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rfmcdonaldCanadians are still adfjusting to the surprise outcome of the election, especially the wholly unexpected dominance of the NDP in Québec. (I'm still getting used to it.)
One notable element of the Orange Revolution (orange being the NDP's colour) is the election of so many novice MPs. The most notable example of this is the surprise victory of Ontarian Ruth Ellen Brousseau in the riding of Berthier-Maskinongé--a place that she never visited before, but where she seems to have been welcomed by the locals.
In his post "Not to Seek Power", Andrew Barton says the newness of so many MPs is a good thing.
I'm somewhat inclined to agree. And you?
One notable element of the Orange Revolution (orange being the NDP's colour) is the election of so many novice MPs. The most notable example of this is the surprise victory of Ontarian Ruth Ellen Brousseau in the riding of Berthier-Maskinongé--a place that she never visited before, but where she seems to have been welcomed by the locals.
In his post "Not to Seek Power", Andrew Barton says the newness of so many MPs is a good thing.
What I like about this is simple - I have always agreed with the notion that the best person to give power is the one who did not want it and did not seek it. Considering that a lot of these new-minted MPs not only didn't campaign in their ridings but in several cases had never even visited them, it's safe to say that they definitely didn't seek this kind of responsibility. A lot of these new MPs are not so much politicians as they are average people who stumbled into the House of Commons.
Ten years ago, during my first year of university, my Politics 100 professor said that Parliament should look like a streetcar, in that its membership would ideally be more reflective of the population of Canada and not dominated by rich old white dudes. Sure, we've made strides since 2001, but there's still a way to go. Now we have MPs who were in elementary school when I was hearing this; we have 19-year-old Pierre-Luc Dusseault, not only the youngest MP in Canadian history but possibly one of the youngest MPs in parliamentary history. There are at least seven NDP MPs now who are younger than I am, and who of necessity come to the House with a set of cultural baggage that's entirely different from what likely predominates on the other side of the aisle.
It's a shame that this didn't end up as another Conservative minority government; the NDP would have had an unparalleled opportunity to test its strength in a situation where the Conservatives could not just ignore them. But if Ottawa is broken, as the NDP circulars tend to say, we're not going to fix it by electing the same old breed of professional politician again and again and again.
I'm somewhat inclined to agree. And you?
