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Dhaliwal (not laughing) says attendance criticism based on wrong data

Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal is not amused. Accused by NDP opponent Jinny Sims of having the 13th worst attendance record in House of Commons, Dhaliwal retorted he’d resign if it were true.

Then the Sims camp pounced with a press release wryly asking if he might step down, given that a web site called How’d They Vote did indeed rank him 13th from the bottom.

But Dhaliwal and his camp say How’d They Vote has an incomplete and confusing way of toting up attendance records for MPs. In a letter to the editor of Surrey Now, Dhaliwal explained:

“In the just completed parliamentary session, the House sat for a total of 293 days, of which I was there for 219 of them, or 75 per cent. …Furthermore, there were 119 days with votes, and I was there 104 of them, or 87 per cent.”

Noting that “this information is publicly and easily accessible,” Dhaliwal goes on to write:

“I also serve as the Official Opposition Critic for the Asia Pacific Gateway and Western Economic Diversification, which are two portfolios that are absolutely crucial to the future economic success of British Columbia. Within these responsibilities, which encompass issues such as trade, infrastructure and innovation, I am expected to travel to regularly meet with stakeholders as well as foster new relationships for our province.

“I am consistently in Ottawa from Monday through to Thursday, and make it a point to be back in Newton-North Delta each and every Friday to meet with constituents. This is reflected in the fact that I have handled more than 7,700 constituent files over the past five years, one of the highest caseloads in the entire country.”

A representative of Dhaliwal’s campaign responded to an item on the Tyee’s Hook news blog that quoted the NDP press release zinging Dhaliwal’s attendance. The email sent today said:

“Jinny Sims has been going around making allegations about Mr. Dhaliwal’s voting record based a secondary source that excludes a large number of votes.

“She has repeatedly cited the results from howdotheyvote.ca; however there are several problems with the results she uses. She only uses the ‘third session’ statistics. Had she looked at the second and first sittings, she would have found that Sukh ranked 92th in the second session and for 22th (tied with 287 other MPs) in absences for the first session.

“As a side note, this measurement also bundles physical absences with abstentions, which is a problematic measurement. For instance, Mr. Dhaliwal abstained out of conscience on Bill C-474, but because of the number of amendments to it, that abstention counts as 11 “absences” despite his presence in the House. This can be verified on the Hansard.”

Dhaliwal and Sims are running in B.C.’s Newton-North Delta riding.

David Beers is editor of The Tyee.


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