Why politicians are trying to ban clapping in the House

theglobeandmail.com
Dec. 11, 2015
By Jane Taber

Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP Michael Harris is so programmed to clap when a politician asks or answers anything during Question Period that he has found himself applauding Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne even as she is slapping down his own party.

“I’m like a clapping minion,” he says.

He wants to stop - and, more than that, he wants everyone else to stop, too.

Mr. Harris, the MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga, is lobbying his colleagues and informally gauging their interest in ending the endless clapping during the daily 60-minute session.

He is following the example of the Quebec National Assembly, where MNAs unanimously voted in September to ban clapping to allow more time for questions. So far, it is working.

“The fact that there is no clapping - it diminished the intensity of the question and of the answer. It diminished the partisanship...and certainly gives more time for questions and answers,” says Quebec’s Liberal Government House Leader, Jean-Marc Fournier.

And Westminster, the mother of all Parliaments, has a long-held convention against applause.

“Politicians clap way too much,” Mr. Harris says. “They are so self-congratulatory.”

He has conducted his own unscientific study, and found that for every 10 minutes of Question Period, there is at least one minute of clapping, cutting into opposition questions and government answers.

Prohibiting applause is not Mr. Harris’ only issue or preoccupation - he is the transportation critic - but the constant clapping irks him as it wastes time better spent doing the business of the people.

“I think students and people who visit our assembly are taken aback by the behaviour...I’m more interested in getting more questions in,” he says.

His efforts to have clapping banned come when the House of Commons in Ottawa has just returned after the October election and all parties say they will try to be better behaved.

Speaker Geoff Regan is vowing to restore decorum in the chamber after years of nastiness and pettiness during the Conservative government’s reign.

Last Friday, just after being elected Speaker, Mr. Regan met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the two opposition leaders, who have all, according to a senior official, agreed there should be more respect in the House, and will speak to their caucus members about that.

Mr. Regan has been taking steps to encourage good behaviour. He made a point of thanking all MPs before Question Period this week for the decorum they showed, and indicated their constituents would be pleased. It is an interesting tactic, as Canadians have long complained about the behaviour of MPs in the Commons. Pointing out to MPs that the people who sent them to Ottawa would be pleased might have some sway and keep them in line.

Mr. Regan is also “naming” MPs who are acting out, which means he specifically identifies the MP by his or her riding and tells them to behave.

NDP House Leader Peter Julian thinks Mr. Regan is off to a good start.

“A lot of Canadians watch Question Period, and to hear their MP being mentioned, ‘Could you please calm down,’ I think it’s very effective,” Mr. Julian says. “There is a public consequence to heckling.”

He added that the last Parliament had a very “toxic atmosphere,” and by calling out individual MPs, he believes Mr. Regan is working hard to ensure his Parliament does not slide back into that kind of culture.

As for banning clapping, Mr. Julian says the issue has not come up for him, but he is interested to see firsthand the changes in Quebec.

Mr. Fournier, the Quebec Liberal House Leader, believes that the questions and answers are better in the National Assembly under the new clapping ban, although some people have complained that the televised question period is not as exciting as it once was. (Question period is also televised on Parliament Hill and at Queen’s Park.)

“Maybe the show is not as good as it was,” he says. “If you see it as a democratic operation to make people know what is happening, well, I think that is better now.”