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Pontificating on the prorogue

By: Mia Rabson

Posted: 01/6/2010 4:53 PM | Comments: 0

The politicians may not be back in Ottawa at the moment but the Parliamentary pundits are certainly having a field day with the proroguing.

The office talk around here ranges from the complete mockery of the Facebook page Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament (one colleague suggested if anyone who joined the page was in Ottawa actually watching those "clowns" at work they would realize proroguing doesn’t do anything bad) to those who have a deep-rooted hope this might stimulate some genuine reforms of our system.

There is however one misconception about the whole process that bugs me. I know some people jus t say it for effect but I’ve heard it from enough different places I felt the need to rant a bit.

Just because Parliament isn’t sitting doesn’t mean MPs aren’t working. One thing that has always driven me a bit batty is the insistence by some segments of the population that politicians are a lazy bunch. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are lazy politicians but by and large to be elected to most offices you have to actually work your butt off and once elected you have to actually work even harder.

I am not suggesting one way or the other that proroguing is good or bad. I’m just saying that this isn’t a nine-week paid vacation and most MPs will not be spending it as such.

In a completely unrelated topic, I hope the Liberals are much smarter about this particular contest than they were about the last one. It seems to me there are better things to do with their time than these school yard-style taunts.

But I will acknowledge a certain attention-getting factor of these things. Let’s just hope the powers that be over at Liberal.ca actually pay attention to the submissions this time, lest there be someone posting a message likening Harper to a dictator or an assassin this time.

Mia Rabson, Winnipeg Free Press

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About Mia Rabson

Mia Rabson is a born and bred Winnipegger whose interest in politics seemed clear when she dressed up as Prime Minister Brian Mulroney for Halloween in the 7th grade.

Her interest in writing was no surprise to her parents, who learned early in Mia’s life that no piece of blank paper — or wall, for that matter — was safe in her hands.

She holds an honours BA in English from Queen’s University, a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Western Ontario, and has completed a political journalism fellowship in Washington, D.C. with the Washington Centre for Politics and Journalism.

Prior to working for the Winnipeg Free Press, Mia briefly worked for the Detroit News in the paper’s Washington bureau.

Mia joined the Free Press team in February 2001, and in April 2001 was appointed to the Manitoba legislature bureau. In December 2004, she was appointed bureau chief at the legislature. She became the newspaper’s parliamentary bureau chief/national reporter in Ottawa in January 2008.

In 2008 she was nominated for a Michener Award with a team of reporters from the Free Press for its coverage of the province’s child welfare system.

She counts reliving the invasion at Dieppe, France, with veterans of the failed Second World War expedition and overcoming her fear of heights to touch the Golden Boy statue atop the Legislative Building among her favourite experiences as a reporter.

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