Dog. Bitch. Is this the language you’d expect to hear in Parliament, or a kennel? Sadly, the House of Commons has been a model of disorderly conduct lately – not just for the name-calling, but also for the excessive partisanship, the lack of creadible debate and the my-way-or-the-highway approach to politics.
Average Canadians look at this and wonder what must be in the water cooler outside the Commons. Why can’t MPs just be serious about why they’re there, instead of trurning the business of Canada into a team sport with locker room overtones?
Good questons, indeed. I bounced a few of them off a veteran woman MP when I spoke with her this week, plus MPtv took to the streets to hear from some voters.
To watch the video, click here.
25 comments ↓
Good Topic Garth!
I’m sure lots of people would like to see you lead the way for MP’s to raise the bar and set the standard for decorum, ethics, and the business at hand of running the country.
Bravo!
Well, Garth. This infantile behaviour on the part of parliamentarians should not be a surprise – it has been that way for ages. However, this latest soap opera has sunk our HoC to new depths of stupidity.
How can anyone take nearly any politician seriously?
I mean, Belinda goes on and on about the treatment of women in the House, yet outside the house she shows absolutely no respect to other women. Especially those married to men she covets.
We need more politicians that walk the walk. They all talk.
You’re sinking to the level you say the rest of them are already at Garth.
By continuing on with this sensationalist issue, you’re obviously not moving on to the infinitely more important issues facing Canadians today.
And to be exact, neither of those two opening words you used were actually spoken in the Commons to describe a woman.
Can we PLEASE move on…
Recently I started watching Hoc debates thanks to the ParlVU webcast. What a surprise. MPs screaming, shouting, seriously they (you ?) look like children who fight to know who’s first or a horde of wild animals that didn’t eat for a while.
That’s a shame. Sometimes it’s possible to have MPs with interesting speeches they can’t finish because of the agitation and noise.
Oh please. Just because you have sex with a married man doesn’t make you a bad person or someone who can’t be trusted. It does mean the married man can’t be trusted.
Richard Feynman, the nobel winning physicist, used to do a good deal of his writing in strip joints.
Winston Churchhill was an inveterate adulter.
Be wary of hypocrits, like the pastor who calls for the death of homosexuals while the whole time he’s been paying male prostitues for BJs and drugs. This is the kind of person you can’t trust.
Good topic, and this applies to all of our people’s representatives in all levels of government.
We should show respect to those we serve at all times.
http://www.drews.ca
Garth:
I think it’s high time the Speaker in the HofC started setting the record straight. Unfortunately, he has to be acting like a parent with a lot of kids that misbehave, backtalk, namecall, and do things us parents don’t allow our children to do!
Our MP’s should know better and conduct themselves in a dignified and respectful manner; however, when they don’t, I don’t understand why the Speaker doesn’t set the record straight and make them say whatever they need to (Eg. apology).
My kids watch this and I wonder what they think of this behavior in the HofC- it’s a scary thought!!
… And to think these are today’s Leaders of our Nation. Shameful indeed.
James,
I don’t see Garth sinking to any level in the house of Parliament? When Garth asks a question in QP, he is polite and asks a reasonable question addressed to the speaker on behalf of his constituents. Can we not expect those questions to be answered appropriately? Can we not demand it!?
Further he is raising an issue on this blog that is (or should be) concerning to all of us which is; how do we expect our government officials to behave? I don’t find it particularly sensationalist, but I do find it disturbing when alerted by the media that things have gotten so out of control that our Minister of Foreign Affairs slips up and can’t just tell the world; ‘whoops, sorry’. It tells me that we need a leader (any MP will do) to take control of this situation, address it with us (the people) and perhaps decide NOT to accept the status quo, and relinquish to cynicism that we can’t change the system but instead to hear from the people if WE want change, if WE want the bar raised, if WE are going to demand a shift in how business is conducted by those that represent us? What is wrong with credible debate, or with setting aside party colours whilst on committee to get a job done? What a better forum with which to deliberate on this than here, right out in the wide open. Perhaps we NEED to discuss this?
Garth has raised an interesting topic. ‘I’ for one would like to see less broohaha and more important work being conducted for the betterment of society and I would like to see how many folks concur.
Notice that Layton is now demanding an ‘inclusive’ effort to redo a BETTER clean air act. Notice that Garth tried that already but his party tried to gag order him so they could feed us bullshit but that isn’t going to stop him from going to the people to see what they think and want is it? Notice that despite the liberals making a lot of noise about the decorum issue, that they actually haven’t stopped playing the same game?
