Friday, February 21, 2020

Forgetting Their Purpose



There is little doubt that politicians' constituency work can be onerous, eroding personal/family time while home on the weekends and perhaps compromising the work they do in Ottawa. It is not a task I envy.

Nonetheless, there are those who, obstructed by overweening ego and ambition, refuse to acknowledge that serving their constituents is or should be their primary task. This might seem to be stating the obvious, but it is a truth some would-be Titans of the political universe seem to largely ignore, local scutt work apparently beneath their political dignity.

This is the tale of one such person.

I speak from personal experience here as I write about the consistent unresponsiveness of my Liberal MP, Liberal Filomena Tassi, to my phone calls and emails, and it stands in marked contrast to the relationship I had with my former MP (we had boundary changes in our area), Conservative MP David Sweet. Although he and I never saw eye-to-eye on any issues I raised with him or his office, the fact that Sweet would always respond to my emails, either by email or personal phone calls, earned my deep respect, and I like to think that we had some quite civilized exchanges.

Unfortunately, Ms. Tassi is an entirely different story. After a career helping others as a chaplain at a Catholic high school, her leap into politics looked like a good transition, one that would enable her to help even more people. Sadly, that has not turned out to be the case. Rising quickly within the government power structure, she is currently the Minister of Labour, a position she no doubt attained through both talent and party fealty.

And that fealty was obvious from the beginning, not only through the many photos of her with the movers and shakers of her government, but also what I regard as her strategic decision to refuse to acknowledge those who ask where she stands on an issue. That I am not alone in being ignored is attested to by a letter to the editor that appeared in The Hamilton Spectator back in 2017:
My MP ignored my voice

RE: Pensions in crisis

As a longtime resident of Ancaster, and a former Sears employee for over 30 years, I thought it was important to write my member of Parliament regarding my concerns about the financial future of thousands of fellow Sears pensioners locally and across Canada. It would have been nice to know that my elected representative from the Liberal government, shared my concern, and may have some input into its final conclusion.

This is the first time that I have contacted an MP on anything, and unfortunately, after an initial email over three weeks ago, a followup email and then a phone message to her Ottawa office a week ago, there has been no reply. I guess Ms. Filomena Tassi does not place a high priority on aging pensioners problems, but politeness and common courtesy should have resulted in some sort of followup!

I would like to thank MP Scott Duvall of the NDP for his efforts to bring this plight to the forefront and to The Hamilton Spectator for printing articles on pension shortfalls.

Ms. Tassi — is anyone manning the communications in your office — do you care?

Don Backman, Ancaster
Backman's letter prompted me to write one of my own, a truncated version of which follows:
Liberal MP Filomena Tassi must have missed the orientation given to all newly-elected federal representatives when she took office just over two years ago. Had she attended, she would have understood that one of the most important roles of parliamentarians is to represent and help their constituents on both big and small issues.

Her failure to even acknowledge Don Backman's emails and calls on the very important pension issue do not surprise me in the least. The emails I sent her on two separate occasions, one shortly after she was elected and another about six months later, netted me the same result. Her failure to respond to the first I attributed to the fact that she was new to office. The silence that met my second missive, regarding Canada's unconscionable sale of arms to the Saudis, was harder to explain away.

.......

Perhaps the current representative of Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas has reasons for her silence. Is it possible she is angling for a role higher than that of backbencher in the Trudeau government, her strategy being to avoid any contentious matters in order to demonstrate unflinching fealty to Justin Trudeau? Cabinet positions are often built on such absolute loyalties.

If that is the case, Ms. Tassi has a gross misunderstanding of where her first allegiance should lie: her constituents.
I might add that I recently wrote to her again, despite her communications embargo, expressing my opposition to the Teck Resources' Frontier Mine and asking where she stood on the issue. Again, no response.

So is this post simply an expression of egoistic frustration, an old guy angry that he is not being heard or acknowledged by his Member of Parliament? Not at all.

It has become increasingly apparent that our governments no longer feel responsible for representing and advancing the public interest, unless that public interest happens to coincide with economic and corporate health. The wants, needs and expectations of the general public are rarely regarded as imperatives except during election campaigns; such a cynical manipulation of the electorate, in my view, goes a long way toward explaining the alienation and disengagement far too many Canadians feel.

Whether or not MPs agree or disagree with their constituents' views and values is ultimately secondary here. It is their failure to even acknowledge them that betrays one of the basic tenets of democracy and the implicit covenant our elected representatives have with all of us.

6 comments:

  1. My Liberal MP also doesn't respond to my communications with him, he did however put me on his newsletter mailing list so there is that.
    I've experienced the full gamut in this regard from an NDP MPP who did amazing constituency work (honourable mention to former Lib MP Augustine who remains active in the community after being tossed aside by her party to parachute Ignatieff into the riding) to the PC MPP who would hide in the bathroom to avoid talking to me.

    Our elected reps have been reduced to mere props for their parties which is why I scoff at the argument against PR that we would lose local representation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you nailed it, Kev, in saying that our reps are mere props for their parties. God forbid if any of them should think for themselves, eh?

      Delete
  2. Your predicament brings to mind a story my father liked to tell about Paul Martin Sr. My dad traveled for business. From time to time he would be on the homeward train or flight with PM Sr. They got to know each other. Dad was in awe of the man's memory for names. He might, for example, take a minute to chat with a train porter. Martin would know the guy's name. He would also know the names of the fellow's wife and kids and always inquired of them. He seemed to know everybody in his constituency. Martin told my dad it was his job to know the people he represented, to be aware of their lives and their problems.

    Today's MPs don't have that same sense of obligation, Lorne. I read a line about how, today, people run for political office for the sake of being in political office. They're in it for themselves and the interest they represent is self-interest.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "They're in it for themselves and the interest they represent is self-interest."

      That is precisely what I believe as well, Mound. That it has come to this is a very sad commentary on the caliber and character of people putting themselves forward these days.

      Would that there were more Paul Martin Sr.s in the political realm today.

      Delete
  3. .. To a major extent, the Main Political Parties in Canada are actually useless deadwood. What they do is present Candidates on schedule for Elections. As the post and comments point out, many, or most elected candidates are token or Potemkin 'fronts' for the Political Parties and their groupish ideologies and agendas. The party whips are an enforcement formality, essentially ceremonial. Its 'understood' .. or else the candidate would not be approved from 'head office'

    All this instead of community generated candidates for office. Ridings (which are communities to a great extent) may even end up with parachute candidates, thus we get a Kellie Leitch dropped into a 'safe' riding just north of Toronto to ensure another 'star' candidate already linked into Jim Flaherty, John Baird, Jason Kenney etc gets in. She was never in her riding, just as Kenney was never 'from' his Calgary riding.. They call this Democracy.. I call it Grift.. of the highest order. It needs to end.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember reading a book put out by Samara, Sal, which conducted exit interviews with outgoing MPs. As I recall, one of issues explored was the use of parachuted candidates, in which the local riding association was overruled. The anger and disenchantment resulting from such high-handed behavior was deep and long-lasting; the violation of local democracy was profoundly resented, to the point that many would no longer have anything to do with the nomination process.

      But hey. At least the party got their (wo)man.

      Delete