Ronalee Ambrose Veitch ( , née Chapchuk; born March 15, 1969) is a former Canadian politician who served as leader of the Official Opposition and interim leader of the Conservative Party from 2015 to 2017."Rona Ambrose chosen as interim Conservative leader" CBC News, November 5, 2015. She was the member of Parliament (MP) for Sturgeon River—Parkland from 2015 to 2017, after previously representing Edmonton—Spruce Grove from 2004 to 2015.
Born in Valleyview, Alberta, Ambrose studied political science at the University of Victoria and later earned a master's degree in public policy from the University of Alberta. She worked as a communication and public policy consultant for the Alberta government before entering federal politics. First elected in the 2004 federal election, she served as the Conservative Party’s intergovernmental affairs critic during her first term in Opposition.
Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Ambrose held multiple cabinet positions between 2006 and 2015, including minister of the environment (2006–2007), minister of intergovernmental affairs (2007–2008), minister of western economic diversification (2008–2010), minister of labour (2010–2013), minister of public works and government services (2010–2013), minister of status of women (2010–2015), and minister of health (2013–2015). She also served as vice-chair of the Treasury Board and president of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.
Following the Conservative Party’s defeat in the 2015 federal election, Ambrose was chosen as interim leader of the party and leader of the Official Opposition. She served in the role until 2017, when she announced her retirement from federal politics. After leaving office, she was appointed a visiting fellow at the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Later that year, she was named to the Liberal government’s 13-member NAFTA advisory council to provide input on trade negotiations with the United States and Mexico.
Early life and education Ambrose was born Ronalee Chapchuk in Valleyview, Alberta, to Colleen (née Clark) and James Chapchuk. She spent parts of her childhood in Brazil and Parkland County, Alberta. In addition to English, she also speaks Portuguese and Spanish.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts in women's and gender studies from the University of Victoria and a Master of Arts in political science from the University of Alberta.
Political views Ambrose is a feminist. Before her work in Canadian federal politics, Ambrose's community service included involvement with organizations working to end violence against women, including the Status of Women Action Group, the Victoria Sexual Assault and Sexual Abuse Crisis Centre, and the Edmonton Women's Shelter.
Ambrose also calls herself a libertarian and enjoys Ayn Rand's novels, such as Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. She was a member of the Trilateral Commission, an organization dedicated to closer cooperation between Europe, North America, and Japan.
Political career Ambrose was first elected to Parliament in the 2004 federal election for the newly created riding of Edmonton-Spruce Grove in west Edmonton.
On February 16, 2005, she made headlines after making a remark in Parliament directed at Liberal Social Development Minister Ken Dryden about the Liberal national child care plan: "Working women want to make their own choices; we don't need old white guys telling us what to do."Tory says child-care policy set by 'old white guys' CBC News
Environment Minister In the 2006 elections, Ambrose successfully defended her seat in Edmonton–Spruce Grove with 66.8% of the vote in the riding. She was then appointed Environment Minister in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government. Ambrose's appointment to the cabinet made her the youngest woman appointed to the cabinet at the time.
On April 7, 2006, Ambrose announced that Canada could not meet its targets under the Kyoto Protocol and must set more realistic goals for cutting greenhouse gases. "My departmental officials and the department officials from natural resources have indicated that Canada can't reach its Kyoto target. And let me be clear. I have been engaging with our international counterparts over the past month, and we are not the only country finding itself in this situation", said Ambrose.
On April 13, 2006, Ambrose stopped an Environment Canada scientist, Mark Tushingham, from speaking at the launch of his science fiction novel Hotter than Hell, set in a dystopian future caused by global warming. Tushingham's publisher and environmentalists believed this was because the book was not in line with the government's views on climate change. Still, Ambrose's spokesperson said the speech was billed as coming from an Environment Canada scientist speaking in an official capacity and thus out of the process.
On April 25, 2006, Ambrose expressed her support of the (now defunct) Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate as an alternative to the Kyoto Protocol, because it includes China and India. These two large polluting nations are not bound by the latter agreement. The APP had voluntary emissions reduction targets and focused on developing technological solutions to climate change.
In May 2006, Ambrose criticized the previous Liberal government's failure to meet the high targets that they had negotiated at Kyoto, saying, "We would have to pull every truck and car off the street, shut down every train and ground every plane to reach the Kyoto target the Liberals negotiated for Canada."
In June 2006, opposition discontent over Ambrose's actions as environment minister prompted the NDP and the Bloc Québécois to try to table a motion in the Commons environmental committee calling for her resignation. The motion was blocked with the help of the Liberals after the Conservatives said that the motion would be a confidence motion, that if passed would trigger an election in the Fall of 2006.
