Friday, October 27, 2006
Swoon
I'm pretty sure that Garth Turner is now closer to my ideal of an MP (in the way he does his job moreso than in the substantial positions he takes) than any other MP of my lifetime. The knock on him is that he's a bit of an attention-seeking showoff, which he is. But not only do I not object to this, I think it's absolutely essential - if the point of accountability is going to move away from party leaders to MPs, where it belongs, then MPs need to be visible, so that voters can judge their records. Voters can sure as hell judge Garth Turner's record (though, based on the comments section of Turner's blog, they're not doing a very good job).
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And now, as each day passes, it becomes more apparent that I will actually be a better MP for being an Indie. Huge amounts of time are spent by party MPs each week sitting in party meetings devoid of policy debate. Countless more hours are devoted to filling chairs in committee rooms, where the outcome of almost every meeting has been pre-determined by the government. And the rest of Ottawa time is largely spent sitting in QP where Tory MPs are expected to clap, but dare not ask tough questions, if any.
- Garth Turner, October 27 blog post
I'm pretty sure that Garth Turner is now closer to my ideal of an MP (in the way he does his job moreso than in the substantial positions he takes) than any other MP of my lifetime. The knock on him is that he's a bit of an attention-seeking showoff, which he is. But not only do I not object to this, I think it's absolutely essential - if the point of accountability is going to move away from party leaders to MPs, where it belongs, then MPs need to be visible, so that voters can judge their records. Voters can sure as hell judge Garth Turner's record (though, based on the comments section of Turner's blog, they're not doing a very good job).
