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My dream has gone from being unlikely to impossible because Keith Martin has said that he will not run again for Parliament.
This seems to be a pattern lately. All the best politicians from all parties have been steadily declining to reenlist for another term of service. Mr. Martin gives us an indication of why:
"This is deeply dissatisfying to all Members of Parliament and indeed Senators. There's a deep and profound level of dissatisfaction across party lines amongst the members that this has become a colossal waste of taxpayers' money," said Mr. Martin (Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, B.C.), who has seen Parliament change over the last 17 years that he's been an MP. "Taxpayers are not getting value for money, at all. Many committees are ground down by partisanship. The committees have just become another theatre for political warfare, an extension in fact of the House. Studies, when they are done, cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, and yet are compiled and thrown onto a shelf to collect dust. So, where's the actual effect of the activities that are taking place on the hill to benefit the public that pays for all of this? It's simply not occurring."
Of course the complaint that Parliament is too partisan is hardly a new one, but it really does seem that it is getting worse.
An easy excuse is that the rise in partisanship is caused by the age of minority parliaments and legislative deadlock, but I don’t buy it. Other countries routinely experience legislatures that are even more split and divided than Canada’s. Yet they seem to find ways to reach across the floor and work together at least to some extent.
So what is the problem? What has been different the last few years? The more I think about it the more I have to come to the conclusion that the fault lies with the current Conservative Party leadership.
Don’t get me wrong. The Liberals and other opposition parties have been guilty of adding to the absurd levels of partisanship. There are no bloodless hands in this matter. Still it is the Conservatives that have taken things to a whole new level.
Early in the government’s first mandate they distributed to MPs a manual describing how to disrupt committees. Committees have traditionally been the place where MPs can put aside partisan concerns (okay at least partly put aside partisan concerns) and enter into real debate. Now, as Mr. Martin says, committees have become nothing more but an extension of the show boating seen in the House. This attitude of hyper-partisnaship seeps its way into everything that the government does, from rhetoric to policy everything is about Liberal bashing. Try to remember the last time a Minister of the Crown made a public policy announcement and refrained from taking a stab at the opposition.
It is not surprising that good people like Jim Prentice and Keith Martin are giving up and going home. Wouldn’t you?
8 comments:
Martin should know why politics is not good value for taxpayers, he states why, it is partisanship at a level never before seen. Why do we have this now? Because the left, used to running this country and much of the free world since WWII is losing its death grip on our throats.. just as some of us are starting to talk out loud. Shame on him for not seeing the devil in his self. (real conservative)
Keith Martin:
"PFFFFT!"
And of course the partisans shout.
I guess when all the major parties pander to special interest groups rather than governing on behalf of the citizenry, partisanship is either all that's left or it provides convenient cover for their fundamental dysfunction.
I agree that the Conservatives have been the worst for it and have broken past a lot of lines that other parties haven't in the past. You would never, for example, see Harper speak out in defence of Ignatieff's family the way McGuinty did the other day about Hudak's (followed by Hudak crossing the floor and shaking his hand - they are warriors but have a degree of respect for each other as individuals).
To be fair, Chretien crossed lines that Mulroney didn't and Mulroney crossed lines that Trudeau didn't, etc. It's been down hill for a long time with no one rising above and Martin's shortterm minority government didn't bode well for him either.
But Harper has infected everthing with not just partisanship, but rabid partisanship fervour. The best example is the one you mentioned: handing out an instruction manual on how to make government dysfunctional.
But perhaps the best example is Harper himself. Most leaders have a gang of thug underlings around them who do the dirty work while the leader remains a bit above the fray with the odd partisan jab here and there but mostly staying out of it. It allows the leader to at least appear to be trying to represent more than just his own party.
Harper is incapable of this. He relishes throwing mud in a way Chretien, Mulroney, Dalton McGuinty, Mike Harris, etc never did. And he has used the discretionary powers of the PM to a far greater extent than any other and for purely partisan purposes. Those combined have had a real detrimental effect. Worse, he or at least the underlings in the PMO insist on this behaviour down the line so even likeminded MPs from different parties are prevented from working on their own and finding common ground. Look at what happened to Michael Chong for example or Maxime Bernier when they spoke up for their beliefs and their constituents. It will be very interesting to hear the stories after Harper is gone.
Harper, Ignatieff, Layton and Duceppe all need to go before anything will get better. Clear the House.
I too had, and have, a great deal of respect for Dr. Martin. We are the poorer for his loss, regardless of whether he sat in parliament as a Liberal or as a Conservative.
well at least when they dont get things done, nothing gets worse. i always figure that if no new legislation was passed, it was a successful session of parliament.
brad
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