Over the past several weeks, we've watched filibusters, privilege debates and procedural gamesmanship pile up as the opposition parties continue to protest the government's plans to "modernize" the Standing Orders in a vain attempt to turn the House of Commons into a "21st century workplace" as though it were an office job, like a law firm or PR agency, which it most emphatically is not. As is often the case with these sorts of things, we have been treated to all manner of apocalyptic language about how the government is trying to run roughshod over the opposition, and how this is an expression of Justin Trudeau's "admiration for the basic dictatorship of China" and his love of the Castro family, and how our very democratic rights are imperilled in Canada. The sky is falling around our ears.
Amidst these proclamations of doom are the assertions that this is all a ploy by the Prime Minister to get Fridays off, and that he's looking to avoid accountability in the House of Commons by only showing up one day a week. While these two examples that they are highlighting in order to create a visceral response with their voting public are weak at best the more problematic proposals are around things like scheduling motions and limiting committee speaking times these very opposition parties are acting in a completely hypocritical way around them.
The assertion that ending Friday sittings are an extra day off is baffling to me, because if you dare suggest to an MP that a constituency week is a "break week" or gods forbid a "holiday," they will quickly rebuke you and rail about how hard they work in their ridings. And they do I certainly wouldn't want to have to deal with a non-stop line-up of constituents asking me to help them with the problems they're having with the federal bureaucracy, or listening to their complaints (which likely are directed at another level of government), or needing to be at every community event and shopping mall opening to show their support. So why they're suggesting that the governing party would treat a non-sitting Friday as a "day off" is beyond me, because it's a talking point that backfires against them.
And then there are the complaints about QP. To start with, there is a pronounced historical amnesia about Stephen Harper's poor attendance record (toward the end of his time in government, you would be lucky if he'd show up one day a week and only answer the questions of other leaders, not including Elizabeth May), which they were always quick to defend with protestations about how busy he was prime ministering. Apparently, however, they've decided that Trudeau is not similarly busy prime ministering and is just swanning about taking selfies because that's the narrative they're trying to push, no matter how specious it really is. But their own party leaders (interim or otherwise) also can't be bothered to show up five days a week presumably because they're busy party leadering, which starts to make their concern trolling a bit suspicious.
This past Friday, we had an event which demonstrated why Friday sittings are necessary, which was the reaction to the US bombing in Syria in the wake of those chemical weapon attacks. Trudeau could very easily have simply put out a press release and left it at that, or if he felt really exercised, simply walked down to the microphone in the House of Commons Foyer to say his bit and then retreat to his office. But instead, he chose to attend Friday QP, make his statement in response to opposition questions on the subject, and answer other questions as he normally would on any given QP, and then have his minister use a ministerial statement spot after QP in order for opposition critics to give a chance to make statements in response. In other words, he was respecting Parliament as a place to speak to the nation.
What we did not see, however, were any of the other leaders, or in fact, very many opposition MPs, to respond to this unfolding situation. If you believed their apocalyptic rhetoric, you would think that they would be making a demonstration to show Canadians just how important Friday sittings were, and why any talk about cancelling them was unconscionable but they haven't been. Friday attendance by opposition MPs hasn't improved since they started this hue and cry, while I've actually seen more Liberal MPs in attendance. (Note that Government House Leader Bardish Chagger has also mused that they might turn Fridays into a full day instead of the current half-day so as to get more work done rather than simply redistributing Friday hours elsewhere in the week).
Similarly, if the opposition were so concerned about Question Period as being the time and place to hold the prime minister to account, you would think that they might make a greater effort to, well, actually hold him to account in QP. Instead, the constant line-up of faux outrage with no flow or follow-up, or actual debate when Trudeau responds in banalities, would seem to demonstrate that they're not really taking the accountability part seriously either. If they were, they might be pressing Trudeau or his ministers when they don't get proper responses, or engaging in some actual cut-and-thrust in the course of their questions.
Instead, nothing has changed. QP remains a wasteland of disjointed scripts designed to serve as a buffet of media clips, which serves no accountability function because it's not encouraging the public to tune in. Quite the opposite, in fact. If this is the opposition's way of demonstrating that the government is wrong to press for these "modernizations," they're not walking their own talk. Instead, Trudeau showing up on Friday, and taking all questions last Wednesday, is showing that he's savvy enough to beat them at their own PR game. If the opposition is looking to do their job and preserve the way our parliament works (more or less), then they'd better step up their game, because right now, they're well on the way to doing Trudeau and Chagger's dirty work for them.
