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It seems this is a problem the House itself is incapable of taking seriously, even though we are assured that it is a crisis that will start killing off members very soon. Well, we like to think when we go to vote that we are choosing parliamentary deputies who take no notice of their personal self-interest. Self-preservation is something else.

When the Opposition slow-rolls voting on bills to get attention, it is engaging in theatre, which is one established function of the House of Commons. This is not really a “workload” issue for most members, who will probably be busier mentally in any given hour outside the House than they are while confined to the chamber waiting to say Aye or Nay occasionally. The stress resulting from a marathon House session seems more like the stress of being confined to an airplane on the tarmac while an aileron gets inspected.

MPs are abundantly equipped with staff, equipment, and expense budgets — even the ones who perform no executive function at all. But none of that help avails during a vote-a-thon. In that situation, the members really become the automata they are often accused of being.

It does sound mighty stressful when one puts it like that. But just once I would like to read an interview with an MP who thought the whole gig was fun from start to finish, or indeed confessed that they knew the meaning of the word “fun.” Clement, departing political life to reckon with the aftermath of a sexting scandal, would have us believe that there are no compensations for the large workload involved in being an MP, as he has been, and fought hard to remain, since 2006.

If you read nothing but newspapers you would never think that members of Parliament receive any particular attention or deference or, er, other social and emotional benefits in exchange for their sacrifice of time and privacy. That this sacrifice is itself given endless sombre attention in the newspapers — yes, even when Tony Clement is the one going on about it — surely demonstrates the point.

National Post

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