Garth isn’t playiung a game here or being sensationaist at all in my opinion. He’s saying ‘people?, what is wrong with this picture? What do YOU want your government to do and to look like and how do YOU want them to behave?’
Did the liberals ask us?
Did the Globe and Mail ask us?
No, they just shout and make noise and sensationalize, whereas Garth sits at the table and opens it up to us.
So, James, yes let’s move on. Richard, can we stop “the way this has been done for ages”, and how do people propose we do that?
William Hane,
Surely you’re joking!? Feynman? And to think all his wonderful ideas-inspired from viewing the female form.
Goodness
Garth: Some years ago, before I managed to grow out of the Diaper Corps (anyone under 30), I watched QP in the BC Legislature. The only things missing were rubber bands and spitballs. I met the Speaker of the House, and watched as he was helpless to keep order. When he rises, the MP’s or MLA’s are all supposed to sit down and SHUT UP! Do they honestly suppose that we, the ordinary taxpaying citizen, can’t see them behave like seven-year-olds at recess? Or is it that they simply do not care? And these are the people we trust with our tax dollars? What do you call 10,000 politicians and bureaucrats at the bottom of Rideau Canal? Too little — too late.
OCTJMO – ICBW – nyah, nyah, nyah
When does the Speaker of the House job come up next….maybe you should run for it!(does an MP run for the job or is he/she volunteered?)
I suspect using the Rod (a symbol of the speakers power) would not go down very well!
Maybe, the speaker needs to give some MP’s a time out, followed by sending them to their rooms if these MP’s keep on with their childish behaviour!
Conduct in the House during QP is deplorable. Particularly galling is the catcalling that drowns out answers to questions asked. What purpose can there be – for disagreement in a boorish manner – with an answer that is yet to be heard.
The only decorum exhibited is by the Speaker, whose calm requests for order (but generally not before the din makes conversation impossible) is ignored. His continued serenity, while making further futile requests for order, eventually becomes equally irritating.
Just once, I wish the Speaker would drop the charade, and address the House in a manner that would be demand obedience. To wit: “Shut the F*#% up you MOTHER F*#%@&$ or I’ll boot you where the sun don’t shine.
Until that day arrives, I prefer to watch the CBC for updates on hog belly futures.
Okay, so we have some ideas surfacing.
1.Spare the rod, spoil the child.
2. Get out and go to your room.
3. Irate, are you a Hell’s Angel member?
4. Alex, where is Jimmy Hoffa?
Basically, the suggestions boil down to the Speaker doing something about it. Perhaps he could adjourn QP, as we watch them file out and resume QP a while later or make the instigators come back for a detention? Perhaps the paiges have suggestions? Or school children across the country could come up with ideas?
And who might I ask has started a Canada wide petition addressed to the Speaker of HoC and circulated via e-mail to attach one’s name at the bottom?
Garth,
What does the Scrutiny of Regulations Committee do?
Or perhaps we can appeal to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, who is also ironically the Minister for Sport? Ah, wait a minute; Leader of the Government in the House of Commons & Minister for Democratic Reform. Let’s say for a minute that enmasse Canadians send a structured letter (downloadable of course) to the right ‘guy’, and demand, request, beg, for a particular action, OR all visitors here to the blog click a ‘vote’ button and Garth reads a statement in the house. Or idonno how about we stop complaining and come up with realistic potential solutions?
Any suggestions Garth?
This whole thing is so ridiculous. Here’s a credo to live by: “Never dip in the company ink”. Belinda and Poodles MacKay never heard it, I guess. So, let me share another piece of wisdom they perhaps learned from an earlier time: “Ink, Ink, a bottle of ink. The cork fell off, and you stink.”
How many days of question period were wasted on this issue? Garth, why don’t you interview David McGuinty as to why he felt it so important to raise this issue after question period, in the midst of a key debate on global warming? What was wasted? Three days of valuable questions in OUR house of Commons? It was a jocular and immature comment made off camera and heard by few. Now it’s a crisis?
What’s next? Will you be taking your MPTV to the men’s locker room for more examples, or hovering in the lobby of your building (occupied as well by Ms. Stronach as I understand) to interview all potential guests to get their perspective on doggy-gate?
Move on. It’s the lame media and MPs like David McGuinty who waste TOO much time on these issues.
