Fixing Parliament

Polls say Canadians are fed up with all the fighting in the House of Commons, but some pundits say it's the only reason anybody pays attention.

Canada’s national blood sport resumes proceedings next week. No, not that blood sport. The NHL doesn’t start until October. On Monday Parliament reconvenes, and according to recent polls Canadians are fed up with the constant fighting and point-scoring during Question Period. A Public Policy Forum conference on the issue this week has sparked debate on how to stop the fussin' and a' feudin' on the Hill once and for all.

While suggestions being put forth mostly involve getting politicians to change their attitude, former NDP leader Ed Broadbent told the conference the real problem with Parliament is “that most Canadians don’t see themselves reflected there.” He points to the fact that the Conservatives won hundreds of thousands of votes in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, but have no seats from those cities, and the Green Party has yet to win a seat despite capturing nearly 1 million votes in 2008. It’s a thinly veiled call for electoral reform, something the NDP has been chasing for years.

No one should be surprised that our politicians fight, and we shouldn’t be too worried about fixing it, according to Geoff Norquay in The Mark. “In our system of government, the parties and leaders are not supposed to “get along”; they are supposed to disagree and challenge each other,” he writes. The current state of discourse is also reflective of a weak minority government. As soon as some one wins a majority, everybody will make nice. Or at least nicer.

The Globe and Mail’s John Ibbitson says that the rhetorical eye-gouging isn’t likely to disappear anytime soon, not because Canadian politics are so divisive but precisely because they are the opposite. “Americans disagree passionately on things that really matter,” he writes, “illegal immigration, taxes and deficits, wars past and present. But most Canadians agree about most things, and the two big parties reflect this.” The political theatre that sometimes disgusts us actually keeps us interested, he says. “It’s loud and colourful posturing designed to disguise consensus.”

As former Liberal MP Marlene Catterall recently observed, Question Period is like a hockey fight. We tut-tut, but everybody watches.