No joke: The staying power of MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, April 1, 2013 at 12:00 PM - 0 Comments

Graham Hughes/CP

Nearly two years into the Ruth Ellen Brosseau Experiment, she is still the unlikeliest of MPs—an assistant pub manager who was just a name on a ballot in the 2011 federal election, who had never set foot in her riding northeast of Montreal, and who famously spent several days of the campaign celebrating her 27th birthday in Las Vegas. But even if it is difficult to forget how she got here, she does not now seem entirely out of place. “I think, at first, I was kind of looked at as, ‘Hey, it’s Vegas!’ But I think I’ve kind of proven myself,” she says. “I’m tough. I could have just disappeared and kept my mouth shut and just taken this for a ride and not cared about getting re-elected or representing the people in my riding, but I take it really seriously and I take it to heart.”

On election night, she was an absurdity, the personification of what weird things can occur when democracy is involved. Had she subsequently failed spectacularly, she would have become an indictment of her party and its sudden success. “We owe her a lot,” says NDP MP Megan Leslie. “A lot of NDP-bashing after the election got taken out on her, and she represented us with smarts and grace.”

She likely benefited from the sort of low expectations that come with being a fill-in candidate not ever expected to actually win. “When I’m in my riding, we get a lot of positive feedback,” she says. “Even at the grocery store, I’ll have people stop me and say, ‘You’re doing a really good job, don’t give up.’ ” She figures the curiosity around her election at least boosted her name recognition. And she thinks maybe people see themselves in her.

Continue…

Voting on Bill C-45: So much standing, sitting and signing of Christmas cards

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 6:00 AM - 0 Comments

The House of Commons is filling up—the Prime Minister seems to have brought a large stack of paperwork to keep him busy—and voting on C-45 will soon commence. We’ll be here until the end to observer all the sights, sounds, thrills and chills of democracy in motion (specifically the motion of standing and sitting down repeatedly).

Our bluffer’s guide to the second budget implementation act is here. All previous coverage of C-45 is archived here. And our diary of the spring’s vote marathon is here.

3:43pm. The party whips have been duly applauded and the Speaker is now calling the first vote. Thomas Mulcair receives a round of applause as he leads the votes in favour.

3:45pm. If you’d like to follow along with the commentary from the floor, our list of MPs on Twitter is here.

3:47pm. Mr. Harper receives a round of applause as he leads the nays.

3:51pm. The first vote goes to the nays, 156-134.

3:56pm. Michelle Rempel, Pierre Poilievre, Randy Kamp, Mark Adler, Bob Rae, Vic Toews and Ruth Ellen Brosseau are using the time to sign Christmas cards. Greg Rickford is reading Sports Illustrated. Denis Lebel is going through some paperwork. Megan Leslie and Nathan Cullen are fiddling with their iPads.

3:58pm. The second notes goes to the nays, 147-134. Continue…

The Commons: Know your cuts of meat

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 29, 2012 at 5:11 PM - 0 Comments

The Scene. For as long as humans have possessed language it has been generally true that few good conversations involve the phrase “fecal contamination.”

Perhaps that’s why the Prime Minister stepped aside this afternoon to let Gerry Ritz respond to the bulk of questions; of the six questions he might’ve otherwise been expect to take, Mr. Harper rose to respond to only two. Or maybe this was some attempt to make up for Mr. Ritz’s initial absence when last the House was seized with the matter of suspect beef.

At issue today was how we handle our cow carcasses: specifically whether our attitude toward the presence of “spinal cord/dura-mater” depends on whether Canadian or Japanese citizens are expected to ingest the resulting hamburgers.

“Mr. Speaker, the reality is that the CFIA has confirmed that meat sold in Canada is as safe as that is exported to other markets, including Japan,” Mr. Harper attempted to reassure the House. “Indeed, it is the Canadian law in this regard.”

Nycole Turmel was unconvinced. Continue…

Glam! Orange Stilettos! Mock awards! The 2012 Press Gallery Dinner

By Mitchel Raphael - Monday, November 5, 2012 at 5:01 AM - 0 Comments

The  2012 Press Gallery Dinner was a night of glamour and mock awards.

