I was bored enough today to tune to CPAC on TV and watch, of all things, the Canadian House of Commons. Immediately I noticed several things.
There is no end to the partisan politics. If you're wondering why Parliament doesn't work, just watch the House of Commons. They're so busy attacking each other they have no time for offering up constructive ideas for new legislation. A Conservative member rose to speak for about 15 minutes, and I counted about 20 slurs on the NDP and another 10 on the Liberals. [Insert party here] is in a fantasy world; [insert party here] just doesn't get it; [insert party here] is totally ignorant of the facts, etc. etc. This is why substantial legislation (with the exception of confidence and budgetary matters) hardly ever gets passed!
Also, trivial Private Members Bills clog up the system a lot. On the order of business today was Bill C-544, An Act to amend the Health of Animals Act and the Meat Inspection Act (slaughter of horses for human consumption), "to prohibit the importation or exportation (a) of horses for slaughter for human consumption; and (b) of horse-meat products for human consumption." And I kid you not, every time an NDP member rose to speak, he or she produced a petition of a couple hundred signatures from some remote part of Canada supporting the bill, and every time, they had to read out the exact wording of the summary of the act after referencing the bill. Talk about literally beating a dead horse! Seriously, if it's unethical and unsafe to eat parts of horses, then pass the damn bill and move on!
Third, and probably most striking, was the empty chairs. I for one did not know that Canadians elected ghosts in 220 ridings. Where are all the MPs?! We elected you to work for us, so show up to work! We certainly didn't elect MPs to let them collect a 6-figure salary for showing up to work 5 days a month. Seriously, if they're going to behave like schoolchildren, then we should treat them like schoolchildren. Hell, take attendance if it's necessary to keep them in the House of Commons. And while we're at it, make these records public so everyone can see how hard their MP works. That way, if they're just there on a publicly subsidized ego trip for 4 years, at least we'll know to boot them out sooner rather than later.
Last election, 59% of us voted. Politicians keep talking about how this is a crisis and how they need to engage us better so we'll start voting again. A good place to start is working at an efficiency greater than 59%, and showing up more than 59% of the time.
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