Some 40 years later, we have a Question Period that has become increasingly ineffective in fulfilling its historic role of holding a government to account for its performance in office. It is hard to imagine that there was a time when governments were rather anxious before the daily Question Period. No one knew in advance who would ask questions, about what, to whom. Political staff tried to anticipate possible questions and to prepare Ministers as best they could. There were occasions, admittedly quite infrequent, when a government was caught off guard by a question and had to scramble or was actually knocked back on its heels.
Today, however, the spontaneity of Question Period is largely gone. Those who will be asking question are identified in advance on lists provided to the Speaker by the political parties. There is now less and less expectation that answers will be provided to the questions asked. Indeed, Question Period has deteriorated to the point that answers are sometimes given that bear no relation to the question asked. When the government was asked a specific question in late September 2014 about when the military mission in Iraq would end, the Prime Minister’s Parliamentary Secretary responded with non-answers about NDP views on Israel. So contemptuous was this treatment of Question Period that the offending member later apologized to the House.
Even Questions are sometimes hard to find
We can no longer be sure that Question Period exchanges will actually begin with a question, much less end with a helpful answer. Government members often use their opportunities in Question Period to deliver short speeches about the great job those in power are doing, along with a question at the end that sets up a government response that, indeed, we are doing a wonderful job. Aaron Wherry’s December 18, 2014 column in Maclean’s http://www.macleans.ca/politics/an-mps-first-words/ illustrated this pattern well with his description of the first questions asked by two Conservatives new to the House as a result of victories in by-elections. The first one attacked the farm policies of the Liberals and NDP and the second one proclaimed that only Conservatives take care of Canadian families.
Return Question Period to its historic role
One of the many ways in which we could begin to revive Canadian democracy is to return Question Period to its important historical role – as a tool for holding a government to account on a daily basis. The Speaker of the House of Commons, backed by whatever rule changes may be appropriate, needs to enforce a system in which members ask short, specific questions and, in turn, receive answers that at least pay passing reference to the questions that were asked. It would be helpful if media commentary on Question Period paid more attention to the extent that parties on all sides adhere to this arrangement. If members abuse the intention of Question Period by giving a speech in the guise of asking a question or by giving a reply that totally ignores the question that was asked, they should be called on such actions. Canadians deserve better and should demand better.