Because it’s the summer doldrums, The Canadian Press has decided to check in on the “hybrid” Parliament rules, which are inexplicably still in place, long after the height of the pandemic ended. Well, it should be inexplicable, but for those of us with longer memories, we know that the Liberals were trying to institute these rule changes long before COVID happened, and were never able to get them over the finish line (for good reason!) until COVID, and well, they didn’t let a good crisis go to waste. A lot of them were very committed to the idea that these rule-changes are necessary because of parental responsibilities, and so on. Of course, we now have a handful of MPs who simply don’t show up in Ottawa (one of them was NDP MP Niki Ashton, before she got voted out, but there are others), while we are devaluing the in-person aspects of the job, which cannot be ignored.
I have consistently said this, and I will keep saying it—much of the value of what happens in Parliament are the conversations that happen in corridors, in lobbies, at the sides of committee rooms, that you cannot have online. People underestimate how huge that is. Keeping MPs online also keeps them in party silos, where they don’t see other MPs as human beings, but opponents. In-person meetings and the ability to connect on a human level increases collegiality and decorum. (See: Ending evening sittings in the 1990s and the demise of collegiality). But more than that, there is now a culture of presenteeism where they feel they need to be online all the time, when they should be taking leave for family issues, or medical care, or so on. You can pair votes for absences. You can have someone cover for you at committee. This happened for 150 years, and Parliament functioned just fine. The excuses for why they feel they need this are poor, and it creates more problems than it solves. MPs need to wind down these “hybrid” rules, and end remote voting (because that’s particularly offensive to parliamentary democracy), and engage with one another in person like they’re supposed to.
My Latest:
- My weekend column wonders how it was that Mark Carney had become an even worse communicator than Justin Trudeau was.
- My column makes note of the premiers’ attempt to get back to a 50-50 healthcare funding formula, ignoring that they got revenue tools they now refuse to use.
- For National Magazine, I delve into the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision to strike down the law that bars the Ethics Commissioner’s reports from judicial review.
- My long weekend column looks at the falling crime rates before Carney’s performative tough-on-crime legislation, and points to how credulous he really is.
Ukraine Dispatch:
Russia has attacked Kyiv with waves of ballistic missiles overnight, killing at least one person. Over the weekend, one of their “human safari” drones chased and wounded a vegetable seller in Kherson, which is a war crime. Ukraine continues to strike Wildberries warehouses in Russia, hitting another three on Tuesday.
Noteworthy:
- Justin Ling correctly suggests the solution to MPs using digital asbestos to write their speeches is to ban prepared speeches in Parliament.
- Paul Wells makes it clear that Carney’s negotiation strategy is not working, and it’s time for more aggressive measures if we want to avoid vassalage.
- Supriya Dwivedi points out that the government signing onto the Cybercrime Convention is an invitation for transnational repression by abusive regimes.
- Kevin Carmichael tells some home truths about Canada’s risk-averse entrepreneurial culture, which has nothing to do with tax cuts and red tape.
- Anne Applebaum places the supposed “migrant-invasion” of Ceuta in its proper context as a propaganda stunt which has been picked up by far-right parties.
Every other time the Liberals let the company and the union work it out at the bargaining table, the Conservatives had a meltdown and demanded back-to-work legislation. Every. Single. Fucking. Time.Now they're cheering that the Liberal government "got out of the way." Just absolute hypocrites.
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-08-03T16:43:35.714Z
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