Marc Dalton

For the United States Navy admiral, see Marc H. Dalton.

Marc Dalton MP
Dalton in 2020
Member of Parliament for Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge
Incumbent
Assumed office October 21, 2019
Preceded by	Dan Ruimy
Member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly for Maple Ridge-Mission
In office May 12, 2009 – May 9, 2017
Preceded by	Randy Hawes
Succeeded by	Bob D'Eith
Personal details
Born	(1960-06-03) June 3, 1960 CFB Baden–Soellingen, Germany
Political party	Conservative
Other political affiliations	BC Liberal (provincial)
Residence(s)	Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada

Marc H.J. Dalton MP is a Canadian politician. He is the current Conservative Member of Parliament for Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge after the 2019 Canadian federal election. He was a BC Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia following the 2009 and 2013 provincial elections for the riding of Maple Ridge-Mission.

Biography and personal life

Marc Dalton was born in the Canadian Forces Base of Baden-Soellingen in Germany. His father served in the Royal Canadian Armed Forces, and he spent much of his childhood traveling and living between different bases throughout Canada. Marc is Cree Metis on his father’s side and French Canadian on his mother’s. He is a member of Metis Nation BC. He has 5 other siblings and is the oldest of the group. In his early teenage years Marc’s family settled in the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows region of British Columbia. Growing up Marc enjoyed playing sports and was a member of the student council team while in High school.

Marc went on to study at Simon Fraser University, where he obtained his Bachelor in French and History and his Master’s in Educational Leadership. Marc is a firm believer in helping the less fortunate and he actively participated in building and supporting communities in his area. At the age of 16 he volunteered with a non-profit evangelical organization that supported communities in Central America and Canadian inner cities. Through his time working with communities in Central America he learned Spanish, making him trilingual in French, English and Spanish.

Marc’s Christian faith is another important aspect of his personal life and after completing his education Marc took on the call to become a Pastor and served in the Vancouver area for a period of time. Prior to entering politics Marc married his wife Marlene and raised three children, while working as a teacher. Marc taught at both the elementary and high school levels in the 42nd Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District. He worked as a teacher for 17 years and taught primarily French Immersion and Socials Studies. He also served in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves shortly after graduating and is a member of the Royal Canadian Legion.

Political career

In 2009, Dalton took a break from teaching and ran as an MLA for the Maple Ridge – Mission region. He went on to win and represented the district for two complete terms as a BC Liberal. As an MLA Marc served as a Parliamentary Secretary for independent schools and was a member of the ‘Experience the Fraser’ steering committee, which was a trails and tourism project. As an MLA he also served as the Parliamentary Secondary to the Minister of Aboriginal Relations.

After getting re-elected in 2012, Marc advocated for renaming the BC Liberals, as he argued it was confusing for voters who may not know that it was a centre-right Party. He reasoned that federal Conservative voters might have a hard time voting for the BC Liberals even though they share much of the same values.  

In 2015, Marc ran for the Federal Conservative Nomination of Maple Ridge - Pitt Meadow where he lost to the long-time Conservative MP Randy Kamp. After the nomination he returned to the BC Liberals where he served as a backbench member until 2017. In 2019, Marc ran again in the federal election for the Conservative Party, this time winning and beating out the Liberal candidate Dan Ruimy by over 3000 votes. As a member of 43rd Parliament, Marc served as a Member of the Covid-19 Pandemic Committee, Public Safety and National Security Committee and the Official Languages Committees. He is also a member of numerous Parliamentary Associations and Interparliamentary Groups. Marc was re-elected again in 2021 and still serves as a member of the Official Languages Committee but now also serves as the Chair of the BC Caucus. While in office Marc has been vocal and actively involved in legislation focused on reducing the Carbon Tax.

Controversies

While running in the 2009 British Columbia general election, an email written to a colleague from 1996 while Dalton was a schoolteacher was released by the NDP due to "homophobic comments", according to MLA Spencer Herbert. The email was a response to concerns over overreach in proposed policy changes to address bullying in which Dalton wrote:

"I am not against homosexuals as people, but I do not support their lifestyle choices. I believe homosexuality is a moral issue. Most of us agree on many morals: respect, honesty, kindness.”

Dalton released an apology, stating he didn't intend to be offensive or hurtful.

In his capacity as Member of Parliament for Pitt Meadows - Maple Ridge, Dalton crafted a tweet met with controversy during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada on April 13, 2020. In his post, Dalton stated regarding seniors, "Most deaths are in care homes where average life expectancy is 2 yrs & 65% usually pass in the 1st yr. Time to start moving Canada back to work?" The post was removed after being up for several minutes. When questioned about the incident by media organizations, Dalton's office responded with the following, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the hundreds of Canadians who have lost loved ones because of COVID-19. I personally have an uncle in a care home who I love dearly who has contracted coronavirus."

