The thrust and parry of Question Period

Hard to believe that political columnists look forward to the return of Parliament. Normal folks seem to have found real lives, which make us political junkies seem, at best, entertainment-challenged.

It’s probably why they take what we say with bemusement and a healthy grain of salt. Still, there I was last Monday waiting eagerly for Question Period. Almost like being there without any of the responsibility, the endless hand-shaking and soul-defying truth-fixing that gets one there in reality.

As with a return to television after weeks in the bush or the first cigarette after kicking the habit, the experience wasn’t nearly as good as I recalled. Sure, Stéphane has slowed down his questions in English, a clever rhetorical adjustment that makes him more effective and apparently less desperate as he, like most of the folks in the natural governing party, await their invitation back to power. And he has figured out that it’s okay to use his native French for at least one of his questions, better showing his charming side and spunk.

But no sooner had the government avoided the questions he put then his shadow, Iggy, stood up to express his moral outrage at the Conservatives hiding some of their policy on the treatment of detainees. Within minutes Peter Mackay had Iggy on the mat, reading a long passage that Iggy had written seemingly favouring the use of torture.

Now I know that Iggy is thought to be smart by those who also think him manly (oops, I almost said Manley), but his low political IQ is astounding. Did he think Peter couldn’t read, or by saying that being a politician is more politically challenging than being an academic he would make the Conservatives refrain from rubbing his nose in his earlier views?

Who writes this stuff for the Liberals anyway, and why isn’t Scott Brison, whose debating skills make others appear as sophomores, doing more?

Definite lack of skills

Indeed, one of the disappointments of Parliamentary debate in Question Period these days is the lack of debating skills on both sides of the House. The Conservatives’ response to most challenges is counterattack, typically asking the Liberals why they have done what the Conservatives claim they have done, or didn’t do what the Conservatives say they should have.

That this defence works is amazing. If they’re so keen on asking tough questions rather than answering them, why don’t they simply switch sides with the Liberals and take up what appears to be their “natural” inclination as Canada’s Perpetual Opposition Party? And why, for crying out loud, don’t the Liberals say so?

The NDP and the Bloc are, thankfully, much better in fulfilling their duty as opposition members, asking effective, usually well-thought-out, debating club styled questions, with supplementary questions that anticipate the likely answer the government will first give, and in thinking on their feet. The NDP, however, seems unable to ask the government a question without a tag that attempts to hurt the Liberals.

We get it, folks; you’re worried about the Liberals and wish us to know that in some ways they’re just as bad as those nasty Tories, but driving this point didactically is tiresomely predictable, undermining the force of the question.

Yet again, I find myself longing for the opportunity to vote Bloc, despite my long-standing Canadian nationalism.

Some who watch QP don’t like it much. It is very adversarial; it focuses undeniably on the negative, to the point of giving critical thinking a bad name. But it is necessary for accountability, and indeed is at the heart of responsible government.

I had the opportunity recently to speak with some bright, young, logic-alert debating clubbers at Kings-Edgehill and I stay in proximity of similar folks at Acadia. My sense is any of them would do better than today’s front-benchers.

Sure, adversarial debating can drive the truth into the ditch. But it also plays a role in democracy. Our front-benchers might look to the high school and university debating clubs across Canada for some lessons before we turn off the sets for good.