Local MP Michael Chong's plan to reform Question Period is a noble one - but may be doomed to failure.
Chong's motion proposes lengthening the time for questions and answers, making more questions available for backbenchers, ensuring ministers can't dodge questions to others, and setting one session a week to question the Prime Minister.
We support his plan wholeheartedly.
Question Period is the most visible activity of the House of Commons. Not only is it covered on the parliamentary cable channels, but it's where most of the TV news clips of parliamentarians in action come from.
That's given the impression that Parliament is full of shrill hecklers too rude to let anyone else speak, shouting accusations and sloganizing in a worthless attempt to "hold the government to account." Worthless because most of this heckling is deflected by government mouthpieces who recite the usual meaningless platitudes about "moving forward with an agenda…" and so on.
It's partisan posturing and grandstanding, and the kind of "Is not" "Is too" arguing more appropriate to seven-year-olds in a sandbox than adults supposedly engaging in debate over how to govern the country.
Chong and political analysts who discussed his ideas were careful not to lay all the blame on the media, which delights in running clips of the louder, most pointless confrontations - even while bemoaning the depths to which political discourse has fallen.
He believes that the media is only covering what's being presented, and there's nothing but shrill heckling, then that's what will be covered.
It's difficult to believe, though, that some of his fellow Conservatives will support ideas like requiring ministers to answer questions directed at them, instead of passing tough, embarrassing or annoying topics to others. It's difficult to believe that the Opposition, if these measures pass, won't take absurd advantage of them by pressuring "unpopular" ministers once they're unable to dodge answering.
It's also difficult to believe that current Prime Minister Stephen Harper would be in favour of opening himself to a 45-minute grilling every week, especially if he's no longer able to pass questions off to other people.
Cynics might think this is yet another government ploy. Knowing it's an issue people are interested in, and not really wanting to do anything about it, the government lets a backbench MP put forward a motion when it's likely to be interrupted by the summer recess. Well, we tried to reform things, the government can say - sorry, but it just didn't seem to work out.
We don't think so. We believe our MP is a man of integrity who believes in the issues he supports. (If he wasn't, he'd still be in cabinet.)
Obviously others do too - Liberals, NDP and Conservatives all supported his motion to get it debated.
Against such consuming issues as economic recovery, rising health care spending, the deficit, the mission in Afghanistan and so on, making Question Period more effective is a little thing. But Chong's proposals would certainly create a better impression of MPs in the eyes of the public, and might even get them to tone down (instead of just talking about it) the partisan bickering and fingerpointing we've suffered through for the past few years.