Canadian politician
Theodore J. "Ted" Falk MP (born May 23, 1960) is a Canadian politician, who currently represents the electoral district of Provencher in the House of Commons of Canada.[1] A member of the Conservative Party of Canada, he was first elected in a by-election on November 25, 2013.[2]
Early life and career
Prior to his election, Falk was the owner of a construction and gravel-crushing company and also served 24 years (16 as president) on the board of the Steinbach Credit Union (SCU),[3] Manitoba's largest credit union.
Falk was first elected as Member of Parliament in the 2013 Provencher by-election, succeeding former cabinet minister Vic Toews, who had retired from politics three months earlier after almost 13 years as the area's MP.[4] Falk was re-elected in the 2015, 2019, and 2021 federal elections.[5]
In February of 2016, Falk introduced his first private member’s bill, C-239 An act to amend the Income Tax Act (charitable gifts), or the Fairness in Charitable Gifts Act.[6][7] The bill called for a correction to be made to the deductibility/refund gap between donations made to charities and those given to political parties. The bill was defeated at second reading in the House.[8][9]
As MP for Provencher, Falk has served on numerous parliamentary committees. In his first term, under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, he served on Canadian Heritage, Public Accounts, and Public Safety and National Security.[10] In the 42nd Parliament, under interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose, he was appointed Vice Chair of the Justice Committee where he was the only MP to vote against Bill C-16, An act to amend the Criminal Code of Canada to enshrine gender identity rights.[11] Under newly elected Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, Falk was appointed Deputy Shadow Minister for Employment, Workforce Development and Labour.[12][13] He was then appointed to the prestigious new National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians which does top secret work overseeing Canada’s military and intelligence apparatus.[14][15] Falk has also served on the Agriculture and Agrifood committee, Natural Resources, Scrutiny of Regulations and Finance.[16]
He is considered both a fiscal and social conservative, often taking positions, such as his anti-abortion stance, in contrast to his party's official position.[17] In 2016, prior to Steinbach's first Steinbach Pride event Falk claimed a conflict in his schedule with the Frog Follies festival in St-Pierre-Jolys, but when Follies organizers publicly asked him to attend Steinbach Pride instead, Falk said he would not attend because of “values of faith, family and community.”[18]
In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Falk stated he opposes mandatory vaccines and vaccine requirements to enter businesses.[19] He made erroneous statements about COVID-19 vaccines, falsely claiming that vaccines are more dangerous than the Delta variant. He retracted these statements and emphasized the safety and importance of vaccines for Canadians.[20] He refused to disclose his vaccine status and did not enter Parliament while there was a vaccine mandate, instead attending the House meetings virtually.[21][22]
