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 300,000-word club

by Aaron Wherry on Wednesday, December 15, 2010 1:20pm - 10 Comments

With the House expected to rise for the holidays any day now, we pause to note that the NDP’s Jim Maloway has officially committed more than 300,000 words to the official record over the past year, more than three times as many as the next most-verbose member. By my count that’s something like 2,600 words per day the House was in session, which is more than 22 of his colleagues have spoken for the entirety of those 117 sitting days.

Mr. Maloway is a constant presence in the House and an eager contributor to debates—perhaps to an odd degree, but mostly, it seems to me, to his credit. The House could probably not withstand too many more MPs of his verbiage, but it is surely better off for every MP who is excited by the process.

Tags: house of commons, Jim Maloway, Parliament

More by Aaron Wherry

Livebloggin Junkie

His [speeches] are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find them, and, when you have them, they are not worth the search.
john g

I tried to do one of those word cloud things for him. My PC had a nervous breakdown.
WDM

A day at the beach for Bernie Sanders
Crit_Reasoning

I note that on the bottom of this list, Stéphane Dion has only spoken 96 words all year in the official record:

Here they are:

Mr. Speaker, I know for certain that the member for Marc-Aurèle-Fortin does not believe what he just said. He knows that it is insulting to call someone a token Quebecker and that such insults have no place in this House. As much as I disagree with my Conservative colleagues' position and share the indignation of my colleagues on this side of the House, I would like everyone here to act respectfully and understand that all Quebeckers in this House stand up for what they believe, whether they believe in a united Canada or an independent Quebec.

2010-05-05 15:05 (Oral Questions) http://howdtheyvote.ca/quotes.php?b=29321#Q189477
http://twitter.com/jonatwitan @jonatwitan

Look how many absences Michael Ignatieff has!

*insert joke about being from abroad here*

Blue

It`s no joke but it seems most of the MP`s guilty of being absent are from the same Party as Mr ignatieff.

JonnyBoy

It's true. By my count, of the top 52 for absences:

Liberals: 36
Bloc: 8
Conservatives: 3
NDP: 3
Independent: 2

Can anyone account for this gross discrepancy in number of absences? Or does it not matter?

xiv

have the liberals been making a habit of having not enough mps show up to defeat a bill rather than just voting for it again?

edit: looking over a couple quick voting records it appears that is indeed the case, when you pick a bill where one of the liberals are absent, there's often a bunch of others also absent, and then all opposition parties vote 'no' but lack the votes to defeat because of absent liberals (or abstained liberals, the record does not differentiate the two)

Jenn_

Is this ever sad.

I don't believe I've ever heard of the NDPs Jim Maloway before just now.

I guess the left-wing media bias isn't working so well for him.
BGLong

I never watch QP but often do watch the debates following. That's usually where Mr. Maloway
works his magic. The debates are often interesting and you occasionally see people that
you didn't know existed. Sometimes they are even rational.