The Scene and Herd

I’ve heard it said that question period is useless because no one ever answers the damn question. I’ve also heard people speak to the troubling lack of decorum (which they blame for, among other things, the apparent female aversion to the political arena). These are legitimate concerns raised by intelligent, respectable people, but I just can’t share them.

I love question period, truly. Mere mention of it makes me giddy, which is embarrassing. I have to stifle myself whenever people around me begin to talk about QP (which doesn’t happen nearly enough). Someone will speak to the childishness of our politicians and I have to decide, quickly, if I know that person well enough to tell them I actually enjoy the spectacle of QP. I don’t want acquaintances going around thinking I’ve got a problem with decorum.

On Friday, Paul Wells wrote an article called Stop the Madness, in which he outlined the problems with question period and made some suggestions about how to fix it. He suggests MPs be allowed to speak for ten seconds longer so they’re less panicky about making their point. He also suggests holding QP at 10am instead of 2pm so that everyone’s not distracted all day thinking about it. His ideas strike me as mighty fine. QP isn’t perfect and I’m sure it can be improved. But as I read his reasons for why QP is bad, I began to feel a confusing patriotism.

“They bray like jackasses,” he writes.

“It is meticulously planned and rehearsed by hundreds of politicians and their staffers across the parliamentary precinct. They rise before dawn to pore over the headlines and plot the day’s stratagems. Opposition members start bidding at breakfast for a part in the show. Government members meet over lunch to rehearse their evasions and their outrage.”

Seriously, they rise before dawn to pore over headlines and strategize? Good Lord! That is awesome!

If anything can offer insight into how I can love question period while others blame it for political ill, it is this here paragraph. How can anything that gets politicians up and reading before dawn be a bad thing? Some dedicated countrymen right there! Can’t we leave QP the way it is and just tack on a second one? We’ll have one QP with decorum, and one QP with enthusiasm and early morning stratagem.