Roundup: The wrong way to humanize politics

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I see that Government House Leader Mark Holland was making the media rounds over the weekend about his call for more “humanity” in politics, as he continues to plead for hybrid sessions to continue indefinitely. The problem, however, is that the two are fundamentally incompatible. Do you know why? Because what humanises politicians to one another is to spend time together, face-to-face. Hybrid sittings will keep MPs in isolated bubbles where they have fewer and fewer interactions with their fellow MPs in person, making it harder to see them and treat them as human beings, and we know this because we have seen the decline in civility in real-time since the 1990s when they ended evening sittings in the House of Commons to be “family friendly.” It used to be that three nights a week, MPs would go upstairs at six PM, and all have dinner together in the Parliamentary Restaurant, and at 8 PM, they’d go back to the Chamber, and debate some more. And lo, there was a lot more civility and treating each other in a friendly manner, Question Period theatrics aside, because they spent time with one another as human beings, doing that basic human thing of bonding over food (and yes, booze, because we cannot deny that it was a big part of the culture up until that point, for better or worse). But when they ended those sittings, and MPs no longer ate together, the acrimony got worse, and disagreements got more personal.

I cannot stress this enough—hybrid makes this worse. I know that there is a school of thought that it lets MPs spend more time at home, which gives them more work-life balance, and so on, but to be perfectly frank, the job is in Ottawa. The job is not to be a social worker for constituents filling out passport forms and doing immigration paperwork—the job is to hold the government to account, and doing so by controlling the public purse, meaning scrutiny of the Estimates and the Public Accounts, and debating their legislative proposals along the way. We are straying far from this path, and taking this hybrid makes the slide worse. The job is also face-to-face, because it relies on building relationships, and that doesn’t happen over Zoom. You have heard me time and again saying that the real work happens on the side-lines of committee rooms, in hallways and lobbies, and when you’re talking to ministers while you’re waiting for a vote to happen. This is all in danger of falling away the more MPs move to hybrid (and “virtual” voting is becoming an absolute disaster for MPs being able to approach ministers), and that is not a “more human” approach to politics. It is in fact the opposite, and people need to wake up and realize that fact.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 250:

Russia pulled out of the deal with the UN to allow Ukrainian grain shipments over the Black Sea, likely because their ships were hit by attacks over the weekend, but the UN and Turkey say they are going to ensure those shipments still happen, essentially daring Russia to attack them, so we’ll see how that goes.

https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1586779214069407745

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau joined marchers in solidarity with the families of Flight PS752 in their calls for justice from Iran, and in solidarity with the current protests.
  • Chrystia Freeland, Mélanie Joly and Kim Campbell were signatories to an international statement decrying Iran’s treatment of women.
  • Steven Guilbeault is once again calling out the oil and gas sector for raking in record profits while demanding subsidies from the government to clean up their acts.
  • The Canadian Press got a look at the review into the RCMP’s appalling lack of security in-house in the wake of the arrest of the alleged spy in their ranks.
  • The special interlocutor for unmarked graves at residential school sites is hoping that more Indigenous police services around the country will help with the task.
  • The Financial Post has a longread about the vulnerability in Canada’s supply chains because we only have two uncompetitive railway companies.
  • Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says he doesn’t feel his independence is under threat as opposition leaders take turns denouncing him.
  • In advance of the Fall Economic Statement, Pierre Poilievre sent a performative open letter to Chrystia Freeland full of his usual financial bunkum.
  • Andrew Leach denounces the special break royalty break that Danielle Smith is proposing to give oil companies for their well clean-ups.
  • Andrew Coyne shares my view that we need to return to a system where caucus chooses and fires party leaders.
  • Paul Wells reflects on what we’ve heard from Peter Sloly at the public inquiry.

Odds and ends:

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