The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, September 26, 2010 at 2:37 PM - 0 Comments

We resume 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. Continue…

Power to the backbencher

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 20, 2010 at 10:25 AM - 0 Comments

Michael Chong explains some of the historical precedent that informs his proposed QP reforms.

Until the 1980s, members had the right to rise in the House, catch the eye of the Speaker and ask questions of the government, questions that were driven by the concerns they heard from their constituents the previous weekend when they returned home to their ridings.

The changes that stripped members of the right to spontaneously rise, catch the eye of the Speaker to ask a question were introduced by Jeanne Sauvé. Every day, each party submits their list of approved questioners to the Speaker. The Speaker recognizes only those on the list.

Fixing parliament

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 4:49 PM - 0 Comments

There is a flurry of activity this autumn around the general topic of improving procedure in Parliament so decorum will also improve. This month’s issue of Policy Options has a useful cover package on the theme; the IRPP will have a session on the same topic soon. On Thursday the Public Policy Forum has its own shindig. Mike Chong, the Conservative MP whose private members’ motion on Question Period reform is behind much of the current discussion, will figure at both events.

In June of 2009 I wrote my own proposals for fixing Question Period. Two of the ideas I presented there — increasing the length of time allotted for questions and answers, and requiring the Prime Minister to attend only once a week, with other ministers taking questions on other days — resemble parts of Chong’s motion. He’s discarded other ideas and introduced his own. I decided to post the link to that earlier piece as a sort of prelude to the conversations in the weeks ahead.

'Can it be changed, and if so, in what ways?'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, August 30, 2010 at 4:36 PM - 0 Comments

A week after the Public Policy Forum’s conference on Question Period, the Canadian Study of Parliament Group will have its own day of discussion. This one will also include Michael Chong, this time along with the NDP’s Denise Savoie and Liberal Glen Pearson.

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 20, 2010 at 4:15 PM - 15 Comments

One last time before pausing for the summer: 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. Continue…

The Commons: A day like any other

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 8:35 PM - 40 Comments

The Scene. As Bob Rae began the first question of the last Question Period before this third session of the 40th Parliament pauses for the summer, a respectful silence took hold.

The subject matter was this morning’s release of the final report from the inquiry into the Air India bombing. Mr. Rae commended the government and the inquiry’s commissioner. The Prime Minister stood and added his thanks to Justice Major. Mr. Rae probed for specific details of the government’s expected response, Mr. Harper offered assurances. The two danced quite delicately on the edge of combativeness, this adversarial system at its most sensitive.

Not until the Speaker called on the polarizing member for Ajax-Pickering, the Liberal Mark Holland, did the noise return to the chamber, government members groaning and moaning as Mr. Holland abruptly and loudly changed topics. Continue…

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 13, 2010 at 3:55 PM - 10 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. Continue…

The rethink

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 13, 2010 at 11:54 AM - 26 Comments

Steve Paikin talks to Michael Chong about Question Period reform.

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 6, 2010 at 4:00 PM - 40 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. Continue…

The QP 20

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, May 31, 2010 at 12:12 PM - 13 Comments

Michael Chong’s motion on Question Period reform is seconded by no less than 20 MPs. Those seconders include 14 Conservatives (Mike Allen, Dona Cadman, Maxime Bernier, Larry Miller, Gord Brown, Nina Grewal, James Rajotte, John Cummins, Peter Braid, Rick Casson, Greg Thompson, Merv Tweed, Brian Storseth and Bruce Stanton), four Liberals (Frank Valeriote, Martha Hall Findlay, Glen Pearson and Siobhan Coady) and two New Democrats (Denise Savoie and Brian Masse).

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 4:02 PM - 15 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. Continue…

'If the heart of our democracy is Parliament, then the heart of Parliament is question period'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, May 28, 2010 at 12:42 PM - 11 Comments

Michael Chong’s motion recommending various reforms to Question Period and calling for a formal pursuit of those reforms received its first hour of debate last night.

The motion provides for some specific and viable suggestions for reform. The motion is simple and reasonable. If we cannot collectively, as members of the House, come together to achieve something as simple and reasonable and demanded by Canadians as the reform of question period, then what hope do we have of restoring Canadians’ trust in their institutions and regaining their respect? What hope do we have of recapturing the legitimacy and authority of this place as central to the Canadian debate? What hope do we have to meet the challenges of our era and continue the nation-building efforts begun by our forebears?

