LOAT: BOOK: ‘Tragedy in the Commons,’ - former MPs

LOAT: BOOK: ‘Tragedy in the Commons,’ - former MPs

Postby Oscar » Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:39 am

LOAT: BOOK: ‘Tragedy in(of) the Commons,’ through the eyes of former MPs

[ http://globalnews.ca/news/1294043/trage ... ormer-mps/ ]

By Staff Global News April 27, 2014 9:00 am

****Scroll down: WATCH: Green party leader Elizabeth May says the biggest problem with politics is excessive power in the hands of the political parties.****

Many Canadians are frustrated with the state of politics in the country — including some of the politicians.

A new book goes behind the curtain through interviews with 80 former MPs and asks what’s really going on.

“What propelled to start these exit interviews in the first place, was trying to get a grip on how a country like Canada, which is so widely respected internationally, has such dissatisfied citizens,” Alison Loat, author of Tragedy in the Commons, said in an interview on The West Block with Tom Clark.

“All of [the former MPs] share a deep respect for public service, but many of them felt that frustration of the short-term political gain culture that can dominate our politics.”

The interviews with MPs from all parties across the country revealed a common dissatisfaction with the way in which politics is displayed and conducted during the daily question period, Loat said.

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Accusing the government of “muzzling” bureaucrats and “silencing” scientists, May described the centralization of power in the Prime Minister’s Office as a “cancerous growth on the body politic.”

In a caucus of two Green MPs in, May answers to nobody.

“I’m very lucky, because I’m not the average MP. I don’t have to report to a bunch of backroom people who are running a non-stop election campaign,” she said.

“But for my colleagues, I feel terribly, dreadfully sorry for the MPs in all the other parties, because they are — and this is something I want to share with all Canadians — they are wonderful people.”

May said she believes a vast majority of politicians enter public life because of a desire to serve their community.

“But after they’re elected, the boom is lowered and they find out that they’re only supposed to say what’s on a cue card in front of them, vote the way they’re told to vote, sit down when they’re told to sit down.”

And standing up to leaders can take a lot of guts, she said.

“You have to be brave to stand up in the system,” she said. “If you’re going to stand up, your only option, really, is to go sit as an independent … All the party leaders’ offices have too much power. And reducing that is going to be essential if we’re going to restore a healthy democracy.”

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Ottawa's Command and Control Antics

[ http://thetyee.ca/Books/2014/04/19/Otta ... ign=190414 ]

Former MPs speak out against 'opaque' and 'juvenile' party handling in a new book.


By Alison Loat and Michael MacMillan, April 19, 2014 TheTyee.ca

Parliamentary voting records reveal that most MPs side with their parties on nearly every vote; but, in recalling their time in Ottawa, the MPs we interviewed wanted to make it clear that they had often felt heavily constrained. And most made a point of telling us about times when they didn't agree with their party, or had sought a concession such as permission to miss a vote in order to help manage their discomfort with the party line.

In fact, almost all the recollections they volunteered were concerned with what it was like to be a member of a political party. And they weren't good. Time and time again, MPs told us how decisions made by party leadership seemed opaque, arbitrary and even juvenile, and how party demands inhibited their ability to serve their constituents.

The MPs' complaints raise an issue: Why join a political party? The difficulty, at least if one wants to be a successful parliamentarian, is that virtually every Canadian MP arrives under the banner of a political party. In the last 30 years, only two freshmen MPs have been elected as independents -- Quebec City's André Arthur in the riding of Portneuf-Jacques-Cartier in 2006, and in 1984, Tony Roman in Toronto's York North.

Even if there is little choice but to sign on with a party in order to get elected or to be effective in Parliament, belonging to a political party requires sacrifices from the MP. Part of that sacrifice is identity. Once an MP decides to run under a party banner, his or her identity becomes closely tied to the organization's brand and leader.

'Nowhere' with tighter discipline

The inherent dichotomy in the role of an MP in a parliamentary democracy is clear -- autonomy in the home riding; loyalty on Parliament Hill. "There may be some exceptions in those African dictatorships that are part of the Commonwealth and so on," said Leslie Seidle, research director of the Institute for Research on Public Policy, in an interview with the Globe and Mail. "But in the advanced parliamentary democracies, there is nowhere that has heavier, tighter party discipline than the Canadian House of Commons."

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[ http://thetyee.ca/Books/2014/04/19/Otta ... ign=190414 ]
Oscar
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