XL Foods, Gerry Ritz and Ruth Ellen Brosseau

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, October 6, 2012 at 11:49 AM - 0 Comments

The Star, Globe and Calgary Herald list the problems at XL Foods.

Federal food inspectors have released a long list of deficiencies — clogging of water nozzles used to wash feces from carcasses, condensation above exposed product, and unsanitary handling of meat — found during an audit of an Alberta plant at the centre of the country’s largest-ever beef recall, but missed during routine inspections.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Friday that XL Foods Inc. also had no appropriate plan to handle a late August spike in positive tests for a potentially fatal bacteria, but agency officials struggled again to explain why their own inspectors didn’t spot the festering problem weeks before and act then to stop contaminated product from reaching grocery shelves.

Meanwhile, demonstrating that accidental MPs grow up so fast these days, here is an email that went out to New Democrats yesterday afternoon. Continue…

The Commons: Playing 20 questions with Gerry Ritz

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 4, 2012 at 5:47 PM - 0 Comments

The Scene. Thomas Mulcair stood and turned in his spot to directly face the Agriculture Minister seated across the way. After three days elsewhere, Gerry Ritz was back in the House of Commons. And with the Prime Minister occupied by a photo op scheduled for precisely this moment, there was now no one between Mr. Ritz and the opposition MPs who were here to shame him.

“Mr. Speaker,” Mr. Mulcair began, “is the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food willing to accept responsibility for the self-regulating food inspection system he put in place?”

The New Democrats stood to cheer this query. Mr. Ritz stood to respond.

“Mr. Speaker, of course, there is no such system,” he asserted. “The CFIA operates at a professional level on a program called CVS which was implemented in 2005.”

This disagreement here was thus no less than definitional. Continue…

The milk wars

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 22, 2012 at 4:22 PM - 0 Comments

The Dairy Farmers of Canada are not impressed with Martha Hall Findlay. The Conservatives at least attempted to register their dismay yesterday, while the New Democrats issued the following release this morning.

Conservatives have put Canada’s supply management on the table in trade talks – and now we see some Liberals openly opposing our supply managed sectors, according to NDP International Trade Critic Don Davies. “New Democrats have a clear and strong policy: Canada’s supply managed sectors provide clear benefits to Canadians and will not be compromised, in trade talks or otherwise”, insisted Davies. He pointed out that supply management in Canada’s dairy, poultry and egg industries is a tested system for efficient delivery of safe, local food to Canadians. Davies said that, unlike other countries who subsidize their producers, Canada’s supply management policy doesn’t cost taxpayers a cent.

NDP Agriculture Critic Malcolm Allen added his concerns of what any concessions could mean for these important industries. “By putting supply management in the cross hairs of these negotiations, the Conservative government is attacking the livelihood of dairy, poultry and egg farmers right across the country; farmers who expect this government to live up to its word.”

Deputy NDP Agriculture Critic Ruth Ellen Brosseau added that supply-managed products are competitively priced, with Canadian milk costing less than Australia and New Zealand – and in the US taxpayers subsidize milk. “New Democrats will continue to stand up strongly for the dairy, poultry and egg sectors, important industries that employs thousands of people,” said Brosseau.

Dan Arnold considers the implications for the Liberal leadership race. BJ Siekierski scours Ms. Hall Findlay’s previous public comments on supply management. Her full report is here.

C-38: The opposition

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, May 14, 2012 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Courtesy of YouTube, a selection of opposition speeches in response to the budget bill.

Robert Chisholm

Don Davies

Francoise Boivin

More from New Democrats Laurin Liu, Ruth Ellen Brosseau, Francois Choquette, Mylene Freeman, Ryan Cleary and Alexandrine Latendresse and, for the Liberals, Judy Foote.

Power, Parliament and the Prime Minister

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, May 4, 2012 at 4:57 PM - 0 Comments

Donner winners Mark Jarvis and Lori Turnbull argue that the Prime Minister has become too powerful.

