Beyond The Commons

 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

'Well, I have my job to do, you have your job to do.'

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, June 3, 2010 8:25am - 27 Comments

This was, by his telling to me, what John Baird told Paul Szabo, chair of the ethics committee, upon turning up uninvited at a hearing last week.

Last night, Mr. Baird was honoured—after a vote of his peers—as this magazine’s parliamentarian of the year. Alongside citations for all the other winners is a 650-word attempt, authored by myself after interviews with half a dozen of Mr. Baird’s colleagues, to understand the complexity of his political existence.

And to that, you must obviously add Mr. Baird’s performance at another committee yesterday afternoon—that just hours before he formally accepted his honour.

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  • John D

    I'm not normally in the media-blamin' gmae, but calling Baird "parliamentarian of the year" shows a lot of what's wrong in our political discourse. We don't care about parliamentarians who contribute to effective public policy or enhancing citizenship. We care about the 'game,' and because Baird knows how to play the game he is celebrated. But where does the game-playing get us? Wouldn't we be better off putting Baird, Heddy Fry, and the lot on a reality show and letting some real parliamentarians do the real business?

    • jarrid

      HE WAS VOTED PARLIAMENTARIAN OF THE YEAR BY HIS PEERS, John D. BY HIS PEERS.

      • Craig O

        Then there is something seriously wrong with his peers.

        • jarrid

          His peers were voted in by us, so there may be something seriously wrong with us, in other words. I'll concede that that's a debatable point.

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/lgarvin lgarvin

            It's a really sad statement on all of us; a personality disorder that would make you unemployable in the real world makes you "Parliamentarian of the Year" in Canada.

    • John D

      Sorry, didn't mean to imply that the media voted him in, but I can see how that could be read into the post. We're all guilty of promoting politics as a game, but the media especially so.

  • jarrid

    What I find remarkable is that opposition MP's are less partisan than most left/lib commenters on this blog, some of whom were saying that they'd be cancelling their subscription to Maclean's because Baird received the award of Parliamentarian of the year after a vote by his fellow MP's.

    Funny, other MP's won awards, many of them oppostion MPs, including Gilles Duceppe, and I didn't see right of center commenters dishing out vitriol against them.

    Maybe it's the frustration that their political parties are going nowhere these days that is causing the lashing out, but whatever the explanation, it's a pretty sorry sight. Very negative, very hateful and unfailingly partisan.

    Some commenters around here need the summer recess to get a sense of perspective, methinks.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/LynnTO LynnTO

      Maybe it's the frustration that their political parties are going nowhere these days that is causing the lashing out

      Well, sure, if you think that "going somewhere" means continually and increasingly obfuscating parliamentary procedure, circumventing democracy, and engaging in divisive politics.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/TJCook TJCook

      "Some commenters around here need the summer recess to get a sense of perspective, methinks."

      Agreed. So, when do you leave?

      Buh-DUH-buh *tss

  • tobyornotoby

    I watched some of that performance on the CPAC feed, and can confrim that Baird was hostile, interupting, overbearing and anything but parliamentary. That, however, overshadowed the orchestrated arrival of the three ministers, all with the same letter, and all with a similar openiing statement about ministerial accountability and plenty of passive aggressiveness by Gary Goodyear as well.

    The thing we have to understand about Baird isn't just that he's personally like this, it's that he's like this in the same way a hockey enforcer goes out on the rink to take someone'e head off. Because the coach TOLD him to!

    • jarrid

      Exhibt "A" to my comment above.

    • The Real Jan

      And unfortunately, Baird has been successful. We're all talking about his boorish behavior instead of what the stunt was meant to distract from – that political staffers were giving Jaffer special treatment.

  • Stephen B

    It's pretty obvious that Parliament is broken when open contempt for the institution, as displayed by Baird, doesn't disqualify him from this "honour".

  • Anon 001

    Maclean's doesn't tell us the distribution of the 202 MPs who voted. If, for example, more Tories voted than the other 3 parties, it's not hard to see why they would vote for Baird because their other choices are the likes of Pierre Polievre and Jason Kenney.

    It's not like we're sending our best to Parliament. I mean, one day, "jarrid" will be an MP, and then the joke will once again be on all of us.

    • Anon 001

      I should add: all the kind words from the opposition MPs, it may also be, as Wherry suggests, politics. As the man doling out the stimulus cash, everybody needs him.

  • Lord Kitchener's Own

    ‘Well, I have my job to do, you have your job to do.’

    My job is treating Parliament with contempt, your job is to try and stop me.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Stewart_Smith Stewart_Smith

    I suspect that those of us who truly loath the public persona Baird presents in Question Period often underestimate that he has a much more nuanced approach to politics than a Polievre or Finley. This has allowed him to establish relationships with opposition MP's and to achieve some results through cooperation. (Of course those relationships must be a little like those between NHL goons who punch each other out on Tuesday night and but have a tee time scheduled for a week Sunday)

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/LynnTO LynnTO

      It makes me wonder if the pitbull tactics in public are the reason he's able to secure better cooperation in private, or if it's just a face he's been told to put on, even though he'd rather conduct his business another way.

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/Stewart_Smith Stewart_Smith

        My feeling is that he revels in the theatrics of it all and most actors will tell you playing the role of the bad guy is far more interesting.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/tedbetts tedbetts

    I don't, in the least, mind Baird's bluster. He is a politician, a hyper-partisan, and good at both and always has been and Ottawa keeps electing him.

    It is this particular view though, that the government is somehow above the law or that longstanding rules, laws, principles and precedent do not apply to them, and that is increasing, which is of increasing concern to me.

    We saw where that kind of attitude got Canada under Mulroney and Chretien, and the US under Bush. And they all had full control. Harper is in a minority government: can you imagine how bad it would be with a majority.

  • CAPS

    The problem I have with Baird is that he has never actually done anything but be involved in politics.

    He has never actually worked with all the "hard working men and women" on whose behalf he claims to speak.

    The professionalising of politics has become the bane of this country and this is not lilmited to Baird or the Conservatives by any means although Harper hadn't really done anything previously either.

    The hyper-partisan games that so many engage in has driven away most who would be willing to stand after having spent time in the real world gaining experience and accomplishing some things. You know, living a real life.

  • Lord Kitchener's Own

    The problem I have with Baird is that he has never actually done anything but be involved in politics.

    The Ministerial apple doesn't fall far from the Prime Ministerial tree.

  • Dee

    Baird as Parliamentarian of the Year?! Hahahahahaaahaaa… aaah… This pretty much demonstrates the depths that that formerly honourable institution has sunk…

  • Steve M

    If we can possibly ignore the lack of manners and inside voices that was on full display (and not just by Baird), is anyone here (Mr. Wherry?) familiar enough with committee rules to tell us whether or not Baird was actually correct in claiming that he had a right to be there and speak, or if the chairwoman was indeed within her rights to shut him down?

  • wellwell

    There's a bit of unhealthy codependency in this award. Baird is ferociously nasty in his attacks on opposition MPs, but he makes nice to them in private when the cameras aren't on.

    I'm sure they wish they could quit him.

  • John D

    I think that makes it worse. This is an intelligent man who is putting on an act and does not care that his act cheapens our political discourse.

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