Byrne was a
Member of Parliament from 1996-2015 when he won a by-election in the province of
Newfoundland and Labrador to succeed
Brian Tobin. Tobin resigned to run in the
1996 Newfoundland provincial election for Premier. He was re-elected in the
1997,
2000,
2004,
2006,
2008, and
2011 elections. In the
2006 election he had one of the highest margins of victory in
Atlantic Canada. Byrne did not stand in the
2015 election and retired from parliament. In the
Liberal Party's 2006 leadership election, he started out supporting
Maurizio Bevilacqua, after Bevilacqua drop out he supported
Michael Ignatieff. Ignatieff placed second in the race to winner
Stéphane Dion. Ignatieff became Leader of the Liberal Party two years later, and was again supported by Byrne. In the
Liberal Party's 2013 leadership election, Byrne supported Montreal MP
Justin Trudeau.
Committees Byrne served on seventeen committees during his federal tenure. He sat as a member of the
Standing Committee of Transport, Agriculture and Agrifood, Natural Resources and Government Operations, Industry, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, as Vice-Chair of Public Accounts, Transport and Government Operations, Health, Library of Parliament, Fisheries and Oceans, Industry Science and Technology, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, and as Vice-Chair of Government Operations and Estimates. Byrne also served on the Special Joint Committee to amend Section 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867 concerning the Quebec School System, as Co-Chair of Special Joint Committee on the Amendment to Term 17 of the Terms of Union of Newfoundland, as well as Vice-Chair of the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts.
Comments on PETA pie incident On January 25, 2010,
Fisheries Minister,
Gail Shea was
pied while giving a speech at the
Canada Centre for Inland Waters. An American
PETA activist, Emily McCoy, was later arrested in
Burlington, charged with assault in connection with the incident. PETA has taken public responsibility for the incident, saying that it was part of a broader campaign against the Canadian Government's support of the seal hunt. In response to the pieing of the Fisheries Minister, Byrne denounced the attack on the minister as an act of
terrorism. He commented on the 26th, "When someone actually coaches or conducts criminal behaviour to impose a political agenda on each and every other citizen of Canada, that does seem to me to meet the test of a terrorist organization." Byrne continued to say, "I am calling on the Government of Canada to actually investigate whether or not this organization, PETA, is acting as a terrorist organization under the test that exists under Canadian law." In response to his interpretation of Canadian law, PETA president
Ingrid Newkirk said Byrne's reaction was "a silly, chest-beating exercise." ==Provincial politics==