The Member of Parliament for Provencher was part of Canadian history on Tuesday.
Ted Falk sat in the Senate on Parliament Hill as King Charles read the speech from the throne.
"It's the first time in Canadian history that a king has actually read the throne speech," says Falk. "It was a very unique experience."
Tuesday marked the first day back for Parliamentarians following the April 28th election win by the Liberals. Falk says the first day of Parliament following an election is always exciting.
"But (Tuesday) especially so, because the king was here in person in Ottawa," he says. "And participated in the pomp and the ceremony of the day."
As mentioned, Tuesday marked the first time in Canadian history that a king has read the throne speech. This was done two other times by a reigning monarch. Queen Elizabeth II read the throne speech back in 1957 and again in 1977.
Falk says the speech itself was quite short. He notes though a lot of the right things were said and articulated, it lacked a plan as to how they would be accomplished.
"That was probably the disappointing part about the throne speech," says Falk. "Struck a lot of positive notes but it didn't articulate a plan."
Falk says the speech included several "very positive indications," that were read by the king from Prime Minister Mark Carney. For example, he says there is tax relief coming for Canadians.
"That's something that we've campaigned on, is that life is expensive in Canada and needs to be more affordable for Canadians," says Falk. "And so, there's going to be some immediate tax relief, but without a plan as to what shape or form that's going to come in."
The Provencher MP says there will also be relief for first-time homeowners who are building a new home.
"The GST relief on homes under $1 million, which was something straight out of the Conservative policy book," shares Falk.
Falk says he was also encouraged to hear talk about supply management being protected; something he says is very important in Provencher.
"We have a heavy concentration of supply manage agriculture in Provencher and that's something that's important to our farmers, that that remains protected," he says. "So those are things that I was encouraged on."
Falk says there was also talk about making Canada an energy superpower, but there was no formal plan announced for how to make that happen.
He adds there was talk about reducing crime with the addition of 1,000 RCMP officers, which is good news. However, Falk says much of the crime prevention had to do with border security, and not enough about reducing rural or even urban crime.
"He could have talked about repealing the Liberals Bill C-75, which is the catch and release bail program that they implemented in the last Parliament," says Falk. "And that would be a really good start, but there was no talk about that."
Falk says other than reducing fentanyl trafficking across our borders, there was not much said about addressing the opioids or fentanyl issue in our country.
Falk says there was also a promise in the throne speech that the federal government would work diligently by Canada Day, to remove any federal barriers that exist against interprovincial trade. He notes some premiers have already been working collaboratively signing memorandums of understanding. Falk says the Prime Minister has committed to doing what needs to be done at the federal level to make sure that all interprovincial trade barriers are removed.
Falk says probably what is lacking most right now is a federal budget. He notes we do not know the financial situation we are in as a country. Furthermore, Falk says none of the initiatives mentioned in the throne speech have been costed.
Meanwhile, Falk says being back on Parliament Hill is somewhat bittersweet. He notes a lot of familiar faces are missing since last month's election. Having said that, he notes there are 45 new Conservative MPs and they have grown their caucus size by 23.
"There's lots of new members on our Conservative team, some really great folks we're just getting to know here," says Falk. "Just really improved our bench strength a lot and they come with a variety of experiences and different abilities that they are going to bring to Parliament here and to assist our team in being a really, really effective opposition."
Falk says their team should be involved in some very interesting debates over the next three to four weeks as they hold the government to account.