More than four out of ten Canadians refused to vote in the last election. In doing so, they decreased the legitimacy of this institution and the authority of Parliament. As I mentioned before, Canadians may not know exactly what processes, procedures or rules need to be fixed, but they know something is wrong and they know something needs to change.

Various members spoke in response, raising various suggestions and quibbles, but it seems both the Liberals and NDP are prepared to support the motion.

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, May 23, 2010 at 6:45 PM - 1 Comment

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. Continue…

Personally, I blame myself

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, May 21, 2010 at 2:19 PM - 11 Comments

Preston Manning endorses the Chong Plan for Question Period, but wonders if the press gallery isn’t part of the problem and shouldn’t be part of the solution.

Most House leaders and Question Period co-ordinators I know feel that no matter what reforms are made, they are likely to be met with skepticism, ridicule and opposition from the media. This is because from a news-generating standpoint, a Question Period characterized by negative, antagonistic, exaggerated and emotional exchanges is much more newsworthy than one characterized by positive, co-operative, moderate and rational exchanges.

Parliamentary and legislative committees addressing Question Period reform should therefore tackle this obstacle head-on by specifically soliciting input and suggestions from their respective press galleries. There must be some way of making Question Period more civil, productive and newsworthy, and the sooner we find it, the better it will be for Canadian democracy.

Most of what happens in QP at present is actively ignored by the press gallery. I can think of one major media outlet that regularly and specifically attends in person. Most of those reporters and columnists who don’t attend would, I suspect, blame the tone and tenor of the proceedings (well, that and the fact that the proceedings are televised, making the arduous journey up to the House not absolutely necessary). So it would seem completely ridiculous for the press gallery, in this imagined world of reform, to equally shun a more substantive and reasonable QP.

And if outsider perspective is necessary, at least a couple of us would be only too happy to fix everything.

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 4:38 PM - 9 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. Continue…

A question for the minister

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at 11:24 AM - 19 Comments

Keith Beardsley again considers Michael Chong’s plan for QP, this time on the point that ministers should have, in most cases, to actually speak when spoken to.

Over the past few years two more exceptions were added. When you are in trouble another minister gets assigned to take your questions. It could be the House Leader or it could be whoever is filling in for the PM. This is a great defensive tactic but it is just that, a defence mechanism that lets a minister off the hook. In the Chretien years, to use a Liberal example, when a minister was under attack, they took the heat themselves, day after day. Just think of Jane Stewart and what she went through for quite a few weeks.

If the situation got serious in QP, Chretien would rise and defend the minister. That was a big media story. Over the last couple of years that has changed: questions about ministerial expenses, as an example, have been answered by the House Leader. Why? If the minister spent the money, the minister should be able to tell voters why. A minister is supposed to be responsible for the department and it seems logical that this includes ministerial expenses incurred when performing departmental duties.

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, May 9, 2010 at 9:35 AM - 20 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. Continue…

The Chong Plan

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 1:35 PM - 26 Comments

Keith Beardsley, a former aide to Stephen Harper, endorses two of Michael Chong’s recommendations for Question Period and explains the absurd degree of attention QP currently commands on Parliament Hill.

Few Canadians realize the amount of preparation involved for those 45 minutes of show time. Generally speaking, across the government, (and on the opposition side) the day starts with staff going through every conceivable news item in the early hours of the morning. Anything impacting on a minister or PMO is flagged and work started on finding out what does the minister need to know about the story and what are the answers required.

Sometime in the morning there will be a briefing session and QP issues will be discussed. Fine tuning of answers will take place and the daily QP briefing book prepared and updated. In total several hours work.

Around lunch time there will be a ministerial practice session with staff and then it’s off to the formal practice session at 1 PM with all other ministers and parliamentary secretaries present. At 2:15 when the Speaker rises and announces Oral Questions, its show time and bedlam is unleashed.

Michael Chong Maverick Watch (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, May 3, 2010 at 3:32 PM - 15 Comments

And here is the text of Mr. Chong’s motion, which he spoke of in the House just before QP this afternoon.

