The Okanagan’s four Members of Parliament, in a rare display of throwing aside partisan politics, remain united in showing support for Ukraine.
Earlier this week, Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced that 313 Canadians were barred from entering the country, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Tuesday’s list included nearly every Canadian Member of Parliament, including Okanagan politicians Dan Albas, Mel Arnold and Tracy Gray of the Conservative Party and Richard Cannings of the NDP.
“It was a surprise that pretty much all MPs were on that list, including myself,” said Cannings, who represents the riding of South Okanagan and West Kootenay.
“Like most MPs, I take it as a badge of honour. If this is the outcome of standing up for the people of Ukraine in this horrific invasion of war that Russia has perpetrated … I think we have to stand with Ukraine.
“If not going to Russia is the outcome of this, I’m very much OK with that.”
Also Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the House of Commons and Canada’s Senate via Zoom.
Dan Albas, the Conservative MP for Central Okanagan, Similkameen and Nicola, said following that meeting, he returned to his office to find out that he’d been banned from Russia.
“This is the situation. We have an irrational leader of Russia doing reprehensible things in Ukraine,” Albas told Global News.
“This is their tactic; to try and push people away from supporting Ukraine’s sovereign right to decide its own future.”
Albas continued, saying, “The aggression against the Ukrainian people right now, innocent women, innocent children, hospitals, schools being bombed, the pictures that we’ve seen and the words that we’ve heard from the president of Ukraine shows that we need to continue to stand with Ukraine.”
Albas said he knows this is a difficult time for Ukrainian-Canadians, “but if anything, (being banned) bolsters our position to stand against tyranny.”
Asked about being banned, Albas said, “The biggest thing we can do is just laugh at it. This is Russia trying to send a signal to the international community to try and intimidate us. We won’t be intimidated.”
Mel Arnold, Conservative MP for North Okanagan and Shuswap, said “(Vladimir) Putin’s decision to place Canadian parliamentarians on an entry ban list should not distract us from the violence that his forces are inflicting on Ukraine and the need for the international community to collectively support Ukraine’s fight for freedom and peace.
“I will continue to stand with Ukraine and call on the government of Canada to provide Ukraine with equipment for their defence and provide Ukrainians fleeing the violence with timely and accessible entry to safety in Canada.”
Asked for comment, a spokesperson for Tracy Gray, Conservative MP for Kelowna-Lake Country, referred to her Twitter account, which had a brief post about being banned.
“I’m proud to be sanctioned and banned from entering Russia, and will take it as a badge of honour for standing up for freedom and peace. I will continue to stand up to Putin’s tyrannical invasion of Ukraine.”
Seeing Canada’s major political parties unite is a rare moment, especially the Conservatives and NDP — parties on opposite sides of the political spectrum.
“It’s terrible that it’s taken a war to do that,” said Cannings. “But it is nice to have an issue where we’re all, more or less, on the same page.
“Each party has its own differences, perhaps on details of what we should be doing in response, but everybody is very much on the same page when it comes to standing up for Ukraine.”