Harper’s attendance at question period the lowest since 2006, Parliament stats show

OTTAWA — Stephen Harper has skipped out on answering opposition questions in the House of Commons more often in 2015 than in any other year he has been prime minister.

Harper has attended only 35 per cent of the daily question periods in 2015, his lowest rate for any year since 2006, an Ottawa Citizen analysis found.

The trend reflects what critics say is an increasingly inaccessible prime minister, who rarely holds news conferences and who, last week, signalled he would not participate in election leaders’ debates organized by broadcasters.

Now he has less time for question period where, by convention, the prime minister is held to account by MPs for his government’s performance.

Harper’s attendance rate in the sessions has declined almost every year but dropped more sharply in 2014 and 2015, the review of House of Commons transcripts shows.

In 2006, his first year on the job, Harper responded to questions on 64 per cent of House of Commons sitting days.

In 2014, he attended only 36 per cent.

In April and May of this year, he has made it to only six of 22 sessions.

Justin Trudeau has posted only a slightly better record attending question period than the prime minister. Since he became Liberal leader in April 2013, Trudeau has asked questions in 39 per cent of the daily sessions, about the same rate for 2015.

It is considered unparliamentary to refer to another MP’s absence in the House of Commons, but in a scrum with journalists on Wednesday, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair referred to Harper’s truancy.

“It was the first time we had had a chance to see Prime Minister Harper in quite a while,” he said, after a session Harper attended. “We don’t see him very often in the House of Commons.”

Mulcair has the best record, attending 62 per cent of question periods since the New Democrats made him leader in March 2012.