Roundup: Mister Speaker is a meanie

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While astute readers will know that I have my issues with the way that Speaker Regan is attempting to crack down on heckling in the Commons, one thing I will not countenance is the kind of whinging that the opposition – and in particular the Conservatives – are engaged in as a result. Yes, the Speaker does call them out more, because *gasp* they heckle more! Science! But what gets the Conservatives most are the ways in which Regan will sometimes editorialise in his interventions, whether it’s his admonition to keep the Chamber from sounding like a 1950 boys’ club, or in reminding two front-bench Conservatives that Question Period is not the Muppet Show. It is a different tone from the Speaker than we’ve seen in the last several parliaments, and Regan is adopting a more forceful tone when it comes to trying to put an end to heckling. I may disagree with how he’s doing it, and in particular his sanctimonious tone, but his naming actual MPs who are heckling is part of the process of trying to turn the tables so that they are being held to account for their behaviour. It’s a legitimate tactic, but to complain that he’s picking on the Conservatives is a bit rich. Yes, the Liberals were boisterous when they were in opposition, and nobody is saying that’s a bad thing, but even when in government, the Conservatives tended to be boorish hecklers, and their behaviour in opposition is not much improved. If they had instructive cross-talk or clever retorts, then yeah, it might not be so bad, but most of the time, it’s not clever. I will also add that this is part of the problem with the issue of heckling in the Commons – everyone agrees that it’s a problem, everyone insists that they don’t do it, even when they do, and it’s always someone else who’s worse and needs to be dealt with instead of them, because they’re always the victim in this. None of it is true, but MPs like to tell themselves that it is. It’s also a problem in that making the Speaker crack down on it is more about trying to treat symptoms than it is the actual cause of why they’re doing it in the first place, but that would mean more broad changes to the rules and the way that things run, and there seems to be even more resistance to that. Until MPs can have a grown-up conversation about the issue of heckling, we’re likely to get more whinging on all sides of the issue rather than actual progress.

Good reads:

  • Why yes, the number of constituency weeks MPs are getting currently is obscene. And surprise, MPs want to keep it that way.
  • The preliminary hearings to help shape the inquiry in to missing and murdered Indigenous women are wrapping up.
  • Here’s a look at some of the difficulties in building an east-west electrical grid in Canada.
  • CBC breaks down which ridings the Energy East pipeline would go through, and how that may be a problem for parties.
  • The Liberals are looking to attract younger talent into the civil service, hoping Millennials will bring a new “golden age,” but that’ll mean a huge culture change.
  • Our museums are $78.9 million underfunded thanks in part to frozen funding and inflation.
  • A government science vessel under construction also needs more money if it’s going to be completed.
  • Lobbyists are concerned that new directives from the Lobbying Commissioner around things like receptions could hobble their industry.
  • Lauren Dobson-Hughes has some observations about the civil service and government transitions.
  • Thomas Mulcair enumerates a few more areas where he feels he let the party down in the election, but he continues to cling to the (nonsensical) niqab theory.
  • Rona Ambrose pleads for the continuation of the bombing mission against ISIS, and again uses gay and lesbian rights – something her party fought – as justification.
  • Chantal Hébert re-evaluates the NDP platform and imagines what their first 100 days would look like – a good reality check for their rhetoric.
  • Andrew Coyne ponders the fact that Mulcair’s worst enemy is himself.

Odds and ends:

Canada’s first openly transgender judge has been sworn in to the Manitoba bench.

Quebec’s finance minister is “clarifying” his remarks to say he’s open to discussions about how the province might sell marijuana.

https://twitter.com/jameslhsprague/status/698927332308951040

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