At the start of the new year, Banff - Airdrie Conservative MP Blake Richards is taking time to look back at 2017 and what's ahead for him in 2018.

Richards begins his review of 2017 with the positives.  "It was our 150th anniversary this year and that's a pretty good opportunity for Canadians to celebrate what it means to be Canadian and what makes our country so great, look back at our history and forward to our future.  It was nice to see how many people embraced that opportunity.  We saw a lot of people with their Canada 150 flags whether it be on Canada Day at the parades or different events throughout the year.  That was really cool to see, outside of the $6 million hockey rink on Parliament Hill that you can't play hockey on, the celebration seemed to go well."

Richards says the Canada 150 medals he presented in the constituency were also a highlight of the year and he thinks there are also positive things happening in Alberta with the new United Conservative Party.  He also cited the election of Andrew Scheer as the new leader of the Conservative party as a positive.  But, Richards believes there is still a lot of work to do, especially when it comes to small business.  

"Unfortunately, the plan to gain revenue on their behalf seems to have been to go after small businesses and that is a real source of anger for me frankly because that is completely misplaced.  Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and they're the businesses that support all the causes in our community and they keep our economy and communities moving along.  So to see these kinds of attacks on small businesses that we've seen, particularly with the tax changes, but not just in that regard, there have been other things as well, has been a real source of frustration this year."

Richards says the pressure put on by the opposition in parliament and by Canadians as well, has managed to limit the damage to small businesses but says the fight will continue in 2018.

Richards says that 2018 will continue to see the opposition Conservatives taking the government to task over some of their ethics problems, including "cash for access," the Prime Minister's vacation to a private island owned by the Aga Khan which was done with tax payer's money, and the Finance Minister's problems with his family company Morneau Shepell.

It was when Bill Morneau was responding to questions in the House of Commons that the incident Richards is best known for across the country in 2017 happened.  Richards was ordered removed from the house by the Commons Speaker and became the first person to be removed in 15 years.

While Richards denies heckling, saying he has never engaged in that type of behaviour, the incident is something he says he's received positive feedback about from his constituents.

"I was standing up for what I believe was right and I stand up for what I believe my constituents view as right.  That's certainly been confirmed with all the conversations I've had with constituents since then.  Many people say, 'yeah, we appreciate you're someone who doesn't sit there quietly in the House of Commons and accept things as they are.  We expect someone that will go there and speak on our behalf and that's exactly what I did that day."

Early in 2018 Richards plans to introduce a private members bill that will be debated in the House of Commons.  The bill, which Richards thinks will be presented in February or March, will be aimed at providing better support and compassion for families who are dealing with pregnancy and infancy loss.

"I'll be working hard in the new year to get support from Members of Parliament across all parties.  I do have a lot of support from Conservative members and I do have a number of members from both the NDP and Liberals who have indicated that they personally will support it.  The challenge I have right now is I have met recently with the Minister of Families and Children and, although he expressed some openness, I haven't got any commitment that the government will support this motion and I'm really hoping that they will.  This seems like something's that a no-brainer that we would want to try to fix for all families.  That's something that will be a big focus of mine in the first part of the new year."

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