Murphy’s Logic: Question Period is a waste of our time

Steve Murphy talks about the usefulness of Question Period in federal politics.

The House of Commons resumes sitting in a few days. Just before the summer recess, I watched Question Period.

It’s an hour I’ll never get back. What a terrible waste of time.

Although there were serious issues to discuss, including cost overruns revealed in the recent Auditor General’s report, the honourable members on both sides of the house, spent their time – and ours – repeating themselves. Opposition members reading essentially the same questions over and over again, implying government corruption and incompetence, and the minister mostly reading responses which were more statements than answers. The same thing over and over again.

Question Period has always been theatrical in nature and even more so since cameras were placed in the chamber almost fifty years ago. TV coverage was supposed to give Canadians an unobstructed view of the way government works. Sadly, it’s had just the opposite effect, reducing what should be a lively exercise in accountability, into a tightly scripted – and often boring exchange of poorly delivered talking points.

As journalist Andrew Coyne observes in his current bestseller, “The Crisis in Canadian Democracy,” it’s not supposed to be this way. The members aren’t supposed to read from documents, unless they’re tabled. But that would be a waste of time because the questions and answers are so often devoid of substantial content.

The reduction of Question Period to its current anemic state is by no means the most serious problem with our government – the Coyne book exposes them all - but it’s a high profile, disappointing daily example of what’s wrong with way we’re governing ourselves.