Canadian Parliamentarians and Children

 In reading about the latest kerfuffle in the Canadian Parliament where the Prime Minister elbowed a female member of the Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in her chest, it strikes me (not for the first time) that someone must do something to make that institution function in a somewhat more useful way. While the Opposition try to make the event seem more sinister than it was, no one believes that Trudeau intentionally elbowed her. It is just a way for those opposed to the government’s agenda to make things more difficult. It is just a way to embarrass the Prime Minister and to hopefully reduce his approval ratings with the Canadian public. This strategy may even work given how short sighted and easily taken in the Canadian public is. We, like so many other voters in western democratic countries, seem to have an infinite capacity to be fooled or even lied to by our politicians. Still, someone needs to do something.

There are a number of separate but related problems that need to be resolved. One is how people get elected to the house. The Liberals have promised to change our electoral system so that who gets elected more truly represent the will of the voters. The second issue is how the business of the House gets done.

It seems to me that the MPs, specifically those on the Opposition side, are quite content to drag out any discussion as long as possible. In the present Canadian Parliament, because the Liberals have a majority, everyone knows that eventually they are going to have their way. The best the Opposition can do is to delay things as much as possible. Otherwise the ruling party will look to be efficient and effective, which means that they might get re-elected. No matter who gets elected, the strategy is the same.... embarrass when possible, delay always. The Conservatives, who a year ago employed the exact same tactics to speed up the process, are now accusing the Liberals of being the worst thing ever seen in Canadian politics and a danger to democracy. It is fine line between insuring that there is enough reasonable debate and being effective in passing the needed new laws.

 I have a solution to this dilemma.

Many years ago when I was a worker and then the senior worker at a CAS adolescent assessment group home, teenagers who lived there, occasionally refused to do their chores. They were not onerous responsibilities – usually it was doing such tasks as the dishes, sweeping or tidying up. We were not allowed, as Mr. Trudeau did, to grab an individual to help them move long faster. We had in fact, relatively few tools in our arsenal to encourage them to act responsibly and to do their share of the work. My favourite strategy was to sit down and say to the young person “ I get paid to be here, whether you do the dishes now or later, it does not matter to me. You can take as long as you want to get them done. Until you do them, you can’t do anything else. I am happy to sit here and do nothing except watch you until they are done. I am in no rush”. Almost invariably after few minute to save face, the young person would get on with the task. It is difficult for anyone or anything (e.g. the Opposition) to have a fight or argument with someone who won’t argue.

The next time a member of the Opposition wishes to have more debate on a particular topic – let them. The Government of the day should set an agenda, make it clear what will be accomplished by when and allow the Opposition to use their time as they wish. If they want more committee time – fine. If they want longer debates in the house – fine. But those longer debates and extended meetings will happen on their own time. If they want to work harder, discuss more and perhaps look for compromises, then their work day will just have to get longer. They could stall all they want. They won’t get paid any more, but they should feel free to work as many hours as they want. Don’t limit the debate. Challenge the Opposition to work more hours. My bet is that most of them when faced with the choice of being inefficient and argumentative and consequently working more hours or learning how to work together effectively, they will chose the latter option.

Stop treating Parliamentarians as children who can never learn. Give them a clear choice with clear consequences. Trust them eventually they, as did those teenagers, will learn that working cooperatively is better for everyone including themselves.

Giving Aid

Fairly shortly after the earthquake in Haiti various Canadian media outlets trumpeted with much fanfare and perhaps some justification that Canadians had given more per capita to assist that damaged country than anywhere else. Canadians who heard such statements had every reason to be proud. There have been other opportunities to demonstrate our individual and national will and capacity to assist others. Whether it was refugees from Viet Nam or more recently from Syria, disaster aid to the Sudan or to other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the use of our Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) in the Philippines, to our aid in Nepal Canada has been ready and able to provide assistance

 Canadians have however, had relatively few opportunities to demonstrate their generosity within our own borders. Certainly when the rivers around Winnipeg over-flow the banks Canadians have contributed to the disaster relief efforts, when the town of Save Lake burnt in another disastrous fire a few years ago, Canadians were there to help but in general we have been fortunate as a country not to have had the type of disasters that other countries seem to have with discouraging regularity. Due to our lack of practice in donating internally and given the often mentioned animosity between central Canada and the West, one could have assumed that Canadians would not have been responsive, or at least not respond quickly.

However, as demonstrated by the wild fire and the consequent destruction of homes and infrastructure in and around Fort McMurray – Canadians are very capable and more importantly very willing to assist their fellow Canadians. I met a lady on the train who was from Fort McMurray. To things struck me about her and her experiences. One was that at every step of the way there was someone or some organization ready to help. The second thing that perhaps should not have surprised me was how thrilled and how gracious she was about all of the assistance she had received.

It seems to me that with a handful of exceptions (most notably Air Canada who appear to not have been at all generous about assisting people to get out of the area) companies, governments and people have done all that they could to make what must have been an absolutely horrible experience to be as smooth as is possible. The amounts of money donated by private individuals and governments not only appears to be sufficient for the moment, but it was allocated/donated almost immediately. Surprisingly there seems to have been relatively little red tape in at least the early stages.

Hopefully the fires will start to die out, people will then be able to assess the situation, things can get rebuilt and people can get back to their lives. It won’t be easy, it will take months and months before anyone’s life will resemble anything near normal. It will cost billions of dollars to rebuild and many of the residents, especially those without adequate insurance, may never recover completely. While it is wonderful that all of the individuals, companies and governments were so responsive during the crises and the immediate aftermath, the real test of our capacity to care and to be our brother’s keeper will be in the months ahead when the fire no longer is the top news story.