Peter Schiefke

Peter Schiefke MP
Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities
Incumbent
Assumed office September 2021
Minister	Omar Alghabra
Preceded by	Vance Badawey
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Incumbent
Assumed office December, 2019
Minister	Jonathan Wilkinson
Preceded by	Sean Fraser
Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister (Youth)
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 December 2015
Minister	Justin Trudeau
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction
Incumbent
Assumed office 31 August 2018
Minister	Bill Blair
Member of Parliament for Vaudreuil—Soulanges
Incumbent
Assumed office 19 October 2015
Preceded by	Jamie Nicholls
Personal details
Born	1979 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Political party	Liberal
Spouse	Dr. Paula Ruttle
Alma mater	Concordia University McGill University
Profession	Environmentalist

Peter Schiefke MP (born 13 April 1979) is a Canadian environmentalist and Liberal politician, who was elected to represent the riding of Vaudreuil—Soulanges in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2015 federal election.

Biography

Peter Schiefke spent his early childhood in Hudson, Quebec and subsequently moved onto the island of Montreal where he attended and graduated from Dalkeith Elementary School and Rosemount High School. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Concordia University and a Master of Science in Renewable Resources from McGill University. He was a member of the Quebec pop group INMOTION in September 2000. This group had some success in the early 2000s and appeared on the Radio-Canada television program La Fureur.

While a student at Concordia in 2002, Peter Schiefke launched the We Will Always Remember (WWAR) project, aimed at raising awareness among youth of the sacrifices made by Canadian soldiers around the world, for which he received the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation in 2003. In 2006, he and Awel Uwihanganye founded the Concordia Volunteer Abroad Program (CVAP), now known as Community, Empowerment, Education, Development (CEED). This organization organizes cooperation and development projects in the Gulu region of Uganda.

Peter Schiefke also co-founded Youth Action Montreal in 2006 with Mohamed Shuriye to promote the engagement of Montreal college and university students in sustainable development and environmental protection. In 2007, this organization organized the conference "Less Talk, More Action: A Youth Summit on Climate Change", which was attended by Al Gore and David Suzuki and brought together thousands of people at the Palais des congrès de Montréal. In 2009, he was appointed National Director of The Climate Reality Project Canada Foundation, and after his term was appointed to the Board of Directors.

Political career

Peter Schiefke ran for the Liberal Party of Canada nomination in Vaudreuil-Soulanges in July 2014, with the federal election coming up the following year. On 24 February 2015, he was chosen as the candidate on the second ballot at a nomination meeting where he was up against two other candidates. On 19 October, he was elected with 46.6% of the vote, defeating sitting New Democratic Party MP Jamie Nicholls.

In December 2015 he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister for Youth. As Parliamentary Secretary for Youth, he worked closely with the Prime Minister in the creation of the first-ever Prime Minister’s Youth Council, the creation of the first-ever Youth Policy for the Government of Canada, and advocated for increases to student aid, bursaries, and entrepreneurship programs. In August 2018, he was asked to take on additional responsibilities and serve as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, Bill Blair. In this role, he helped lead the implementation of the Cannabis Act, which legalized recreational use of cannabis in Canada on 17 October 2018, and helped lead Canada’s response to the record numbers of asylum seekers and irregular migrants entering Canada through irregular and regular points of entry.

He ran again in the 2019 election and was re-elected with 47.3% of the vote. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau subsequently appointed him the Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Climate Change in December 2019. During his time as Parliamentary Secretary, he was asked to take on a leadership role in the Government efforts to protect 25% of Canada’s Nature by 2025, update and strengthen Canada’s Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) that had not been updated since 1999, and implement a ban on harmful single-use plastics. The ban on harmful single-use plastics was announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on 7 October 2020, and is projected to come into force at the end of 2022. The CEPA legislation, Bill C-28: Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act, was tabled in the House of Commons on 13 April 2021, but ultimately died on the order paper when the election was called on 15 August of that same year. The Bill is projected to be re-introduced in the 44th Parliament. In March 2021, he was appointed the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship and served in that capacity until the Federal election was called on 15 August of the same year.

On 20 September 2021 he was elected for a third consecutive term as the Member of Parliament for Vaudreuil-Soulanges, receiving 46.4% of the vote. On 16 December 2021 he was elected the Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure, and Communities.

Electoral record

2021 Canadian federal election: Vaudreuil—Soulanges
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Peter Schiefke	30,001	46.5	-0.8	$86,137.80
	Bloc Québécois	Thierry Vadnais-Lapierre	14,308	22.2	-2.2	$2,242.01
	Conservative	Karen Cox	10,556	16.3	+4.8	$10,931.31
	New Democratic	Niklas Brake	6,780	10.5	-0.3	$403.80
	Green	Cameron Stiff	1,631	2.5	-2.5	$1,085.30
	Free	Ginette Destrempes	1,288	2.0	N/A	$399.41
Total valid votes/expense limit			64,564	98.1	–	$125,354.78
Total rejected ballots			1,233	1.9
Turnout			65,797	66.9
Eligible voters			98,289
	Liberal hold		Swing		+0.7
Source: Elections Canada

2019 Canadian federal election: Vaudreuil—Soulanges
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Peter Schiefke	32,254	47.3	+0.68	$108,254.46
	Bloc Québécois	Noémie Rouillard	16,600	24.4	+9.36	none listed
	Conservative	Karen Cox	7,804	11.5	-2.31	none listed
	New Democratic	Amanda MacDonald	7,368	10.8	-11.51	none listed
	Green	Cameron Stiff	3,405	5.0	+2.79	none listed
	People's	Kaylin Tam	711	1.0		none listed
Total valid votes/expense limit			68,142	100.0
Total rejected ballots			962
Turnout			69,104	72.4
Eligible voters			95,435
	Liberal hold		Swing		-4.34
Source: Elections Canada

2015 Canadian federal election: Vaudreuil—Soulanges
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Peter Schiefke	30,550	46.62	+34.23	–
	New Democratic	Jamie Nicholls	14,627	22.31	-21.19	–
	Bloc Québécois	Vincent François	9,858	15.04	-8.62	–
	Conservative	Marc Boudreau	9,048	13.81	-3.8	–
	Green	Jennifer Kaszel	1,445	2.21	-0.63	–
Total valid votes/expense limit			65,528	100.0		$231,083.77
Total rejected ballots			714	–	–
Turnout			66,242	–	–
Eligible voters			89,766
Source: Elections Canada

External links

• Peter Schiefke – Parliament of Canada biography