Sven Spengemann speaks up for women, the environment and sometimes for Mississauga–Lakeshore

He has walked the pristine corridors of an Ivy League university. He has seen war-torn regions as a senior UN official in Baghdad. And he has spent the last four years within the Gothic Revival buildings of Parliament Hill as MP for Mississauga–Lakeshore.

Yes, Sven Spengemann took a fairly unorthodox path. After immigrating from Berlin at age 14, he earned degrees from the University of Toronto (Mississauga), Osgoode Hall Law School as well as a doctorate from Harvard Law School before leading a team of experts supporting the Iraqi Parliament.

Spengemann officially stepped on to the federal political stage in October 2015, at which time he defeated the Conservative MP incumbent for Mississauga—Lakeshore, Stella Ambler, by 3,700 votes. It was the tightest race in the Liberals’ 2015 sweep of Mississauga’s six seats. This time around, Spengemann is the incumbent, and he will have to defend his record against, coincidentally, the Conservative Party’s Stella Ambler, who has Spengemann in her sights.

Sven Spengemann (centre) out door-knocking during his campaign this summer. 

According to 338Canada, the Liberal Party is ahead of the Conservatives by a hair in the riding: 41.2 percent versus the Tories’ 38.6 percent. The NDP and the Green Party are far off in the race, at 9.2 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively.

According to OpenParliament.ca and the Hansard Index of debates and exchanges in the House of Commons, Spengemann spoke for the first time in the House on December 10, 2015, thanking the people of Mississauga–Lakeshore for “putting their trust” in him. He went on to discuss alternatives to dealing with strife in the Middle East, such as not “simply dropping bombs” but “training the brave men and women of the Kurdish forces” standing up against ISIS.

Spengemann has spoken 111 times in House debates, 1,268 times in committee meetings and brought forth one bill. He has mentioned Mississauga 28 times in the House and nine times in committee meetings. 

In the new year, on February 4, 2016, Spengemann turned to a subject of great exigency: economic growth. According to 2016 Census data, the unemployment rate sat at 7.7 percent nationally, and, in the previous year, the economy expanded by 0.9 percent. The unemployment rate in Spengemann’s riding at the time was the same as Canada’s (7.7 percent), though lower than the province as a whole at 7.4 percent.

In his address, Spengemann kept to the theme of the Liberal Party’s 2015 election platform: a focus on the middle class. “After 10 years of weak growth, this government has a plan to grow the economy, to create jobs by focusing on the middle class, by investing in infrastructure and by helping those who need it most,” Spengemann told the House of Commons. “My colleagues have spoken about the support that our plan has already received and, indeed, that our plan has received in my riding of Mississauga–Lakeshore.”

Spengemann highlighted the party’s multi-pronged approach: cutting the middle income tax bracket, investments in bridges and roads and the Canada Child Benefit, a tax-free benefit paid monthly to eligible families.

Spengemann in discussion with defence minister Harjit Sajjan.

The next three occasions Spengemann mentioned Canada’s sixth largest city in the House (on April 11, May 30 and June 8, 2016), it was to honour certain constituents and organizations within his riding. He described Faye Schepmyer and Madeline Edwards — who founded Mississauga–Lakeshore’s local chapter of the Congress of Black Women — as “champions of social housing.” He also highlighted The Compass, a Port Credit-based food bank and outreach centre, and the additional work it does such as ESL training, literacy sessions and employment and resume workshops. Although Spengemann referenced issues like social housing, literacy and employment while acknowledging good work, he did not delve into them on the House floor. 

Conversely, on September 29, 2016, Spengemann spoke directly to an issue he said was important to both him and his constituents: gender equality. “After consulting with stakeholders, constituents of my riding of Mississauga–Lakeshore and groups across the country, my team and I developed an additional opportunity to address the challenges Canadian women and individuals of minority gender identity and expression continue to face,” he said in the House, “and significantly, to underscore the role men need to play to establish a gender-equal society in Canada.”

