Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in this chamber for the first time as the newly elected member of Parliament for Richmond Hill South, the place I have called home for the vast majority of my life. I do so with humility and deep gratitude to the people who placed their trust in me and are letting me be their voice. I thank the people of Richmond Hill. They voted for me, for change, and I will fight for that change. They can rest assured that I will fight for their families, their values, and their future every single day in this House.

My family's support means the world to me. I thank my parents for everything they have done to get me here. I thank my wife for being part of this journey so we can build a better future for our daughter. To my colleagues in the Conservative caucus, it is a tremendous privilege to stand alongside each and every one of them.

Before running for office, I was a corporate lawyer. I have four degrees from Canada's top universities, and I am licensed to practise law in Canada and the United States. I was a CFA charterholder and a partner at a major law firm. I gave that all up and entered public service not to see government grow, but to see opportunity grow and make way for bigger and prouder citizens; not to see failure excused, but to see merit rewarded; not to see Canadians divided by region, creed or conflicts abroad, but to see them united under a proud flag and behind a shared promise: the promise of a country where hard work pays off, justice prevails and the next generation inherits not less, but more.

During my election campaign, I had the opportunity to talk to many people in Richmond Hill South. Our team knocked on 100,000 doors, and I want to champion in this chamber the issues that I heard about. Unlike the Liberals, who feel no urgency to table a budget on time, I stand here today with a clear mission: to fight for policies that will restore safety in our streets, affordability in our economy, respect for our seniors and opportunity for the next generation of Canadians.

Let us start with what should be the simplest promise a government can make: to keep Canadians safe. Because of the Liberals' decade-long soft-on-crime approach, an unprecedented crime wave has been unleashed into our communities across the country. It has been keeping our communities up at night. Violent incidents, gang activities, carjackings and home invasions, often committed by repeat offenders, by the way, are becoming all too common all across Canada. Let me be clear: This is not fearmongering. It is a reality the people of Richmond Hill live with each and every day. I have spoken to seniors who do not feel safe walking to the park, to parents who worry when their kids walk to school, and to small business owners who have been robbed on multiple occasions while the criminals walk free.

Public safety must never be a partisan issue. However, under the Liberal government, a catch-and-release bail system allows repeat offenders to cycle in and cycle out of custody, all while our communities suffer the consequences. It is a system where criminals convicted of serious offences get house arrest rather than mandatory prison time, and criminals with consecutive convictions are rewarded with discounted sentences. This is an injustice and a slap in the face to the victims.

While the Prime Minister talks a big game about addressing crime, his throne speech does not mention ending the Liberal revolving-door, get-out-of-jail-free justice system. We need to restore real consequences for violent crime and stand up for victims, not criminals. Without law and order, there can be no freedom, no prosperity and no peace of mind.

However, safety is not just about crime. It is also about confronting the devastating Liberal-sponsored drug crisis, which has been destroying lives and families all across Canada. Opioid drug overdoses have risen to record levels under the Liberals' disastrous policies, claiming the lives of over 50,000 Canadians, a death toll that now exceeds that of the Second World War. The so-called safe supply policies and safe injection site experiments have utterly failed. Liberal government-supplied drugs have flooded our streets, compounding the pain and suffering of those already impacted by addictions. Decriminalizing hard drugs and giving out needles from vending machines have turned our neighbourhoods into open drug scenes where overdose deaths continue to rise, not fall. This is not harm reduction. This is government-orchestrated harm promotion.

We need a new path, a path that offers real hope, real healing and real recovery. We must focus on treatment over trauma. Solutions must be rooted in dignity, not dependency. Lastly, we must punish the fentanyl kingpins as the mass murderers they are. Every Canadian deserves the chance to rebuild their lives, and that starts with a system that helps them get off drugs, not keep them addicted.

Our streets became less safe from government-sponsored chaos, but also our economy is now in decline from a decade of Liberal vandalism. Canadians are being squeezed from every direction: groceries, gas, heating and housing. It is all going up, and people are falling behind.

The Liberal job-killing industrial carbon tax is driving up the cost of everything, especially for those who can least afford it. Farmers, truckers and working families are all paying more while the out-of-touch government offers less. This is not about reducing emissions; this is economic punishment of hard-working families that are feeling the squeeze more than ever before. We need to stop punishing work and productivity and sabotaging our country's competitiveness. That starts with axing the carbon tax for good and letting Canadians keep more of their hard-earned money. It also means addressing the deeper issue created by the Liberal government: the productivity crisis that is dragging our economy down globally and depriving working-class Canadians of a chance to get ahead.

Investment is fleeing. Productivity is declining. Factories are shutting down. Good-paying jobs are vanishing. That is not just bad for business; it is bad for workers, for wages and for our long-term growth. No Canadian should be out of work because the Liberal government refuses to get out of the way. We must unleash the potential of our economy. That means cutting Liberal red tape that chokes small businesses. It means speeding up project approval so we can develop our natural resources responsibly, build infrastructure and attract investment. It means rewarding entrepreneurship, embracing innovation and making it easier, not harder, for Canadians to build and create.

Next, we must champion pipeline development, not just as an energy policy, but as a nation-building project. We need to get our resources to market, create thousands of high-paying jobs and strengthen our energy sovereignty. It means ending the self-sabotaging and anti-energy policies, yet the throne speech makes no mention of Canada's oil and gas sector, which is Canada's most vital industry.

We need to be a country where a good idea can become a business, and a business can then become an industry; where students see a future not of delay and scarcity, but of drive and abundance; where we can make things again, build things again and grow things again, with the Canadian worker at the centre of it all. That is the difference between members on this side of the House and those opposite. Conservatives want to grow the pie for Canadians, while Liberals want to think of ways to slice it up among themselves.

Nowhere is the failure of the Liberal government's policies more obvious than in the housing market. Young couples are delaying and even forgoing starting a family because they are completely priced out. Mortgage payments and rents have doubled, while incomes have stayed flat or even declined. Young families are being priced out of their communities completely, while government funding creates more bureaucracy than housing. Plain and simple, the Liberals have orchestrated a supply crisis and perpetuated the housing hell that an entire generation is forced to endure.

We need to incentivize municipalities to build more homes faster. We need to require results and accountability, not endless reports and consultants where no strings are attached to Liberal federal funding. We need to remove the gatekeepers who delay and deny projects that Canadians desperately need. It should not take years and hundreds of thousands of dollars just to get a permit to build a home. Nurses should be able to afford to live near the hospital they work at, and tradespeople should be able to afford to live in the homes that they themselves have helped build.

People are not just angry or frustrated anymore; they are losing hope. They are suffocating. Misery is becoming the new normal. When one cannot walk down the street without fear, when housing is completely out of reach and wages are stagnant, when work is punished and bureaucracy is rewarded, our country cannot thrive.

I believe in the resilience of Canadians. I believe in the strength of our values and the promise of our future. I will fight for that Canadian promise, a country that is safe, affordable and free, a country that is not obsessed with our differences but focused on what unites us, a country where compassion is measured not by the size of the government but by the faith and strength of our communities, a country where freedom is not a gift from government but a birthright of every Canadian citizen, a country that believes in responsibility, not excuses, and in celebrating success, not sabotaging it. That is the Canada I will fight for. That is the Canada that Richmond Hill deserves. That is the Canada we will build together.

Vincent Ho