Inky Mark

Inky Mark
麥鼎鴻
Member of Parliament for Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette Dauphin—Swan River (1997–2004)
In office June 2, 1997 – September 15, 2010
Preceded by	Marlene Cowling
Succeeded by	Robert Sopuck
Personal details
Born	(1947-11-17) November 17, 1947 Taishan, China
Political party	Green (2014–present)
Other political affiliations	Progressive Conservative (unknown–1993, 2002-2003) Reform (1993–2000) Canadian Alliance (2000–2001) Democratic Representative Caucus (2001–2002) Independent Conservative (2002) Conservative (2003–2010)
Spouse	Lynda Mark
Residence(s)	Dauphin, Manitoba
Profession	Real estate agent, Teacher Restaurateur

Inky Mark (Chinese: 麥鼎鴻; pinyin: Mài Dǐnghóng; born November 17, 1947) is a Canadian politician was Mayor of Dauphin and a former member of the House of Commons of Canada, representing the Manitoba riding of Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette. Mark was a member of the Conservative Party of Canada, although he frequently criticized and took positions opposite the party and its leader, Stephen Harper. Mark ran in the 2015 federal election, noting that he is now a Green Party of Canada member but that he would still run as an independent. He lost significantly.

Early life

Mark was born in Taishan, China, and moved to Manitoba as a child. Mark's father and grandfather had emigrated from China to Canada some time previously, but were unable to bring their families with them as a result of provisions in the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923. Mark accompanied his mother when she fled China in 1953, and subsequently settled with his family in the Manitoba community of Gilbert Plains.

Education

Mark has a Bachelor of Arts from Brandon University and a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Manitoba. Before entering political life, he worked as a high school teacher and small businessman. Mark also has a certificate in broadcasting and started a master's degree in education program, although he did not graduate.

Political career

Municipal politics

Mark's political career started when joined the Board of Directors of the Dauphin First United Church. He was subsequently elected to the Dauphin town council in 1991, and became the town's mayor in 1994.

Federal politics

Mark was first elected to the House of Commons in the federal election of 1997, running as a candidate of the Reform Party in the riding of Dauphin—Swan River. From 1997 to 2000, Mark was one of only three Chinese-Canadian MPs in the House of Commons.

The Reform Party dissolved itself in 2000 in favour of the Canadian Alliance, and Mark ran as a candidate of the new party in the federal election which followed.

On September 12, 2001, Mark left the Canadian Alliance caucus to sit as a member of the Democratic Representative Caucus, in alliance with the Progressive Conservative Party.

The DRC came to an end on April 10, 2002, when Stephen Harper replaced Day as Canadian Alliance leader. Every other member of the DRC requested to be re-admitted to the Alliance; Mark did not join them, but instead decided to sit as an "Independent Conservative", with the intention of rejoining the Progressive Conservatives at their annual party convention later in the year; he had been a Progressive Conservative before the early 1990s. Mark formally joined the Progressive Conservatives on August 27, 2002.

In December 2003, the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party formally merged to create the new Conservative Party of Canada. Mark supported the merger, and formally joined the new party's caucus on February 2, 2004. Mark was easily re-elected in the Canadian federal election of 2004.

In 2005, Mark alleged that Treasury Board President and Liberal MP Reg Alcock offered him an ambassadorship if he were to resign his seat. Alcock responded by saying, "Frankly, if I was going to recruit somebody, I'd go a little higher up the gene pool." Mark called this comment racist and filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. As the CHRC does not publish its investigations, it is not possible to know the outcome of this case.

Criticism and complaints

While a sitting MP, Mark gained a reputation as "an outsider" within the Conservative caucus. Mark is and has been an outspoken critic of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister's Office, and several sitting and former Conservative MPs. He frequently complained that Harper was controlling, and he responded by refusing to attend Conservative events. Mark has called Harper a "fascist" and complained that he runs a "top-down dictatorship". He says that the Central Intelligence Agency is controlled by the United States' Republican Party, and that the Republican Party installed Stephen Harper as the Canadian Prime Minister in order to sell out Canada to the United States.

Following the announcement of his resignation, Mark complained that the nomination race for his successor was rigged, and allowed Robert Sopuck to be acclaimed without competition.

Following his resignation as an MP, Mark stepped up his criticisms of the Harper government. He complained that the nomination race for the Conservative candidate following the resignation of Labrador MP Peter Penashue was rigged because Harper "wants a candidate he can control". He also complained that the nomination race to replace Merv Tweed was rigged, and that the eventual successor, Larry Maguire, was just a "rubber stamp" for Harper. Mark was featured prominently in the book Tragedy in the Commons, where almost every chapter quoted Mark's complaints about the way Harper's government was run.

Mark complained that the Conservatives' Constituent Information Management System (CIMS) was a secretive database used to track and control Canadians' information and voting preferences, and said that Harper could simply "switch off" this system to punish an MP.

Parliamentary work

For his tenure as an MP, Mark was always a "backbencher".

In 2001, as the Alliance's parliamentary critic for Immigration, Mark was responsible for expressing his party's position on the Liberal government's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which he did during the immigration controversy involving the Sklarzyk family who, as a result of an administrative error, was deported from Canada to Poland in May 2001. He also contributed to the parliamentary committee's work in drafting the final version of the bill, and was generally regarded by MPs from all parties as having made several constructive criticisms to the legislation.