Spengemann would bring up gender equality again, less than two months later, on November 17. Eventually, Spengemann introduced his “additional opportunity” and sponsored a private member’s bill — Bill C-309 — which designates the fourth week of every September as “Gender Equality Week.” The bill has received royal assent. Open Parliament records show this is the only bill Spengemann has brought forth in the past four years.

Gender equality continues to be a significant problem in the labour force. The year that Spengemann proposed Bill C-309, in 2016, Statistics Canada data showed that less than a fifth of all leadership roles in the country were held by women. While equivalent data from 2018 or 2019 is not readily available, according to Catalyst — a global non-profit working with CEOs and companies to develop workplaces that “work for women” — as of July 2018, roughly 3.3 percent of TSX-listed Canadian companies had a woman as CEO. Women represented an average of 15.8 percent of executive officers. In general, female employees in Canada aged 25 to 54 earned $0.87 last year for every dollar earned by a man, StatsCan data shows.

Spengemann has also been vocal about combating climate change and protecting the environment. It’s of particular interest to Spengemann as four bodies of water cut through his riding: the Credit River, the Cooksville Creek, Etobicoke Creek (to the eastern boundary line of his riding) and Lake Ontario. With rising sea levels on Canada’s coastlines, and with roughly eight million tonnes of plastic pollution entering oceans around the world annually, Spengemann spoke to such issues twice in the span of seven days in April. 

“As residents of a waterfront community, many of my constituents have shared with me their views on the importance of safeguarding the environment for future generations by making greener choices,” Spengemann told the House on April 4. “Our government is taking real action by putting a price on pollution and putting money back into the pockets of hard-working Canadians through the climate action incentive rebates. Our plan encourages businesses to innovate more and pollute less.”

On April 11, Spengemann brought up the issue again. “In Mississauga, plastics enter the Credit River watershed and make their way into Lake Ontario, along with 22 million pounds of plastic that end up in the Great Lakes each year,” he said, adding that his community held a March 8 town hall on plastics, welcoming more than 200 residents, organizations and environmental activists. On the campaign trail, Spengemann spoke to The Pointer about the Liberals’ plan to ban single-use plastics by 2021.

Spengemann’s Twitter account reinforces how adamant he is about the environment. Climate change, pollution, plastics and ecology come up regularly. “Solitary #bees are very important #pollinators, but they are threatened. Simran Jolly is helping protect their populations. Thank you for your leadership & passion for the #environment, Simran!” he tweeted on August 8.

The Mississauga—Lakeshore incumbent appears to be, based on social media activity, quite accessible and engaged with his constituents. Spengemann has hosted multiple “coffee with your MP” events in his riding. He’s also promoted and attended multiple events, such as the 2019 “Bathroom Blitz Toiletries Drive” in support of The Compass, and welcomed Jean-Yves Duclos — minister of families, children and social development — to talk to residents about federal investments.

In terms of his voting record in the House, Spengemann consistently followed the party line. He voted with the party majority 22 times on a list of 25 key bills that were eventually passed into law in session 42.1 of Parliament, according to votes.mp. The other three were “no votes,” indicating an absence or abstention. The first “no vote” for Spengemann pertained to the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act, which forbids individuals and companies from forcing a person take a genetic test in order to receive goods and services or work for them. The bill notes exceptions for health-care practitioners and researchers. The other two “no votes” pertained to “defraying charges and expenses of the federal public administration” for the end of the fiscal year.

Since taking office, Spengemann’s expenditures have gradually gone up. He spent $123,683 from April 2015 to March 2016, rising to $432,412 from April 2018 to March 2019. The two biggest expenditures were usually employees’ salaries and constituency office leases, insurance and utilities. However, his 2015 to 2016 report listed “repair and maintenance” as his top expenditure at $54,360.

Spengemann’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment. He told The Pointer at a September campaign event that food security, homelessness and the environment were his top three priorities if re-elected. Spengemann also said he “would certainly advocate” for refunding the original plan for the Hurontario LRT, including the three-stop loop around the Square One Mall, which was cut by Metrolinx in March.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @dancalabrett