Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

The Backbench Top Ten

by Aaron Wherry on Friday, March 19, 2010 4:53pm - 13 Comments

Our weekly, and wholly arbitrary, ranking of the ten most worthy, or at least entertaining, MPs, excluding the Prime Minister, cabinet members and party leaders. A celebration of all that is great and ridiculous about the House of Commons. Last week’s rankings appear in parentheses.

1. Francine Lalonde (-)
On Tuesday, she compels the House to face one of the more philosophically challenging issues of our time. On Wednesday, she weaves Omar Khadr and Rights & Democracy into the same QP query. Audacious, courageous or some combination thereof.
2. Jack Harris (-)
Behold the motion he is prepared to put his name to and consider what may potentially lay ahead. Audacious, courageous or some combination thereof.
3. Daniel Paille (1)
Yelled circles around Ted Menzies on Tuesday.
4. Derek Lee (5)
5. Joe Comartin (4)
Spoke sensibly this week about euthanasia, national security and parliamentary privilege, then stood this morning and mocked recent adventures in ministerial air travel. Will one day be a highly entertaining Speaker.
6. Wayne Easter (8)
The record will show that he was the MP who moved the motion that may ultimately bring an end to the practice of ten-percenters. Either an enemy of free speech or a hero of democracy.
7. Stephen Woodworth (6)
Did we mention he dabbles in comedy?
8. Maxime Bernier (7)
9. Bob Rae (9)
10. Dominic LeBlanc (2)

Previous rankings: March 12.

Tags: Backbench Top Ten, Bob Rae, Daniel Paille, Derek Lee, Dominic LeBlanc, Francine Lalonde, house of commons, Jack Harris, Joe Comartin, Maxime Bernier, Parliament, Stephen Woodworth, wayne easter

More by Aaron Wherry

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

I just read Francine Lalonde's feeble attempt to weave two unrelated issues into a single question, and I couldn't help but chuckle. "Audacious" doesn't even begin to describe it.
http://intensedebate.com/people/G0D God

Wayne Easter for PM!!!

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

The coveted God endorsement.

http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

Nah. His farm is a more valuable national resource than any PM could ever be.

A couple of decades ago I spent an evening in his barn in the company of Maude Barlow, Tony Clarke,
Jim Turk, Judy Darcy, and a bunch of other interesting people. The barn should be on the burgeoning
list of national monuments.
Dot

anti-FTA rally?

http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

No. I can't remember the exact time but I think it was related to the CHST. And Mr. Easter's only
connection was , I believe, he was involved with the National Farmers' Union at the time. I remember
him as looking quite bemused and puzzled by it all.

http://a-view-from-the-left.blogspot.com Miranda

I really enjoy this feature, especially given we generally hear so little about the backbenchers.

http://nottawa.blogspot.com mark

Mind you, unless you work at an airport, you hear very little from (or about) frontbenchers these days, either.

Notker

I like articles like this. More attention needs to be paid to backbenchers. Keep it coming.
Dave

Aaron, love the list, but please, show your work.
http://www.geniemove.com/ Chicago Mover

The way you have shown your article was awesome.Thanks for sharing.
http://www.spartanmoving.com/ San Francisco Movers

Great article to discuss.
http://intensedebate.com/people/OntarioTown OntarioTown

The ones that make me giggle:

Tilly O'Neill-Gordon – retired teacher with her old teacher clothes and old teacher hairdo reading PM trash notes like she's reading new rules to the class from the principle.

Lois Brown – reading PM trash notes and looking like a blonde Lilly Tomlin – one ringy dingy, two ringy dingly