DAN CEARNS The Standard
DURHAM/KAWARTHA: A couple parliamentary representatives from Durham and the Kawartha Lakes have been named to the Conservative Party’s shadow cabinet. Durham MP Erin O’Toole retains the role he had in the last government as the Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs. Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MP Jamie Schmale has been appointed as the Shadow Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations. “[I’m] honoured to be the Shadow Minister for Crown-Indigenous Relations. We must support those who are affected by their relationship with the Crown, and work to bring forward policies that make real and measurable improvements in the lives of Canada’s Indigenous peoples,” MP Schmale posted on Twitter following the announcement. Elected Members of Parliament (MP) were officially sworn in on Thursday, November 28th. Mr. Schmale was accompanied by family and friends during the occasion. “Now that the official ceremony is over, my staff and I look forward to continuing our hard work on behalf of the good people of our riding. I am committed to doing my best to serve all constituents and to be their voice in Ottawa,” Mr. Schmale said, in a press release. Before any duly elected representative may take his or her seat and vote in the House of Commons, the individual must take an oath or make a solemn affirmation of allegiance and sign the Test Roll, a book with pages headed by the text of the oath. For those who are not familiar with the oath that new occupants of various federal and provincial government offices, members of federal, provincial, and municipal police forces, members of the Canadian Armed Forces, and in some provinces, all lawyers upon admission to the bar, take it is as follows. “I, [name], do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors. So help me God.” Former Premier of Ontario, Mike Harris said in 1993: “The oath to the Queen is fundamental to the administration of the law in this country. It signifies that, here in Canada, justice is done—not in the name of the Prime Minister, or the Mayor, or the Police Chief, as in totalitarian nations—but by the people, in the name of the Queen.” James Robertson, author of Oaths of allegiance and the Canadian House of Commons stated the oath was how elected members of parliament, who are assuming positions of public trust, promise to carry out their duties “patriotically, and in the best interests of the country.”