Roundup: Responsible, not rogue

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A Liberal MP has broken ranks on a government bill! Oh noes! Let us now treat this as some kind of crisis of leadership! Okay, so the CBC piece about the event is only slightly more measured than that, but their Twitter headline certainly wasn’t.

One of the most enduring problems with Canadian political reporting is the constant conundrum of demanding that MPs exercise more independence, but immediately treating any instances of MPs breaking party ranks as some kind of crisis of leadership, where obviously the grip has been lost and soon it will be all over for the leader. (In some cases, the party itself treats it as some kind of betrayal of solidarity *cough*NDP*cough* and punishes its MPs internally with things like removing QP spots for weeks or removing members from committees or travel junkets). Ditto with senators, or at least until Trudeau kicked his senators out of national caucus – “is the leader losing control of his senators?” was not an uncommon headline either (though not one that is generally screamed as loudly, and one might also add that not enough ink was spilled on the split in caucus over Bill C-377 – the “union transparency” bill – the first time around when they voted to gut it, and Marjory LeBreton stepped down as Government Leader a couple of weeks later after seriously mishandling the whole thing inside her caucus). And yes, Trudeau did promise more free votes, but this is one of those common promises that tends to wind up with MPs voting in lock-step anyway because they all really support their party or they all just happen to all think in lock-step. I am also reminded that when Michael Ignatieff tried to encourage his caucus to vote more freely on private members’ bills by not rarely voting for them personally – so that they wouldn’t look to him as to how to vote – he was punished for it by Jack Layton lying about those missed votes as poor attendance during the election (though Ignatieff should have responded with the policy and shut him down, but didn’t, and lost the election quite badly as a result). Suffice to say, when MPs don’t vote in lockstep, we shouldn’t use terms like “goes rogue,” because it gives entirely the wrong connotation about what has taken place. We want more responsible and independent-minded MPs, so let’s not make it harder for them to do so. And let’s leave the word “rogue” to this for the time being:

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau spent the day at the Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, but media was shut out because VICE was shooting a documentary about it.
  • The Chief of Defence Staff visited our forces in northern Iraq, and predicted the demise of ISIS.
  • Some other churches’ fiscal obligations for residential schools reconciliation has also been affected by the deal the Catholic Church made to reduce their obligation.
  • A retired admiral says that the current military procurement system has become one about avoiding risk and responsibility, leading to interminable delays.
  • The Information Commissioner says she’s asked for a bigger budget, but has been actually been given less money.
  • A former Liberal MP, who was the parliamentary secretary for consular affairs in the Martin years, said the government should have laid out its ransom policy sooner.
  • An Ontario court says the former government violated the constitutional rights of postal workers when it legislated an end to their 2011 strike.
  • That public service pay issue isn’t going away, and departments are being told to issue emergency cheques in the meantime.
  • It looks like the National Energy Board could be getting some Indigenous board members. Currently the board is mostly former oil executives.
  • Paul Dewar says he’s not considering a second NDP leadership bid (and that the party needs a ground-up rebuild).
  • Andrew Scheer, meanwhile, is reportedly considering a Conservative Party leadership, which doesn’t really bode well for his legacy as Speaker.
  • Chris Montgomery talks about rules the Senate still needs to tighten, while the chair and vice-char of Internal Economy say they won’t sic the AG on Duffy.
  • Paul Wells writes about the challenge that the Conservatives have in re-imagining their brand of conservatism post-Harper.

Odds and ends:

Chrystia Freeland’s chief of staff has to avoid any conversations about Barrick Gold, as his father is on the board.

Here are some profiles of the wonks and academics that are now in cabinet and senior government positions.