House Repairs

What to do about the sorry state of affairs that is discourse in Parliament (besides electing different people altogether).

Newly minted Opposition Leader Jack Layton has promised that his NDP caucus won't heckle other MPs during Question Period to help restore a level of decorum to the House of Commons. Another good place to start, offers Lawrence Martin on iPolitics, would be to limit the length of questions to 50 words. “Instead of asking simple, short, direct questions, opposition party members enter into endless accusatory harangues — 'when are you going to resign' — and the like,” says Martin.  “All these do is consume valuable time, make the debate uncivil, invite non-answers.” Shorter questions would make time for more of them and lead to veritable back-and-forths between members, not just rehashed talking points and finger-wagging. After all, as Shakespeare says, brevity is the soul of wit.

Aaron Wherry of Maclean's has been asking MPs vying to be the next Speaker what they'd do to enforce propriety. Bruce Stanton, a Conservative from central Ontario, suggests two simple ways of doing just that. As Speaker, Stanton says he would begin by “insisting that unparliamentary language – the area that affords the Speaker some discretion – will be dealt with using a progression of sanctions – from warning, to insisting the member come to order, to not recognizing, and possibly to naming the member.” Stanton also says he'd sponsor events for MPs to better get to know one another, reasoning that a member who knows the spouses and children of those sitting across the aisle might pause before hurling invective their way.

Bringing some order to the House will have to go beyond the Speaker, says Keith Beardsley in the National Post, because feigned outrage is more likely to make headlines than thoughtful questions. “Unfortunately, the media rewards bad behaviour with extensive coverage,” explains Beardsley. “Which questions get clipped for the nightly news? Most often the nastiest or most outrageous of the day.” His solution? If there's consensus across the parties that a member has crossed the line, they should be suspended from the House and docked pay for the days they're forced to sit out, much like how professional hockey players are punished for hits to the head. It's not as though their $157,000 salaries (at a minimum) couldn't take the hit.