The House of
Commons is like a hockey rink at
times, with two sides — government
and opposition — delivering verbal
checks to each other, and a starting
line of ministers facing off against
their critic opponents. Past the big
guns and the second and third lines,
there's the backbench. These Members
of Parliament often don't get a
chance to shine in the national
spotlight, with just the occasional
memorable play — or private member's
bill — ever making it to the
highlights.
Ed Holder with Prime Minister
Stephen Harper.
While they may not get the media
attention of a glamorous or
scandalous cabinet minister, what do
backbenchers do to keep their skates
sharp when they're not on the ice?
Newcomer to
the ice
In the House of Commons chamber,
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's seat
is on the front line of the
government side a third of the way
down the aisle from the Speaker. To
his left and right are Foreign
Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and
Environment Minister Jim Prentice.
Five seats behind Harper and one to
the left is Ed Holder.
Holder, 55, is a new Conservative
MP, freshly elected in 2008 to
represent London West in
southwestern Ontario. He is a former
insurance broker and executive who
founded a company that later merged
with a larger one in the 1990s, and
he soon became president. Holder had
previously run for federal office
once, in 1993 as a Progressive
Conservative, but finished a distant
third.
During a normal week, Holder says
his default schedule is committee
meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays,
Question Period every day, the party
caucus meeting Wednesday morning, an
assigned “duty day” when he must be
in the House all day and assorted
other caucus meetings — not to
mention an assortment of legislative
and interest-group meetings."I
think when you're in the senior
level of government, like a cabinet
minister, you're stretched like
Gumby." — Ed Holder, MP
A couple of seats away and a row
forward is Patrick Brown, 31, a
Conservative who has represented
Barrie, Ont., since 2006. A
former two-term city councillor,
Brown is a member of two committees,
including the standing committee on
health. He says committee work, in
which groups of MPs study bills
after they've passed second reading
in the House, is what takes up a lot
of his time.
“Legislation is introduced by a
minister in the House, but the meat
and potatoes of it, the study of it,
is done in committee,” Brown says.
He adds he usually spends about 10
hours a week on work for each
committee.
Like most MPs, Holder spends nine
months of the year in Ottawa while
Parliament is in session, and the
other three months back in his home
riding. But it's those times at
home, connecting with constituents,
that Holder says are what he really
sees his job as being about.
“I think if you're not a cabinet
minister or a parliamentary
secretary, you have an increased
opportunity to do more constituent
work,” he says. “I think when you're
in the senior level of government,
like a cabinet minister, you're
stretched like Gumby.”
MP
Patrick Brown speaking April 25,
2009, on World Malaria Day.
Holder says that in his case,
it's much easier for him to keep an
ear to the ground in his own riding
and be more personally involved with
what's going on."Once
upon a time, leaders of parties
would look to their caucus to find
out what's going on in the country."
— Nelson Wiseman, political science
professor
“I can't speak for cabinet
ministers, but it seems to me they'd
have to rely very heavily on their
staff, and I think their
constituents understand, I would
hope they do, that they're not going
to be around as much,” he says.
Change of
play
But the role of MPs as a gauge for
party leaders to measure opinion
across the country has been
diminishing, according to Nelson
Wiseman, a political science
professor at the University of
Toronto and author of In Search of
Canadian Political Culture.
“Once upon a time, leaders of
parties would look to their caucus
to find out what's going on in the
country. 'Hey, you were back in your
constituency over Christmas, what's
the buzz?'” Wiseman says.
Instead, polling firms and new
communication technologies such as
Facebook have made it easier for
political parties to effectively
measure national opinions without
relying so heavily on anecdotal
evidence. According to Wiseman, this
has been part of a gradual
concentration of powers toward the
party leaders and away from the
caucuses.
“More power has gone into, in the
government side, the Prime
Minister's Office, and also to the
leader on the opposition side,” he
says.
Brown disagrees.
“I find our current prime
minister is very interested in
getting feedback from his members of
caucus,” Brown says. “Generally, I
write a note to the prime minister
with my opinions on what I hear in
my riding, and I know he reads them
because he'll give me feedback, or
call me, and communicate to me his
thoughts on what I'm hearing.”
He says Conservative MPs work
well together, regardless of
seniority or position.
“In caucus, every MP is treated
equally.”