In the House, the prime minister and government have considerable control over day-to-day operations. This allows governments not only to set the agenda, but to carry it out with ease. The prime minister commands the steadfast loyalty of his MPs, largely through a carrot-and-stick approach; co-operative MPs might be rewarded with cabinet posts or coveted committee positions, while rogues can be — and at times are — punished with removal from caucus or even barred from running as a candidate for the party in future elections. All of these are vestiges of prime ministerial power. The party caucus has little leverage with which to counterbalance the prime minister’s power because party leaders are chosen (and replaced) by the party at large, rather than by the caucus. Thus, the government’s MPs have no effective mechanism through which to stand their ground against a very powerful leader or effectively represent his or her constituents.

In a rebuttal, F.H. Buckley argues that the Canadian system is preferable to the current American system.

That Canada’s current economic situation is better isn’t necessarily an argument for our Parliament (as one wag joked on Twitter, it’s actually an argument for adopting China’s system of governance). That the Westminster model is more efficient has been noted by various observers over the last few years as the U.S. Congress has descended into dysfunction. But a simple either/or debate oversimplifies matters. The American system isn’t inherently dysfunctional: one of its biggest problems is a rule that didn’t exist until 1975. (The Senate is ripe for reform.)

Buckley concludes with a nod to Ruth Ellen Brosseau. Continue…

Free ride

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 10:43 AM - 0 Comments

The Globe finds six NDP MPs who were elected on the cheap.

Another one of the NDP no-spenders is Philip Toone, a lawyer and a first-time MP for Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine. “I had me and my orange tie,” Mr. Toone remembered, saying he relied on word-of-mouth to spread news of his campaign. “Miracles are rare.”

Mr. Toone didn’t put up lawn signs or billboards and recorded no campaign expenses – though he did make note of $12.50 in auditing work that was marked as received in August, four months after the election.

Three of those MPs are from the McGill Four, who I profiled last fall. Another is Ruth Ellen Brosseau, who I wrote about here and here.

The fight for Saint-Maurice—Champlain

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 10:17 AM - 0 Comments

The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association says it will be looking into the automated calls made by the NDP in Lise St-Denis’ riding. The New Democrats seem undaunted.

New Democrats say Lise St-Denis owes it to her voters to return to the polls. “If Lise St-Denis has confidence and an ounce of respect for democracy, she’ll let the citizens of her riding be the judge. If not, she’s unworthy of representing them.”

“New Democrats will continue to work on behalf of the citizens of Saint-Maurice–Champlain. They deserve someone in Ottawa who will stand up for them and represent their values,” concluded Turmel. “The families of the region can continue to count on us.” To demonstrate this, the leader asked Robert Aubin (Trois-Rivières) and Ruth Ellen Brosseau (Berthier – Maskinongé) to step in and bring the issues affecting the people of Saint-Maurice – Champlain to the House of Commons.

The House: The meaning of Lise St-Denis

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 8:34 AM - 0 Comments

Once more to our periodic series on the House of Commons.

Lise St-Denis’ constituents are anecdotally displeased.

“It is completely ridiculous,” said Pierre Huot, director of the student association at Collège Shawinigan. “If she wants to join the Liberals, she should run in a by-election.”

Mr. Huot apparently voted for the Bloc Quebecois last time around.

The Liberal result in Saint-Maurice-Champlain was rather dismal in May—Yves Tousignant finished fourth with just 11.9% of the vote. Not since 2004 has the Liberal candidate in the riding finished better than third.

All of which, once again, raises all those questions about who and what one votes for when one marks one’s ballot. A lot of the same questions that were raised, for different reasons, by the election of Ruth Ellen Brosseau. Continue…

From the magazine

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 19, 2011 at 1:18 PM - 0 Comments

From the most recent print edition, 900 words or so on the tax debate we might have to have. And, from a couple issues ago, 600 words or so on Ruth Ellen Brosseau and Parliament’s new arrivals.

