Beyond The Commons

Beyond The Commons

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

The Backbench Top Ten

by Aaron Wherry on Sunday, December 12, 2010 2:57pm - 1 Comment

After a week away, our weekly, and wholly arbitrary, ranking of the ten most worthy, or at least entertaining, MPs returns. A celebration of all that is great and ridiculous about the House of Commons. Last week’s rankings appear in parentheses.

1. Bob Rae (1)
The House is not without impressive speeches, they just tend to occur when no one’s paying attention. This performance on Friday afternoon, for instance, would’ve disappeared into Hansard if someone in Mr. Rae’s office hadn’t thought to put it on YouTube.
2. Jack Harris (2)

3. Gerry Byrne (3)
This (and here the next day) would seem a good example of how to hold a government to account.
4. John McKay (-)
This too.
5. Megan Leslie (-)
The top up-and-comer accepts her award with typical verve. ”Whether it’s The Hill Times or other polls, we have always seen women in up-and-coming categories because women who are up-and-comers are not threatening, right? If you look at who are the ‘powerful people,’ who are the ‘skilled ministers,’ it isn’t women. And that’s because we’re talking about positions where there actually is power. To be an up-and-comer, you know, it’s nice, it’s cute, you get a pat on the head, and ‘Isn’t that great to see Megan rising up the ranks,’ but it’s still not threatening. So I think we still need to have a gendered lens when we’re looking at these kinds of polls … It doesn’t mean we’ve broken through.”
6. Michael Chong (5)
7. Maxime Bernier (8)
Mr. Bernier’s latest: a quibble with the U.S. Federal Reserve.
8. Keith Martin (6)

9. Serge Menard (8)
10. Joe Comartin (-)
On the subject of worthy contributions to our Parliamentary democracy, a review of Mr. Comartin’s statements is regularly instructive.

Previous rankings: March 12March 19April 3April 10April 25May 1May 9May 16May 23May 30June 6June 13June 20September 26October 3October 10October 17October 24October 31November 7November 14November 21. November 29.

 

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  • Jenn_

    That left-wing media bias!

    Let's take items 3, 4 and 5. I have searched the Hill-Times as best I can to find the answers to the questions posed by Messrs. Byrne and McKay, and couldn't even find coverage of the questions. I searched because this is the first I've heard of either one.

    But I'm surely pleased to know that our Prime Minister was wearing a silk black shirt, and looked slightly groovy, while he sang at the Christmas party, the playlist also being fully mentioned.

    I'm not against coverage of the Christmas party, but to take so much space that it completely removes all mention of two rather substantial stories is a bit rich. Why aren't the Conservatives complaining about this one?

    Thank you, Aaron, for once again being the exception to the poor journalism story.

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