NDP’s Dany Morin has a lot on his agenda

Newcomer Dany Morin is one of the NDP’s 59 new Quebec MPs, representing the riding of Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, and is one of three new out gay MPs.

“I’ve had my membership card from the NDP since I was 18, so I’m a long-time supporter,” Morin, now 25, says.

This was his first campaign after finishing school and becoming a chiropractor last year.

“I’m improving the health of people,” Morin says. “My goal in life is to help people. I was able to do that as a chiropractor, and as an MP, I can help thousands more people. It fits with my life goals.”

Despite some media treating him as “minor league” from the outset of the campaign, Morin says he started getting more attention as the NDP gained traction in Quebec. And while he says he enjoyed talking to voters over TV and radio, he was already using social media to get the word out.

“I figured out that the media were not going to give me my place, so I had to take it,” Morin says. “I was proactive like that, and I talked to a lot of Facebook friends who had questions about politics. I always was a very transparent, very accessible candidate, and I intend to be an MP like that.”

Morin comes to Parliament intending to focus on three main issues, starting with his desire to improve the Canadian healthcare system.

“As a chiropractor, I have an interesting point of view,” he says.

Secondly, as a gay MP, he says he’s looking forward to having a seat on his caucus’s LGBT committee.

“The New Democrats and Liberals have done a good job, but with the Conservative government we have to really make sure that our rights don’t regress,” Morin says. “We have to be bulldogs and make sure that we don’t lose our rights.”

His third priority is ensuring that CFB Bagotville, which is in his riding, isn’t shut down.

“I’d love to have a seat on the defence committee to make sure that the base, which is the third-most important employer in my riding, is well represented, and to make sure that it doesn’t close,” Morin says.

When it comes to queer issues, Morin says anti-bullying laws are his first priority.

“I was bullied as a kid and a teenager,” he says. “Thankfully, it stopped around when I was 15, but nowadays, [with] bullying, whether it is because of sexual orientation or people are different, we need to ensure that kids are living and studying in a healthy environment. So many young kids are living day after day in such a hostile environment: some are thinking about suicide, some hate their lives, or they hate school even though they are brilliant, so we have to push the anti-bullying laws in Canada.”

While he’s still getting to know his colleagues, Morin speaks highly of Libby Davies and is looking forward to working with his queer colleagues.

“We’re going to see how our different backgrounds mesh and our different personalities, but I’m sure we’ll do great work in the next four years.”