If all had gone according to plan, the NDP candidate in the riding of Berthier-Maskinonge would have been noted little beyond the historical record. She would have been nothing more than an entry on the ballot that the majority of voters in that riding passed over as they marked an X beside the name of the incumbent, Guy André of the Bloc Québécois, or perhaps the Liberal candidate, Francine Gaudet, a former member of the national assembly of Quebec.

But then the polls changed and Ruth Ellen Brosseau became an example of democratic absurdity. And then our political hierarchy changed and Brosseau became a duly elected member of Parliament.

Newsmakers of the Year: neo-NDPers

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 11:45 AM - 0 Comments

Graham Hughes/CP

If all had gone according to plan, the NDP candidate in the riding of Berthier-Maskinonge would have been noted little beyond the historical record. She would have been nothing more than an entry on the ballot that the majority of voters in that riding passed over as they marked an X beside the name of the incumbent, Guy André of the Bloc Québécois, or perhaps the Liberal candidate, Francine Gaudet, a former member of the national assembly of Quebec.

But then the polls changed and Ruth Ellen Brosseau became an example of democratic absurdity. And then our political hierarchy changed and Brosseau became a duly elected member of Parliament.

A single mother living in Gatineau, Que.—several hours by car from Berthier-Maskinonge—Brosseau worked as the assistant manager at a university campus pub in Ottawa. She did not speak French fluently and had possibly never set foot in the riding she was nominally running to represent. Midway through the campaign she went to Las Vegas on vacation. But her name was on the ballot. And a week after her 27th birthday she received 22,403 votes, nearly 6,000 more than André.

Continue…

Parliamentarians of the Year Awards party

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, November 25, 2011 at 3:11 PM - 0 Comments

Maclean’s 5^th annual Parliamentarians of the Year Awards ceremony at the Fairmont Château Laurier.  See winners here.

Immigration MInister Jason Kenney (left) and Ken Whyte, President of Rogers Publishing Limited

Liberal MP Rodger Cuzner (left) and NDP MP Pat Martin.

NDP MP Peter Stoffer accepts his award.

Stephen Harper’s communications director Angelo Persichilli and CBC’s Julie Van Dusen.

Continue…

The Commons: Whatever Peter MacKay did, he supports the troops

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 7:07 PM - 14 Comments

The Scene. As Jack Harris proceeded with his first question, there were catcalls from the government side. There was also some discussion along the government’s frontbench—between Messrs. Harper, Van Loan and MacKay—as to who would stand to respond.

“Mr. Speaker, as Canadians brace for another recession, we learn that our defence minister continues his ethically challenged ways. He has racked up nearly $3 million jetting around the country,” the NDP defence critic reviewed. “The government will not invest in infrastructure, in health care or jobs, but it will invest millions in making this minister the frequent flyer champion of government jets. When will the government ground that high-flying minister?”

Typically—this being the ninth question of the day and Mr. Harris not being a party leader—this would’ve been for the Defence Minister to answer. But here Mr. Harper motioned that he would take it.

“Mr. Speaker, I am surprised to get that question from the honourable member,” he claimed, as if he were somehow new to this place. “As I pointed out, the minister uses the Challenger 70 per cent less than his predecessors and, half the time he does that, it is for repatriation ceremonies. What I would expect from the honourable member is for him to be asking how he could join the Minister of National Defence and also participate in those ceremonies for Canadian families.”

Apparently finding this bit of logic quite persuasive, the government members leapt to their feet to applaud and yell out. No doubt they would’ve been even more enthused had this version of events been indisputably true. Continue…

This is the week that was

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, June 18, 2011 at 1:17 PM - 12 Comments

The House debated Libya and the meaning of regime change. The opposition demanded to hear from the President of the Treasury Board. Charlie Angus mocked Tony Clement. Then mocked him again. And again.