OV,
If Garth doesn’t have a suggestion, refer to my earlier post.
BTW, what was the clue to my club affiliation?
Old Enough: “three days of valuable questions”? What Question Period do you watch? There are never meaningful questions and they are definitely never answers. It is a staged act by both sides-one-upmanship-theatre- ham- scripted- That is Question Period. Period.
Okay, time to get serious about a solution for civilizing an out of control House during QP. I have no idea how the rules governing deportment are structured, so this will be off the top of my head.
Let’s start with the guy running the asylum. But no, Doug Finley has his hands full at the moment setting up boiler rooms and exporting Conservative voters to London. So let’s go over Finley’s head and appeal to the Governor General. Nope, the next throne speech may be a long time off, and anyway Harper would only reject out-of-hand any recommendation from Michaeele Jean. How about asking Michaeele to Email the Queen, requesting Her Majesty to ask Tony Blair to add an amendment to the Magna Carta. Naah, the House of Lords would probably stonewall, and so we’re back to square one.
Then, let’s try a private member’s bill.
Does anyone come to mind for the task OV? Over to you.
Judy – I do agree with you. Ever since the live TV introduction into HoC, many MPs on all sides have become drama queens – especially in QP.
O.V. – Garth polite? have you read his blogs? He has no problem with his “flowers of evil”, “pussies”, etc commentary. On the surface he’s quite spoken, but, his written word is quite to be desired.
So where was the outcry when Deborah Gray was called “a slab of bacon” in the HoC. Garth – I’m sure you would want to interview Deborah.
Garth, how about the marginalizing that Mr. Harper has seen (his clothing, his interactions with his children, etc)?
Garth, how about the marinalizing that Stockwell Day received, when he showed up in a wet suit?
BTW: as a woman, I personally, don’t take any offense that someone called BS a bitch; as I don’t consider BS a role model for a woman or even a man. Privately, women probably have used worse words than bitch to describe BS. It’s too bad Martha Hall Finley lost the opportunity to run in Newmarket against BS. Martha certainly is many heads above BS and even the current liberal front runners – and I’m not even a liberal supporter!
Judy,
We watch the nasty exchange highlights because that’s what the media feeds us – and the politicians do it because it will gt them on the news.
It seems to me Mr. Turner posted his substantive question about income splitting, and Mr. Flaherty’s response in an earlier MPTV.
Had he never posted it himself, you or I would not have seen it.
“There are never meaningful questions and they are definitely never answers”.
Care to respond Garth?
Yes, thanks. One powerful reason I am hosting and producing MPtv is to give Canadians exactly that – a more indepth look at the people in Parliament, and policy-oriented events which occur. That includes questions in the House which are actually intended to solicit answers and move issues forward. I am commited to behaving in a responsible and respectful fashion. It’s what my voters expect, and demand. — Garth
Old Enough,
Contrary to yet another assertion by Judy, many meaningful questions are asked in QP. Garth’s recent questions to Flaherty are examples.
Many sensible discomfiting questions are asked by the OPPOSITION. Government embarrassement is adroitly deflected by a rambling answer that transposes the topic. In my opinion this particular talent is the prime requisite for Cabinet consideration.
The considerable disruption in the House during QP has a useful purpose.
It reduces the time MPs look foolish feigning indignation about trivia after exhausting meaningful questions.
It reduces the anxiety of Ministers forced to defend questionable government action.
Don’t look for any changes to the staus quo. Of course that’s just my opinion, but WDIK.
“Then, let’s try a private member’s bill. Does anyone come to mind for the task OV? Over to you.”
Ooooo yes, Irate what a clever idea, I do know just the MP for the job. He’s intelligent, civilized and polite and by golly I think he has a motorcycle!
It’s agreed then?
Off topic, you didn’t happen to catch Lord Black addressing the Empire Club on TVO today did you? What a droll old man. He gave a political history of Canada. From his perspective. I dare say they are happy to be rid of him but I wish they’d locked him in the Tower instead of sending him back here.
Peter McKay should put the issue to rest once and for all. He should apologize to all dog lovers everywhere.
OV,
Yep, we’re agreed. I believe you’re the one to broach the subject to our man. He’s a rather unassuming fellow and I sense that you have a knack for gentle persuasion.
I missed Connie’s account of Jacques Cartier paddling up the Ottawa river, during black fly season. Heard though that everyone who shook his hand at the event, immediately after counted their fingers.