The Speaker’s lecture about heckling versus ideas on Tuesday continues to make the rounds, alongside the Samara study that I wrote about the other day, but as Nick Taylor-Vaisey concludes, the vows to end heckling won’t last, which is just as well. What gets me are the constant head-shaking about how heckling wouldn’t happen in any other workplace, so why should it be acceptable in parliament. My response would be, and will always be, is that parliament is different, and that it shouldn’t be like any other workplace. Consider it a kind of by-product of parliamentary privilege that keeps the institution self-governing and in its own particular bubble against some of the laws and regulations that apply to other people. Parliament is special because nowhere else does this kind of debate happen, is there an accountability function to be had in open and on public display, and nowhere else is the exchange of ideas both vigorous, theatrical, and relevant to whether or not that MP will continue again past the next election. Once again, I will offer the caveat that yes, there is boorish and sexist heckling that should be called out and stamped down, but that is not necessarily representative of all heckling, and really, we haven’t seen the likes of a “calm down, baby” that made the John Crosbie/Sheila Copps exchanges so much a part of our collective memory. We don’t have MPs singing the national anthem to drown out the other side, or setting off firecrackers. And it’s a safe bet that the vast majority of MPs aren’t showing up for debates inebriated – something that could not be assured during the days of martini lunches and copious alcohol all around the Hill. This is probably the calmest our QPs have been in a generation, and yet we are still faced with these constant admonitions that it’s still somehow terrible. No, it’s not. If Elizabeth May can’t hear, that’s as much a function of the terrible acoustics in the Chamber, where you can’t often hear what’s being said even during the dullest of regular debates, than it is the reactions of those around her. If there is an issue that should be tackled, it’s the constant applause and standing ovations, and the use of scripts that has destroyed the debating ability of our MPs. Heckling is honestly the least of our worries.

Good reads:

• The government unveiled their new interim pipeline approval guidelines for existing projects, in advance of new rules for upcoming approvals.
• The previous government was indeed cherry-picking which Syrian families they would bring over. Look surprised, everyone!
• It sounds like the Liberals may be considering an additional copyright registration system to bolster TPP protections.
• Charlie Angus has been taking shots at the new Clerk of the Privy Council, and apparently doesn’t understand how the civil service works. Look surprised, everyone!
• Ralph Goodale is talking about getting additional RCMP resources to combat the fentanyl trade in Canada.
• Some people are concerned that the Canadian War Museum took corporate donations from an arms manufacturer.
• Susan Eng, the woman who was the face of seniors advocacy group CARP, has been fired allegedly for her neutral stance on physician assisted dying.
• Paul Wells writes about the first 100-ish days of the Trudeau government, and looks ahead at what’s to come.

Odds and ends:

Mauril Bélanger used a speech generator to introduce his bill into the Commons, now that ALS is robbing him of his voice.

There is talk of digging new basements in the Centre Block, in part to help with new seismic shock-absorption.

Alheli Picazo is on National Post Radio to talk about her column on euthanasia in Canada.