
People from Maple Ridge, British Columbia
Simon Fraser University alumni
21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada
21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia