Categories: Capital Read, Inside the Queensway

The Race for Kingsmere: Barry Devolin is a man with a plan – a 3 point plan, to be precise.

by kadyomalley on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 12:49pm - 15 Comments

Behold the ‘whatever’ that he considers ‘necessary’ to transform the House from a partisan echo chamber to a forum for civilized and productive debate.

(By the way, if any of you other candidates have platforms to promote, feel free to send them along to ITQ – or, if you don’t have a formal proposal, but are feeling adventurous, come join the debate in the comment threads!)

From the desk of Speaker hopeful Barry Devolin, courtesy of the press gallery newswire:

“DEVOLIN HAS 3 POINT PLAN TO IMPROVE DECORUM IN THE HOUSE”

November 12, 2008

OTTAWA – Barry Devolin, Member of Parliament for Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock and candidate for Speaker of the House of Commons, today announced details of his 3 Point Plan to improve decorum in the House.
“Ever since I was first elected, I have heard Members of Parliament talk about raising the level of debate in the House,” said Devolin. “I believe there is an appetite for change among Members of Parliament from all parties. This is not a partisan issue.”
“The tone of debate in the House is set by the Speaker, the same as the tone of play in a hockey game is set by the referee,” explained Devolin. “If you want a new tone, you need to find a new referee.”

Devolin’s plan is based on 3 points.

1. Assemble a team for the Speaker’s chair committed to improving decorum.
“My first act as Speaker will be to ask House Leaders to appoint three Members of Parliament committed to working with me to improve decorum to serve as Deputy Speaker, and as Deputy and Assistant Deputy Chairpersons of Committees of the Whole. To be successful, we need consistency in the chair.”

2. Start on the periphery of House activities; then move towards the centre – Question
Period.
“I believe the best time to introduce a new tone in the House is during the least stressful activities, such as private members’ business or routine debate. Subsequently, this more respectful tone could be expanded to include more stressful activities, such as Question Period. Starting with Question Period won’t work.”

3. Establish a Special Committee to develop a “Members’ Code of Mutual Respect”.
“I will ask the House Leaders to appoint a caucus member each to a Special Committee, to be chaired by the Deputy Speaker, which will draft a statement of reasonable expectations for Members’ conduct in the House. This special committee will consult with Members while drafting a high level, one page document to be tabled when the House returns in January.”
“Every M.P. deserves respect from their colleagues, the same as they would get in any other workplace in Canada,” said Devolin. “I look forward to the day when I can be proud to welcome a group of school children to attend Question Period.”

Tags: barry devolin, no more sports metaphors please, race for kingsmere

More by kadyomalley

Anon

So to sum up, Barry’s 3-point plan is to create 3 committees. Is that about right? Also, he finds Question Period stressful.
http://deleted Sandi

First task – get his own party to grow up and learn their files and answer questions.
http://www.macleans.ca Kady O’Malley

Um, yeah. That’s sort of what I thought when I read through it, but I didn’t want to come off as overly negative, what with my decision to come out of the closet in support of – or at least not immediate, absolute opposition to – disorder in the House in the other thread. I’m also a little puzzled by the idea of starting “on the periphery” of the House. “Routine debate” actually takes up more than half of all House time, and is – for the most part – reasonably civilized already; the same goes for private members’ business and adjournment, and even concurrence debates, although generally speaking those are used as filibuster fodder to prevent the government from going forward with its planned agenda for the day. The debate itself is usually fairly polite, however. Also, MPs already have a code of “mutual respect” – it’s called the Standing Orders of the House, and lays out the do’s and don’ts of parliamentary behaviour. The trick is enforcing the rules without seeming to take (or actually taking) sides.
Anon

Scott Reid would make the perfect Speaker. Problem is Peter MacKay might give up DND and campaign against him if he chose to run.
http://phantomobserver.com PhantomObserver

“I look forward to the day when I can be proud to welcome a group of school children to attend Question Period.”