That the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs be instructed to recommend changes to the Standing Orders and other conventions governing Oral Questions, and to consider, among other things, (i) elevating decorum and fortifying the use of discipline by the Speaker, to strengthen the dignity and authority of the House, (ii) lengthening the amount of time given for each question and each answer, (iii) examining the convention that the Minister questioned need not respond, (iv) allocating half the questions each day for Members, whose names and order of recognition would be randomly selected, (v) dedicating Wednesday exclusively for questions to the Prime Minister, (vi) dedicating Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for questions to Ministers other than the Prime Minister in a way that would require Ministers be present two of the four days to answer questions concerning their portfolio, based on a published schedule that would rotate and that would ensure an equitable distribution of Ministers across the four days; and that the Committee report its findings to the House, with proposed changes to the Standing Orders and other conventions, within six months of the adoption of this order.

Michael Chong Maverick Watch

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, May 3, 2010 at 1:54 PM - 4 Comments

In an interview with Michael Enright this weekend—which you can hear here, after a soliloquy on the nature of soccer—Michael Chong, the former minister and government backbencher, lamented quite eloquently for the powerlessness of MPs and the concentration of control within Parliament.

Mr. Chong also references his hopes for QP reform—an issue he explored in an essay for the Canadian Parliamentary Review in 2008.

Don't hold your breath

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, March 15, 2010 at 12:38 PM - 58 Comments

Anonymous senior Conservatives are apparently agitating for Helena Guergis to be swiftly dispatched to the furthest reaches of the government backbenches. Make of this what you will.

Keep in mind that, if memory serves, no minister in the Harper government has been outright fired or banished. Michael Chong resigned as minister of intergovernmental affairs in opposition to the Quebecois motion. Maxime Bernier resigned after misplacing his briefs. Various ministers perceived to be underperforming (Gordon O’Connor, Rona Ambrose, Lisa Raitt) have been moved to less-prominent portfolios, but only in the context of a cabinet shuffle. No one, if I recall correctly, has ever been outright and unambiguously fired.

Let's save Question Period

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 9, 2009 at 5:04 PM - 33 Comments

Here, again, is Frances Ryan’s look at Question Period reform. Here is the longer essay from which that article is derived. Lots in there, but the discussed changes are essentially as follows:

1. Extend the amount of time allotted to each question and answer.
2. Switch to a “roster” system, whereby the Prime Minister is available once a week, with separate ministers assigned to each day.
3. Limit the ability of party whips to determine who gets to ask questions and the use of supplementary questions.
4. Broaden the ability of government backbenchers to ask actual questions of minister.

Some of this mirrors what our Paul Wells proposed in June. Some of it refers directly to what Conservative MP Michael Chong argued in a previous issue of the CPR.

Now then, here, as an amalgam of all that plus a suggestion of my own, is what I think I’d do. Continue…

See, it's not so bad

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 1:49 PM - 4 Comments

Glen Pearson has pleasant conversations with MPs from other parties. And such as it is this is considered noteworthy.

In all, it was a remarkable day, made all the more meaningful by the willingness of members to put aside their more partisan ways to engage in a middle space, even if just for a time.  There was a lot of crossing over yesterday and Parliament was the better for it.

ITQ Committee Liveblog Bonus: You have made a powerful enemy, Chairman Chong.

By kadyomalley - Friday, August 7, 2009 at 4:22 PM - 58 Comments

So, remember how Michael Chong kinda sorta took a cheap shot at RIM co-founder Mike Lazaridis just as he was finishing up his testimony before the Industry committee today? When he suggested that there seemed to be a double standard as far as his objections to the way the Nortel auction was handled, and his fellow co-founder Jim Balsillie’s objections to the NHL league auction process? And then instead of giving Lazaridis the chance to reply, he gaveled down and adjourned the meeting? Which ITQ thought was a little bit unfair, since it was sort of taking advantage of his chairmanly powers?

Anyway,  as we were filing out of the committee room this afternoon, we were greeted by a RIM official handing out copies of the following written response to Chong’s comments.

Your move, Chairman Chong:

August 7, 2009
The Honourable Michael Chong, M.P.
Chair
Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario

Dear Mr. Chong,

Thank you for allowing me to appear before the Industry Committee this morning. I appreciated the opportunity to make a statement, table a brief, and in particular to answer the questions posed to me. At the end of the session, as we ran out of time, you raised some important issues without giving me the chance to reply. As such, I would appreciate it if you could read this reply into the record before adjourning today.
Continue…