ONLY HARPER AND TWO ROOKIE MPs HAVEN’T SPOKEN IN THE HOUSE
SILENT
There are three MPs who haven’t uttered a word in the House of Commons since the election.
One is a rookie Liberal from B.C. Another is a rookie Liberal from Quebec. And the third is Stephen Harper.
As prime minister, Harper spoke more than 4,200 separate times in the Commons. Throughout the 42nd Parliament’s 44 sitting days thus far, however, he has remained silent — a distinction shared only by Burnaby, B.C.’s Terry Beech and Angelo Iacono, MP for the Quebec riding of Alfred-Pellan.
In fact, the last time Harper’s words appeared in the parliamentary record was on June 17, 2015, when the then- PM told New Democratic Party Leader Tom Mulcair “Canadian veterans’ services under this government are the best in the world.”
Odder still, the former PM’s silence has not been the result of any lack of attendance.
Since Parliament first convened Dec. 3, the former Conservative leader has had one of the best attendance records of his political career, turning out for 91 per cent of all House votes.
Of the 35 votes so far, he has missed only three — an NDP motion asking the government to recognize “pay equity as a right;” a defeated Conservative motion thanking the Department of Finance for its “hard work” in noting that the previous government “posted a budgetary surplus of $1 billion;” and a routine vote in which MPs thanked the Governor General “for the gracious speech which Your Excellency has addressed to both Houses of Parliament.”
Anna Tomala, a spokeswoman for Harper’s office, had no comment on her boss’s unusual parliamentary silence, but called his showing up to work “a testament to Mr. Harper’s dedication to public service and his constituents of Calgary Heritage.”
These days, Harper sits near the Speaker, at the extreme right of the Conservative caucus, a block of 98 seats sandwiched between the NDP and overflow from the Liberals.
Although the desks have shifted around somewhat, this is roughly the same spot once occupied by NDP MP Niki Ashton, now considered a contender for her party’s leadership.
Across the aisle, Harper stares directly at fellow Calgarian Kent Hehr, the new minister of veterans affairs.
Never in his 17 years as an MP has Harper had such an empty political diary. He eschews caucus meetings and media interviews, and avoids making all but the most boilerplate of public statements.
From 2004 to 2015, by contrast, he was absorbed with the demands of being prime minister or opposition leader — both duties that typically lead to skipped days in Ottawa.
In his last legislative session as prime minister, for instance, Harper only made it to 63 per cent of votes. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s record so far is 77 per cent.
As a rookie MP in the 1990s, Harper was a key member of the upstart Reform Party, fielding regular interviews and stage-managing caucus crises.
Still, prime ministers who returned to the backbenches usually say something.
Paul Martin spent only a month in opposition before rising to denounce the childcare benefit plans of the new Conservative government.
For the rest of his time as MP for LaSalle-Émard, Martin made most of his speeches in the House in defence of the Kelowna Accord, a 10-year aboriginal education and infrastructure package ditched by the Tories.
But the gold standard for volubility is John Diefenbaker. Ousted as PM in 1963, and as his party’s leader in 1967, he remained MP for Prince Albert, Sask., until his death in 1979, a post he frequently took advantage of.
In 1970, Dief, then 74, rose to lambaste a recent appearance by prime minister Pierre Trudeau on the CBC.
“I thought the prime minister would like a reference to his qualities as an actor,” he said.