I don’t see why they can’t attend now. After all, given the way the backbenchers have behaved in the past, they’d feel right at home.
DR

4. “Disappear” John Baird
Jack Mitchell

Ms. O’Malley is obviously much more familiar with the House than most of us, but here are my 2 cents:

1. In terms of decorum, we must distinguish between the decorum of the MP who holds the floor at any particular moment and the decorum of the members listening to him/her. By way of reforming the latter, any MP who shouts anything but “Hear, hear!” and “Shame, shame!” should instantly be given a Shawinigan handshake and shown the door. There has to be the threat of physical removal and it should be acted on regularly at first.

2. By way of reforming the decorum of MP’s holding the floor, I wonder if the whole vocabulary of “My honourable friend” and “the honourable member from West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country” doesn’t do as much harm as good. When you’re able to indulge as often as you like in that kind of pomposity, it can cloak any amount of drivel and abuse. Perhaps the Speaker might try restricting it a bit — not canning it but restricting it.
http://www.macleans.ca Kady O’Malley

Jack: Aw, c’mon, you should at least let them yell “Oh, oh!” which can signify so very many things. As for the Honourable Member-izing, I’m not sure how to get around it without giving up the no-names rule, which would be an outrage and a crime against parliamentary tradition so heinous that someone would have to chain themselves to the clerks’ table in protest. (You don’t even want to know what would transpire should the words “electronic voting” ever make their way back to the Hill.)
Jack Mitchell

I would be the first to chain myself to the clerk’s table in protest, as I hope you would live-blog it. I’m as traditionalist as can be, but something has to change.

Re: Honourable Memberizing, what about simply “that gentleman” – “we have heard that . . . ” – “some have dared to suggest . . . ” – “my opponent . . . ” You could save “Honourable” for special occasions or for irony.

I’m cool with “Oh, oh!” — I’m just against “Traitor!” “Swinehound!” “Cretin!” etc.
Wayne

I love it. Devolin has obviously been taking notes from an old BBC tv series called Yes Minister! I don’t how to make this any clearer except to state that any politician who starts off any promise that has the word committee, inquiry or commission in it .. will not be changing anything and in point of fact not only will not be changing anything but definitely should never be called a part of an action plan!
http://phantomobserver.com PhantomObserver

Jack Mitchell: you do realize that “oh, oh!” is essentially a transcriber’s convenience. It means the opposition’s vocal reactions are so noisy and incomprehensible (which covers up a variety of profane, obscene and vulgar vocalizations) that they cannot be accurately described in Hansard without making a lot of people look silly.
Jack Mitchell

PhantomObserver, that may have been the case heretofore, but unless they literally stick to “Oh, oh!” I would send in the Shawinigan handshakers while reading up on Acts of Attainder.
David

0.5. Let any broadcaster broadcast anything they want from any of the camera angles at any time.

Watch the off-camera hijinks disappear.
http://www.ottawawatch.blogspot.com Mark Bourrie

Much of the problem with QP stems from having TV cameras in the House, but I suppose they’ll never leave. As for the rest of the time the House sits, how much trouble can six MPs and a snoozing Speaker get into?
You can have all the codes in the world, but if the Speaker isn’t tough on disorder, none of it means anything.
Jenn

I remove my support.

Also, this has ‘hidden agenda’ written all over it.

Point No. 2 sounds like a plan to LOOK like you’re doing something, while intentionally leaving everything as it is. And point No. 3 just leaves me suspicious. Like, developing the book of anit-dirty tricks so nobody can play those same tricks on us, kind of plan.

Even I knew they already had codes of conduct–and I’m not so much a parliamentary junkie. I believe they would be perfectly reasonable and would work quite well–if they are enforced.

So, what’s required is someone who will enforce the rules with an iron fist. Yes, for the first while it will be ridiculous and nothing will be accomplished, but I hope the Speaker makes them stay after school until they figure out the new way of doing things. Obviously, Devolin isn’t prepared to take on that role.