Jack Layton took his place in Twitter history. A former Liberal MP worried that Parliament wasn’t serving Canadians well. Ruth Ellen Brosseau was applauded. Elizabeth May dissented. Mr. Clement looked on the bright side and clarified what he meant by “anachronistic” and dismissed what he’d said about user fees. The ethics commissioner suggested a code of conduct for MPs. Peter Stoffer proposed a ban on floor crossing. The youngest MP in history made his maiden remarks. Continue…

The House of Mutual Appreciation

By Erica Alini - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 9:54 AM - 14 Comments

Ruth-Ellen Brosseau rose yesterday to ask her first question of the government. When she stood she was treated to a standing ovation from the NDP side and applause from various members of the Conservative side.

After stating her question—in French, mind you—she was treated to another standing ovation from the NDP and more applause from various members of the Conservative side.

Talk of the town

By Martin Patriquin - Friday, May 20, 2011 at 7:45 AM - 2 Comments

Graham Hughes/CP

On a recent Wednesday, Liette Carle was bicycling along the main strip of Louiseville, Que., a town of about 7,500 about an hour’s drive northeast of Montreal, when she came upon a swarm of journalists in front of the town hall building. In the midst of it all was Ruth Ellen Brosseau, the local NDP candidate, who earlier this month defeated the two-term Bloc Québécois incumbent seemingly despite herself.

“I’m happy to meet you,” Carle said, en français. Brosseau said the same back, thereby exploding one of the myths about the 27-year-old politician: her French is actually quite good, despite claims to the contrary floated in the press during the election.

The non-journalist crowd, Carle included, was instantly smitten with the intensely friendly woman in a black pantsuit. Really, though, Carle would have voted for just about anything with an NDP orange hue. She didn’t care that Brosseau had never set foot in the district until that day, or that she’d spent a considerable part of the campaign vacationing in Las Vegas. Carle didn’t even blink at the post-election news that Brosseau’s resumé had been mildly embellished on the party website. “I didn’t vote for Brosseau,” Carle says over red wine and radishes at her kitchen table. “J’ai voté pour Jack.”

Continue…

The NDP's union-made caucus

By John Geddes - Monday, May 16, 2011 at 9:45 AM - 36 Comments

Andrew Vaughan/CP

After all the drama and tension of a landmark election, Canadians probably needed a little comic interlude. The NDP provided one, although quite unintentionally. They served up the whimsical story of Pierre-Luc Dusseault, 19, whose upset victory in Sherbrooke, Que., made him the youngest MP ever, and meant he’d have to forgo his summer job on a golf course. Then there were the three McGill University students who will have to suspend their studies after surprising even themselves by capturing Quebec seats. And, of course, there was Ruth Ellen Brosseau, the assistant pub manager at Ottawa’s Carleton University, who hadn’t even visited the Quebec riding of Berthier-Maskinongé before winning it handily. Just as well, since Brosseau’s French isn’t so good and most of her constituents don’t speak English.

Jack Layton spent much of his first post-election news conference fending off questions about the scant experience of these and other rookies in his much enlarged Quebec contingent. With the collapse of the Bloc Québécois, an astonishing 58 NDP MPs from the province were elected on May 2, up from just one, Montreal’s Thomas Mulcair, before the election. But if all the attention on Layton’s youth brigade suggested an NDP caucus characterized by dewy-eyed campus idealism, that’s a misleading impression. In fact, the front benches of the second party in the House—traditionally seen as a government-in-waiting—will feature many tough-minded former union leaders. “We have some pretty major labour folks,” says veteran Vancouver NDP MP Libby Davies. “That’s a connection to a very solid base of activism, an understanding of politics and how it works.”

Davies herself came to federal politics by way of a position with the Hospital Employees’ Union, along with five terms on Vancouver’s city council. Among MPs expected to be assigned high-profile jobs by Layton, organized labour credentials are predominant. Take, for instance, just those who have been teachers’ union officials. Paul Dewar, who was NDP foreign affairs critic in the last Parliament, and is sometimes mentioned as a possible successor to Layton, is one. Irene Mathyssen, the London, Ont., MP who chaired the NDP’s key women’s caucus before the election, is another. They will be joined by rookie B.C. MP Jinny Sims, who was president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation during the 2005 strike, when it was fined for contempt of court for ignoring a return-to-work order.