However, on June 13, 2001, Mark's position on the bill was undercut by Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day, who delivered a speech in parliament supporting tighter restrictions against refugee claimants and reduced opportunities for rejected claimants to appeal to the Refugee Board. Day's comments diverged from Mark's stated position on several particulars, and his speech was regarded as very surprising by many other MPs in the House of Commons. For example, Liberal MP Steve Mahoney referred to Day's comments as "treachery" towards Mark, for which he was ruled out of order by the Speaker.

In 2005, Mark's private members' Bill C-331 (Internment of Persons of Ukrainian Origin Recognition Act) was passed by the House of Commons and Senate of Canada, eventually resulting in the establishment of the Endowment Council of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund, supporting educational and commemorative projects recalling Canada's first national internment operations of 1914–1920.

Federal resignation and return to municipal politics

Mark announced in June 2009 that he would be resigning before the next federal election. On August 16, 2010, he announced that he would step down as an MP on September 15 to campaign for another term as mayor of Dauphin. However, he lost to Eric Irwin.

Return to federal politics and switch to Green Party of Canada

Mark announced on November 13, 2014, that he would be running as an independent candidate for the 2015 federal election in Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, which includes nearly all of his old riding. Mark announced that he is now a member of the Green Party of Canada, but would still seek election in 2015 as an independent candidate. Mark finished a distant fourth behind Sopuck, garnering only eight percent of the vote.

Electoral record

2015 Canadian federal election: Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Robert Sopuck	19,276	46.34	-18.18	$96,511.06
	Liberal	Ray Piché	12,276	29.51	+23.18	$30,343.94
	New Democratic	Laverne Lewycky	5,097	12.25	-12.56	$18,323.29
	Independent	Inky Mark	3,397	8.07	–	$7,495.11
	Green	Kate Storey	1,592	3.83	-0.44	$8,600.31
Total valid votes/expense limit			41,598	100.00		$247,596.77
Total rejected ballots			160	0.38	–
Turnout			41,758	66.09	–
Eligible voters			63,187
	Conservative hold		Swing		-20.68
Source: Elections Canada

2008 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Inky Mark	18,132	61.36	+2.28	$42,460
	New Democratic	Ron Strynadka	4,914	16.63	-1.67	$5,103
	Liberal	Wendy Menzies	4,128	13.97	-4.18	$22,590
	Green	Kate Storey	1,923	6.51	+2.84
	Christian Heritage	David Andres	356	1.20	+0.40
	People's Political Power	Charles Prefontaine	96	0.32	–	$1,294
Total valid votes/Expense limit			29,549	100.00		$95,083
Total rejected ballots			107	0.36	-0.09
Turnout			29,656	55	–
	Conservative hold		Swing		+2.0

2006 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Inky Mark	20,084	59.08	+5.13	$42,115
	New Democratic	Walter Kolisnyk	6,221	18.30	-3.67	$21,849
	Liberal	Don Dewar	6,171	18.15	-2.23	$19,220
	Green	Kathy Storey	1,246	3.67	+1.66	$2,759
	Christian Heritage	Iris Yawney	273	0.80	-0.88	$920
Total valid votes			33,995	100.00
Total rejected ballots			154	0.45	-0.05
Turnout			34,149	62	–
	Conservative hold		Swing		+4.4

2004 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Inky Mark	18,025	53.95	-5.57^	$45,456
	New Democratic	Walter Kolisnyk	7,341	21.97	+4.50	$41,153
	Liberal	Don Dewar	6,809	20.38	-0.94	$31,775
	Green	Lindy Clubb	673	2.01	–	$593
	Christian Heritage	David Andres	560	1.68	–	$2,974
Total valid votes			33,408	100.00
Total rejected ballots			168	0.50	+0.06
Turnout			33,576	58.6	-4.9
	Conservative hold		Swing		-5.0

^ Change is from the total of Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance votes in the 2000 election.

2000 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Alliance	Inky Mark	15,855	47.66	+12.17	$30,460
	Liberal	Jane Dawson	7,091	21.32	+0.57	$32,160
	New Democratic	Wayne Kines	5,813	17.47	-3.75	$24,855
	Progressive Conservative	Keith Eliasson	3,946	11.86	-9.76	$3,345
	Canadian Action	Terry Drul	372	1.12	–	$3,068
	Independent	Iris Yawney	189	0.57	–	$5,508
Total valid votes			33,266	100.00
Total rejected ballots			148	0.44	+0.10
Turnout			33,414	63.5	-1.9
	Alliance hold		Swing		+5.8

Note: Canadian Alliance vote is compared to Reform Party vote in 1997 election.

1997 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Reform	Inky Mark	12,668	35.49	+5.96	$32,650
	Progressive Conservative	Lorne Boguski	7,716	21.62	+5.85	$50,353
	New Democratic	Betty Findlay	7,575	21.22	-0.97	$48,818
	Liberal	Marlene Cowling	7,408	20.75	-10.98	$44,417
	Independent	Tony Riley	326	0.91	+0.13	$2,130
Total valid votes			35,693	100.00
Total rejected ballots			122	0.34	–
Turnout			35,815	65.4	–
	Reform gain from Liberal		Swing		-8.5

External links

• Inky Mark – Parliament of Canada biography