In August 2006, she stated, "I welcome the commitment from British Columbia to preserve and increase the population of Northern Spotted Owls ... It is my opinion that, given the measures they are taking, such as stopping logging in areas currently occupied by the owls, there is no imminent threat to the survival or recovery of the Northern Spotted Owl at this time."
On October 19, 2006, Ambrose introduced a Clean Air Act that aimed to reduce greenhouse emissions starting in 2020, cutting them to about half of the 2003 levels by 2050. She also introduced other regulations to industries and vehicles and possible cooperation between the federal government and the provinces to create a system that would report air emissions. In an interview with the media, Ambrose denied that the Conservative government had withdrawn from the Kyoto Protocol despite its previous opposition. However, industries will have until 2010 before they are expected to reduce emissions, and the government will not have final (and voluntary) targets ready until 2020. Oil companies will have to reduce emissions on a per-barrel basis, a reduction proportional to production basis.
Ambrose attended the November 2006 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.
A few weeks before Ambrose was shuffled out from the environment portfolio, she told a parliamentary committee that Canada had paid its debts under the Kyoto Protocol only to have an Environment Canada official point out that the bill was still unpaid.
Western Economic Diversification and Intergovernmental Affairs News stories of a possible Cabinet shuffle began to appear in late 2006 that included shifting Ambrose from her environment portfolio. As part of the January 4, 2007, cabinet shuffle, Ambrose was replaced as Environment Minister by John Baird and became Minister of Western Economic Diversification, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, and President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.
Minister of Labour and Minister of Public Works and Government Services After winning reelection in the 2008 election, Ambrose was appointed Labour Minister on October 30, 2008. On January 19, 2010, Ambrose succeeded Christian Paradis and was appointed as the new Minister of Public Works and Government Services, where she introduced a major project to improve the way the government administers its pay and pension systems and "which will modernize service, introduce efficiencies, and improve our stewardship responsibilities in those areas." That system was to be the Phoenix Pay System.
Minister responsible for the Status of Women On April 9, 2010, Ambrose was named Minister responsible for the Status of Women after Helena Guergis was dismissed from Cabinet.
The International Day of the Girl Child was formally proposed by Canada in the United Nations General Assembly as a resolution. Rona Ambrose, Canada's Minister for the Status of Women, sponsored the resolution; a delegation of women and girls made presentations supporting the initiative at the 55th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. On December 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly voted to pass a resolution adopting October 11, 2012, as the inaugural International Day of the Girl Child.
On September 26, 2012, Ambrose voted in favour of Motion 312, a motion by Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth that would have directed a Commons committee to revisit the section of the Criminal Code defining at what point human life begins. Viewing the motion as an attempt to re-open the debate on abortion laws, Canadian pro-choice groups and Commons opposition parties considered her vote inconsistent with her ministerial role and prompted a call for her resignation. The motion was eventually voted down. Ambrose responded to her critics, stating her concern about discrimination against girls that is made possible by sex-selection abortion. Pro-Life groups praised Ambrose for supporting the Motion.
Minister of Health
In July 2013, Stephen Harper appointed Rona Ambrose as Minister of Health and kept her as Minister of Western Economic Diversification.
While she was an MP, Ambrose worked closely with Nadia Murad, a Yazidi refugee and Nobel Peace Prize winner, in pushing the House of Commons to label the persecution of Yazidis a genocide. She also led the fight for a Canadian refugee program to bring Yazidi women and girls who have been sexually enslaved by ISIS to safety in Canada, which resulted in the rescue of over 1000 women and girls.
On June 11, 2015, she made headlines for being "outraged" that (in a unanimous decision) the Supreme Court of Canada expanded the definition of what constituted medical marijuana to include oils, teas, brownies, etc., from its previous limitation to dried leaves, arguing "Marijuana has never gone through the regulatory approval process at Health Canada, which requires rigorous safety reviews and clinical trials with scientific evidence."
When asked why the testing has not been done when people are taking medical marijuana every day, she responded, "It is not my job as Minister. If there is clinical evidence and a company decides ... to submit it to the regulatory approval process, it would be looked at. That has never happened."
Leader of the Opposition Stephen Harper resigned as Conservative party leader after Liberals defeated the party in the 2015 election. Ambrose, who was elected in the new riding of Sturgeon River-Parkland—essentially the suburban portion of her old riding–announced that she would run for the interim leadership of the Conservative Party. She was elected to that post on November 5, 2015—becoming the third woman to hold the post.