Adam van Koeverden

Adam van Koeverden is the Liberal Member of Parliament for Milton and a celebrated Olympic kayaker who parlayed public recognition into political office. As a backbench Liberal MP, his primary role has been to vote with his government — and in that role, he voted for every major spending package of the Trudeau era. He voted for the COVID emergency spending — some of which was necessary, much of which was poorly targeted. He voted for the successive deficits that poured money into an economy where supply could not keep pace with demand, contributing directly to the inflation that has made everyday life unaffordable for millions of Canadians. He voted for the immigration targets that brought record numbers of people to Canada without the housing, healthcare, or infrastructure to support them. He voted consistently, reliably, and without publicly registered objection. None of this is unique to van Koeverden — it is the behaviour of most backbench MPs in most majority governments. But it is worth naming. Parliament exists to provide democratic accountability for exactly these decisions. When a member of Parliament votes for policies that produce inflation of 8%, rents that double in five years, and a housing crisis that economists call generational, that vote is part of the public record and deserves public assessment. Van Koeverden is a decent person who has done good work on health promotion. His voting record on the economic files that shaped this decade belongs to him as much as it belongs to his cabinet.