1972 to 1980 Rodriguez contested the riding of
Nickel Belt in the
1972 federal election and defeated incumbent
Member of Parliament (MP)
Gaetan Serré of the
Liberal Party. The Liberals under
Pierre Trudeau won a narrow
minority government in this election and governed for the next two years with unofficial parliamentary support from the NDP. Rodriguez opposed this arrangement and broke party ranks on two occasions to support
non-confidence motions against the government. He became identified with the left wing of the NDP, was a vocal advocate of the party's pledge to nationalize Inco, and also called for the nationalization of
Bell Canada and
Canadian Pacific. In 1973, Rodriguez took part in a study group on
Northern Ontario that identified the region as a "social, economic and political ghetto" in relation to the rest of the province and sought to improve its status. In the same year, he led a campaign to allow
Chilean refugees to resettle in Canada after the overthrow of
Salvador Allende's democratically elected government. He spoke the words, "Vive Allende, vive Chile" at the end of one parliamentary speech. Rodriguez was re-elected in the
1974 election, in which the Liberals won a
majority government. The following year, he participated in efforts to prevent black activist
Roosevelt Douglas from being deported from Canada. On one occasion, he recommended Liberal
Solicitor-General Warren Allmand to Douglas' supporters as a sympathetic contact in the Trudeau government. It was later discovered that a
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) informer monitored both Allmand and Rodriguez on this matter, even though Allmand was the minister responsible for the RCMP at the time. Also in 1975, Rodriguez criticized a sexist
Canada Post advertisement which showed a man writing a postal code on the bottom of a
thonged woman.
Postmaster General Bryce Mackasey apologized for the ad. Rodriguez was one of two MPs who called for the
Atomic Energy Control Board to release all its information on the health hazards posed by radiation in
Elliot Lake in 1976. The following year, he engaged in a
filibuster against an income tax reform package that contained financial benefits for wealthy Canadians. Although filibusters are common practice in some parliamentary assemblies and later become more common in Canada, this was the first such incident to occur in the Canadian House of Commons in several years. Rodriguez spoke on the bill for six hours and ten minutes over a period of two days, setting a contemporary record. In the late 1970s, Rodriguez argued that the federal government should purchase Inco's excess
nickel stock to prevent job losses at a time when global prices were low. Prime Minister Trudeau rejected this proposal, arguing that it would depress the market even further. Rodriguez also joined with other Sudbury-area NDP politicians to support the
1978 Inco Strike, arguing that the workers would have suffered massive layoffs had they not taken this action. Rodriguez broke with his party caucus when he opposed the suspension of
Progressive Conservative MP
Roch LaSalle from the House of Commons in 1978. LaSalle had referred to
finance minister Jean Chrétien as a liar on three occasions and refused to apologize. The rest of the NDP caucus supported LaSalle's suspension. Rodriguez was re-elected to a third term in the
1979 federal election, as the Progressive Conservatives under
Joe Clark won a minority government. He was appointed as NDP Labour Critic in the parliament that followed. In late 1979, Rodriguez emerged as the most prominent member of the NDP's "
Left Caucus", a successor group of sorts to
The Waffle. In a
The Globe and Mail interview, Rodriguez said that the new group differed from The Waffle in that its ultra-left elements were minor and that it would abide by the results of NDP conventions, even if it did not agree with them. The Left Caucus was nonetheless opposed by the party leadership, which argued that it would hurt the NDP's chances of winning an election. Rodriguez spearheaded the group's only successful motion at the NDP's 1979 convention, protesting a jail sentence handed out to
Jean-Claude Parrot of the
Canadian Union of Postal Workers. The Clark government lost a non-confidence motion in late 1979, and Canadians returned to the polls for
another election in 1980. Rodriguez was defeated in Nickel Belt by Liberal candidate
Judy Erola. Some local Progressive Conservatives later indicated that they ran a deliberately weak campaign to consolidate the opposition vote around Erola. Rodriguez criticized the Liberal campaign for portraying him as a borderline
Marxist. After leaving office Rodriguez returned to a high school principal position.
