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Give MLAs a Real Job

With pay raise should come responsibilities.

Rafe Mair 28 May 2007TheTyee.ca

Rafe Mair writes a Monday column for The Tyee. Mair's website is www.rafeonline.com. His latest book, Over the Mountains, should be at your bookstore.

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Carole James: Learning?

My friend, and columnist for 24 Hours, Bill Tieleman, has been highly critical of Carole James and the NDP for their handling of the pay raise issue. Bill, I need hardly tell you, is a staunch NDP partisan, making the criticism all the more biting. But with respect, Bill still won't address the point: what do MLAs do to deserve any more money than one should be paid to punch a button saying "yes" or "no" depending on what the leader tells them to do?

When I raise this I get sort of a chuckle from people like my CBC colleague, former NDP MLA and, when he wasn't in deep shit, cabinet minister, Moe Sihota. But you should be able to answer my question with more than a chuckle.

What I'm saying is true.

The fact is that there isn't an honest answer except to admit that it's true and reform the system so that MLAs do count.

Job description is thin

Now, let's be clear, many MLAs work long hours but my question is not how long they work but what do they actually do for me the voter? Someone spending 75 hours a week moving big rocks from one end of a football field to the other then back again, could claim he was working his ass off. But the question would still be: what did the person paying his wages get in return?

No one wants to answer my question because it goes to the heart of the matter: Do we or do we not have a parliamentary democracy where people we elect do our public business?

Anyone who looked honestly for the answer would say "of course not, not even close."

MLAs may spend hour after hour in the legislative chamber when it's in session but again I ask, doing what? The answer is, doing what they're told and feeling bored, unwanted, and unused.

Whipped

This rot in the system goes very deep. One government and one opposition MLA gets paid, for example, for being the party whip and if you ask what he/she does for that, I'll tell you "dick all."

The whip is supposed to make sure that there are enough government MLAs around so that the government doesn't lose a vote. With a majority like the Liberals have, how does that ever arise? And even if it did happen, the Liberals need only table a motion of confidence which would keep them in power. The government whip gets extra money to keep the government from being momentarily embarrassed.

Just what the hell the opposition whip does cannot be answered in parliamentary language except to say "fuddle duddle all"!

But what about all that constituency work?

About 99.9 per cent of that is making sure you keep being electable by kissing constituents' backsides by going to picnics, union bun tosses, chambers of commerce meetings, shopping mall meet and greets, and so on.

The actual needs of the constituents vis-à-vis the government are handled by secretaries paid for by you and me.

Make them Deciders

Unless you think that what an MLA does to keep his political house in order something you, a taxpayer, ought to foot the bill for, the MLA accomplishes almost nothing for the common weal for his soon to be $98,000 per year.

Again, understand I'm not counting up the hours the MLA works but the hours he/she works and produces value for me. Moreover I say this plain and simply. A pay rate of $98,000 with a decent pension would be little enough if we really did live in a parliamentary democracy where the MLA truly had to research issues and decide based upon his own good judgment, the interests of his constituency and the well being of the province.

The fact that this is not the case is not the MLA's fault. Blame a system perverted for political pleasure by party leaders.

Carole James got suckered by the Liberals but she had help -- her own inexperience and lack of political instincts. It was not as if this issue came out of the blue.

James outplayed?

Ms. James had Hobson's choices but the best response would have been to declare that for the official Opposition, it would be a free vote. That would have permitted those NDP members who oppose the bill to state individually their position and pledge that they won't accept either the additional pay or the pension.

As Bill and others point out, the really sweet part is the pension, and it appears that no NDP MLA will turn that over to charity.

Politics is a rough game and there's no way that any party will escape all unhelpful incidents. Embarrassment is part of the job. But there's no excuse for not having a tactic ready for whatever move you can see the other guys are going to make. That tactic is rarely perfect but is always more effective than standing there with your thumb in your mouth.

In order to win, one must know how the game is played. Carole James has just two years to learn and her learning curve is mighty steep as she keeps demonstrating.

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