It’s one of those kinds of piece that rolls around every few months, and Laura Payton has again taken a look at the toll to family life that an MP’s job takes, especially as several MPs have opted not to run again, citing that very reason. And that’s well and good, but the moment we get to talking about making Parliament more “family friendly,” we immediately start talking about things without acknowledging any of the very detrimental unintended consequences. Beyond better access to childcare on the Hill for MPs (as opposed to staffers), they immediately start talking about things like cancelling Friday sittings, electronic votes, and attending committees by video conference – all of which are actually terrible ideas. Losing Fridays would mean having to make up the time somewhere else, and since we’ve already cancelled evening sittings to make Parliament more “family friendly,” well, that’s out, and let’s face it – nobody wants to sit in July or August because Ottawa is pretty humid and gross – especially in some of those old stone buildings that aren’t very well air conditioned, never mind that MPs generally want to be on the barbecue circuit or spending time with said families now that their children are out of school. Electronic voting is also a bad idea because half of the point of Parliaments are the very important symbolism of having your representatives stand and be seen to be standing for what they believe in. An electronic tally may be more convenient, but it also damages the meaning of the act. The other reason why it’s terrible is because that’s one of the few times that MPs are all together in one place and can see each other and make contacts, whether that means cornering a minister about an issue that they need to have addressed, or simply building relationships. It’s the same with attending committee by video conference. You’re not forming those relationships either with fellow MPs, or with any of the witnesses appearing before you, and even while some witnesses to appear by video conference, that face-to-face contact and the conversations in the hallway afterward are all lost. Those are tremendously important. There are other ways for MPs to better schedule themselves, but already the parliamentary calendar has changed a lot to accommodate families and travel. The loss of evening sittings had a demonstrable impact on collegiality because MPs no longer ate dinner together. Losing more of that contact will have a crippling blow on the institution.

Good reads:

• The Ottawa Citizen looks at all of our post-9/11 anti-terror legislation.
• Pundit’s Guide looks at the number of retiring MPs and “open” seats in the next election.
• Jason Kenney is signalling there will be more cuts in the next budget, which is what we expected given that the surplus depended on a continued austerity programme.
• John Geddes takes a look at Justin Trudeau’s economic advisory team.
• The level of detail that the Senate audit appears to be going in is dragging it out, and some of the questions are starting to irk the senators.
• Attempts to create any kind of oversight body for military intelligence is being derailed by budget cuts.
• Stephen Harper apparently not only has a hockey jersey collection, but according to the gift registry, he’s also working on an electric guitar collection.
• The federal Official Languages Commissioner wants Quebec to do more to help the province’s Anglophone minority, which is adorable because it’ll never happen.

Odds and ends:

In Ramallah, John Baird’s convoy was pelted with eggs and shoes.

The NDP have submitted their budget wishlist to Joe Oliver.