Fisherman's Road

Ryan Cleary spent more than four years in Ottawa as Member of Parliament for St. John’s South-Mount Pearl, serving for all or part of that time as Chair of the Atlantic Caucus, Official Critic for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and Official Critic for Post-Secondary Education. In addition, Ryan served on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, and Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities. Over his term in office (2011-2015), Ryan rose more often during Question Period on NL-related issues than any other MP from the province.   TOP ISSUES IN THE COMMONS • Federal fisheries mismanagement . •  Search and rescue . •  Marine Atlantic . • Northern shrimp and Last-in, First-out policy . • Oil-spill response times. •  Pensions and seniors. •  Veterans . • Post-Secondary Education and student debt .  • The Canada EU free-trade deal and follow through on compensation for NL’

 I gave the following speech on Oct. 30 in St. John's. Good afternoon and thank you for coming. It’s been 11 days since the longest federal general election campaign in modern history, and the results have settled in. Canada is finally rid of Stephen Harper, and that’s a good thing … for Canada. A great thing for Newfoundland and Labrador. I’m proud — it was an honor — to have served for more than four years as part of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in Ottawa. The most effective Opposition in the Harper era … An Opposition that helped take Harper down. Day after day, month after month, year after year in the House of Commons we hammered Harper and his scandal-riddled administration for disrespecting Parliament … For changing the face of Canada into an image we no longer recognized — or liked. Newfoundland and Labrador suffered under Harper’s rule; he was no friend of ours. And Canadians — Newfoundlanders and Labradorians — saw the Trudea