On January 3, 2020, as Member of Parliament for Pitt Meadows - Maple Ridge, Dalton retweeted an opinion column from The Washington Examiner on Twitter titled, "The transgender movement’s message for girls: Your privacy concerns are bigotry" " Dalton defended his re-posting of the article stating he's not pushing the issue aggressively, but spoke about it previously when he was MLA. “It’s concerning for women and for children and young girls to be in a place where there’s someone undressing right in front of them with male genitalia. ... it has to work for everybody,” Dalton said.

Political positions

Conversion therapy

On June 22, 2021, Dalton along with 61 other Conservative caucus members and one independent voted against Bill C-6, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (conversion therapy). This bill, if fully passed, would criminalize the act conducting conversion therapy on LGBTQ2+ individuals, even if they have consented to it.

Carbon tax

On numerous occasions in the 44th Parliament, Dalton has spoken in the House of Commons to contest and censure the carbon tax introduced by the Liberal Government in 2018. He cites that as the driving force behind the inflation and the increased cost of living. He wants to repeal the policy in order to reduce the cost of living.

LGBTQ

In 2014 as an MLA, Dalton voted against an amendment to the Vital Statistics Act that would allow transgender or gender non-binary individuals to change registered sex designation from their sex assigned at birth to reflect their gender identity.

Electoral record

Federal

2021 Canadian federal election: Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Marc Dalton	19,371	36.7	+0.5	$74,248.03
	New Democratic	Phil Klapwyk	16,869	31.9	+8.0	$69,801.42
	Liberal	Ahmed Yousef	13,179	24.9	-4.8	none listed
	People's	Juliuss Hoffmann	2,800	5.3	+4.0	$8,076.50
	Independent	Steven William Ranta	453	0.9	±0.0	$357.28
	Rhinoceros	Peter Buddle	161	0.3	N/A	$0.00
Total valid votes/Expense limit			52,833	99.5	–	$112,396.51
Total rejected ballots			278	0.5
Turnout			53,111	64.4
Eligible voters			82,495
	Conservative hold		Swing		-3.8
Source: Elections Canada

2019 Canadian federal election: Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Marc Dalton	19,650	36.23	+4.84	$89,237.08
	Liberal	Dan Ruimy	16,125	29.73	-4.15	none listed
	New Democratic	John Mogk	12,958	23.89	-5.73	$24,526.92
	Green	Ariane Jaschke	4,332	7.99	+3.77	$3,184.96
	People's	Bryton Cherrier	698	1.29	–	none listed
	Independent	Steve Ranta	468	0.86	-0.00	$969.02
Total valid votes/expense limit			54,231	99.45
Total rejected ballots			298	0.55	+0.32
Turnout			54,529	67.74	-4.22
Eligible voters			80,494
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing		+4.50
Source: Elections Canada

2006 Canadian federal election: Burnaby—New Westminster
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Peter Julian	17,391	38.79	+4.21	$71,414
	Liberal	Mary Pynenburg	13,420	29.93	-2.59	$74,580
	Conservative	Marc Dalton	12,364	27.58	-0.05	$70,006
	Green	Scott Janzen	1,654	3.68	-0.04	$1,149
Total valid votes			44,829	100.0
Total rejected ballots			144	0.32	-0.20
Turnout			44,973	60.09	+1.14
	New Democratic hold		Swing		+3.40

Provincial

2017 British Columbia general election: Maple Ridge-Mission
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Bob D'Eith	10,989	41.94	+2.13	$68,144
	Liberal	Marc Dalton	10,664	40.70	−5.89	$59,214
	Green	Peter Pak Chiu Tam	3,464	13.22	+5.01	$9,786
	Conservative	Trevor Hamilton	935	3.57	−1.80
	Libertarian	Jeff Monds	148	0.57	–
Total valid votes			26,200	100.00
Total rejected ballots			128	0.49
Turnout			26,328	61.69
Registered Voters			42,678
Source: Elections BC

2013 British Columbia general election: Maple Ridge-Mission
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Marc Dalton	10,327	46.59	+0.87
	New Democratic	Mike Bocking	8,820	39.81	–5.58
	Green	Alex Pope	1,818	8.21	+1.01
	Conservative	Chad Thompson	1,190	5.37	–
Total valid votes			22,155	100.00
Total rejected ballots			152	0.68
Turnout			22,307	57.91
Source: Elections BC

B.C. General Election 2009 Maple Ridge-Mission

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Marc Dalton	8,802	45.72%
	NDP	Mike Bocking	8,738	45.39%
	Green	Michael Gildersleeve	1,387	7.20%	–
	Reform	Ian Vaughan	325	1.69%
Total			19,252	100.00%

See also

• British Columbia Liberal Party

External links

• ReelYou - Marc Dalton
• Marc Dalton, MLA for Maple Ridge-Mission
• Official Biography, Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
• Experience the Fraser
• Marc Dalton, MP
• Federal Election 2015: Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge riding results | Globalnews.ca
• Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge MP critical of drug decriminalization
• Marc Dalton – Parliament of Canada biography