Parliament sheds its Hogwarts image
Now that virtual sittings of Parliament have completed their third week, perhaps it’s time to talk about something other than the novelty factor.
Not that it hasn’t been entertaining to learn which cabinet minister couldn’t figure out his or her mute button, or who had the best bookcases. But the breathless tenor of reportage in the style of “political celebrities, they’re just like us!” has obscured a more substantive discussion about why moving the business of governing Canada’s people online carries with it long-term implications for democracy that are beneficial.
That the internet is the world’s greatest equalizer is a cliché. It is, however, also true. Absent the grand backdrop, the lights, the acoustics and the thunder of desk-banging in the Commons chamber, question period, a showdown former prime minister John Turner famously referred to as “Bullshit Theatre,” now finds itself mostly stripped of said bullshit. No better time, then, to refocus attention and coverage on the subjects raised and debated.
First, the drama of the show, when it is held in person, is usually brought to us through what sometimes feels like the relatively narrow lens of the designated theatre critics: Parliament Hill-based reporters, who understand the ins and outs of politics, most of whom are very fine people, but many of whom have not worked recently or for any substantial length of time outside Ontario.
Little wonder that Angus Reid Institute polling shows only Ontarians, on balance, believe they are well-represented by Parliament, while those most likely to say the opposite live farthest from Centre Block’s postal code, in Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.
Second, being a computer-based parliamentarian these days may improve the mindsets of MPS. In past times, it has not been unusual to see our elected officials enveloped by what I call Hogwarts Syndrome, in which the rhythms, intrigues and mystical atmosphere of the institution overtake what they’re supposed to be doing there. Replace party names Liberals, Conservatives and New Democrats with Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and
Gryffindor, and it isn’t hard to see how some MPS sent by voters from far-flung places become so preoccupied with scoring points for their House teams that they sometimes forget us mere muggles beyond the Hill. The chances of this happening whilst doing the business of the House from one’s constituency office (or home office) in one’s own constituency are likely significantly diminished.
Third, In the long run, more parliamentary business conducted online offers real opportunities to bring a more generationally balanced, more diverse cohort to federal politics.
Canada is a really big country. Six time zones, thousands of kilometres coast-to-coast. For MPS, particularly in the West and in rural communities, the job is punishingly inequitable due to the travel involved in getting to and from one’s riding. All that flying and driving isn’t particularly good for the body or the brain. It is hell on marriages. It strains relationships between parents and children.
National leaders frequently wring their hands about why more women, particularly younger ones, don’t run for elected office. When we put the question to Canadians, the overwhelming majority, 82 per cent, cited “family commitments.”
Imagine, if and when Canadian society returns to normal in a post-pandemic world, Parliament were to sit virtually every other week? It is all well and good to imagine a day when both parents in a partnership will take on equal shares of child-rearing work, but imagine how much easier a sell for political recruiters to assure a parent — particularly a woman — with children under 18 that time away from said offspring would be far less than it traditionally has been?
Institutions are often physical places. But they are not exclusively so. The existence and function of Canada’s Parliament do not depend on always occupying the imposing Gothic-revival tower blocks that loom so majestically over the Ottawa River.
Parliament Hill may remind us of the grandeur of this institution. But Parliament’s true value is imbued in those members elected to do the people’s work. And as the last eight weeks have taught us, most of them, just like most of us, can work from anywhere.
Shachi Kurl is Executive Director of the Angus Reid Institute, a national, not-for-profit, non-partisan Public Opinion Research foundation.