1984 to 1993 Rodriguez was re-elected to the House of Commons in the
1984 federal election, as the Progressive Conservatives won a landslide majority government under
Brian Mulroney. Rodriguez was appointed as his party's critic on
Unemployment Insurance (UI). In late 1984, he took part in a series of public forums organized by the NDP on the Mulroney government's record of job creation. Rodriguez served on the Commons Standing Committee on Labour, Employment and Immigration from 1984 to 1988. He was a vocal critic of the
Forget Commission's 1986 report on Unemployment Insurance reform, arguing that its reforms would drive Canadian social policy back to the nineteenth century. (One of Forget's recommendations was that persons unemployed for more than a year be forced to live on benefits as low as $40 per week.) Rodriguez later supported a committee report that rejected most of Forget's recommendations and made more generous counter-proposals. In the event,
Employment and Immigration Minister Benoit Bouchard rejected both Forget's report and the committee's response and did not undertake any significant UI reforms during this parliament. Rodriguez also described newly appointed committee chair
Claude Lanthier as unfit for the position in late 1987, after Lanthier announced his support for
work-for-welfare schemes. Rodriguez criticized aspects of the Mulroney government's new lobbyist registry in 1988, arguing that it would not adequately cover the leaders of industry associations. He nonetheless acknowledged, two years later, that the registry had changed
Ottawa's culture of lobbying for the better. He was skeptical about the
FedNor initiative launched in 1988, noting that the northern Ontario agency was created with only limited advisory powers. Rodriguez was re-elected in the
1988 federal election, as the Mulroney government was returned to office with a reduced majority. He was appointed as his party's consumer and corporate affairs critic, and in this capacity he became a prominent opponent of the Mulroney government's
Goods And Services Tax. He took part in a committee filibuster on the issue with fellow MP
Dave Barrett and tried to have public hearings on the tax across Canada. Rodriguez was also strongly critical of the severe anti-inflationary policies pursued by
Bank of Canada governor
John Crow, arguing that the recession of the early 1990s was exacerbated by high interest rates that undermined consumer confidence. He called on the federal government to set credit card interest rates in 1989, after a series of dramatic increases at several major banks. Rodriguez criticized the Mulroney government's austerity reforms to unemployment insurance in its second term, arguing that the greatest burden of the changes would fall on those who could least afford them. He also opposed the 1991 Bank Act, Trust and Loan Act on the grounds that it would allow major banks to eliminate smaller competition. Along with other MPs, he criticized the government's $4.4 billion bailout of Central Guaranty Trust in 1992. Notwithstanding his criticisms of major banks, Rodriguez spent a week observing the inner workings of the
Bank of Nova Scotia in the summer of 1991 as part of an immersion program for MPs arranged through the Parliament Business and Labour Trust. Scotiabank senior vice-president Geoff Bellew said that most bank leaders were impressed with Rodriguez, who in turn said that the experience expanded his knowledge base. He rejected claims that the program would make him less critical of the banks, joking that it would let him "concentrate his fire". Rodriguez opposed the
Gulf War in 1991 and called for Canada to play a peacekeeping role overseas. ;Party affairs, 1989–1993 The NDP's failure to move beyond third-party status in the 1988 election was a disappointment for many in the party. In January 1989, Rodriguez became the first party MP to publicly suggest that party leader
Ed Broadbent should considering resigning. He later backed away from this statement, but Broadbent did in fact announce his resignation in early March. Rumours circulated that Rodriguez would run to succeed him as party leader, but he instead gave his support to former
British Columbia Premier Dave Barrett. Barrett was defeated by
Audrey McLaughlin on the fourth ballot of the party's 1989 convention. Rodriguez ran for party
whip in January 1990, but lost to
Iain Angus. The NDP's internal divisions became public in 1993, when Ontario MP
Steven Langdon was removed as finance critic after criticizing the economic policies of
Ontario NDP premier Bob Rae. Rodriguez said that he admired Langdon's stand, adding that he opposed Rae's decision to cut jobs and spending to fight the provincial deficit. He also accused Rae of alienating the NDP's labour allies and was particularly critical of proposed
social contract legislation that was enacted later in the year. Unlike Langdon, Rodriguez was not sanctioned for his comments. Rodriguez was defeated in the
1993 federal election by Liberal candidate
Raymond Bonin. All Ontario NDP candidates were hurt by the Rae government's unpopularity, and Rodriguez chose to focus on his personal record while de-emphasizing the national campaign. Although he polled better than any Ontario NDP candidate apart from Langdon, he still lost by a significant margin. ;Personality Rodriguez was known as a colourful and outspoken MP, and often provided the media with clever and amusing quips. On one occasion, he described the president of a crown corporation as having the consultative skills of an
oyster. On another, he lambasted Brian Mulroney as a "narrow political partisan" before adding "he's just the same as I am". ==Out of parliament==