Continue…

'Everyone is very nice'

By Erica Alini - Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 11:02 AM - 9 Comments

The MP for Berthier-Maskinonge visits her constituents.

According to participants in one meeting, she insisted on struggling along in the language of her constituents — speaking in French even when they addressed her in English. ”It’s not bad — she has an accent but at least she speaks French,” said another resident, Daniel Ringuette. He said he’s just happy she finally visited the riding: “I even invited her to come play tennis with us,” he said…

“She speaks French so well, it’s surprising,” said Louiseville mayor Guy Richard, after their meeting. “I think we will have a very good MP.”

The House: The meaning of Ruth Ellen Brosseau

By Erica Alini - Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 4:48 PM - 75 Comments

We return to our periodic series on the House of Commons. This time to consider the case of Ruth Ellen Brosseau.

For the record, in the election just completed 22,403 eligible voters in the riding of Berthier-Maskinonge marked a ballot in favour of Ruth Ellen Brosseau. Those 22,403 votes were more than any of the other five eligible candidates in that riding received. As a result, Ms. Brosseau, like the other 307 individuals who officially registered as candidates and subsequently received the highest number of votes in their respective ridings, is lawfully entitled to take a seat in the House of Commons.

That much is fairly indisputable.

So what precisely is the problem here? Continue…

Berthier-Maskinongé: the NDP's Stalingrad?

By Colby Cosh - Monday, May 9, 2011 at 6:58 PM - 101 Comments

We are all having a good time chortling about the Ruth Ellen Brosseau Crisis (Day 7!), which has become the biggest “cute white girl goes missing” news story since Natalee Holloway. But I think political horserace-handicappers need to start considering, seriously, whether the New Democratic Party is starting to foul up their foul-up. Humour is the most powerful acid in politics when it comes to dissolving confidence and momentum; a politician can fight a lie, but he cannot fight a good joke.

The NDP has left us with the impression that it has all but kidnapped Brosseau and is putting her through some kind of sadistic round-the-clock training—perhaps in a basement lit by a single bare light bulb—in the hope of making her presentable to the cameras at some point. This really is getting kind of creepy, and the English-language phone interview with somebody who can only be described as “a person claiming to be Brosseau” didn’t help. Nor does the media’s collective failure to establish any meaningful proof of Brosseau’s prior existence. (There are no candid photographs extant of a campus pub manager? There’s nothing on Flickr?)

I suppose Brosseau’s captors/handlers can argue that she is a grown-up who signed nomination papers on the dotted line, and that it will not do for her to back out now. The problem they have is that the longer we have to wait for her to manifest her existence, the greater the NDP’s apparent investment in her success, and the higher the standard that will eventually be applied to her. The party brass did have the option, in the hours following the election, of distancing themselves politely from her, slapping her on the back, wishing her good luck, and letting her take her own chances. They could have said “We’re a party with a strong grassroots, and we don’t handpick elite candidates according to their polite capitalist credentials or the content of their tax returns.” Instead, at the very moment its professionalism should no longer have been in serious question, the party made the decision that the new Quebecois empire must be defended to the last ditch. Which seems to have left it playing out a bizarre fast-forward retelling of Shaw’s Pygmalion.

'It was just symbolic'

By Philippe Gohier - Saturday, May 7, 2011 at 4:44 PM - 99 Comments

NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau gives her first interview.

Initially, she said, she put her name on the ballot as a favour to the party she has long-supported. ”It was just symbolic,” she said. “I was approached to put my name on a ballot but I was a supporter of the NDP for many years.”

Watching Monday’s results at the NDP headquarters in Ottawa, Brosseau said she was surprised to see she had handily beat the Bloc incumbent. There was some speculation when Brosseau failed to surface this week that she didn’t want the job, but she said that “never crossed my mind.” ”Once I set my mind to something I always stick to it,” she said.