CKNW Editorial
for August 10, 2001

It’s not a big deal, I suppose, in the main scheme of things. And compared to overall government expenditures it’s not even a drop in the bucket. What’s a few bucks here to a MLA to chair a committee of caucus or a few bucks there for a deputy whip. And I know from yesterday’s email there aren’t a whole lot of you much interested in principle if what the government does is OK with you. But surely we should pay some mind to a Premier who is prepared to cast aside the traditional role of parliament to suit his political concerns.

If you missed the story, the Liberal government is going to pay four caucus, note the word caucus members, to chair caucus committees which are mandated to help formulate government policy. For this they get an extra $6000 per year. There is also extra money for the deputy Speaker, the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman as well as more money for the Whip and the Deputy Whip.

Dealing with last matters first, the Whip’s job is to ensure that sufficient government members are in attendance to support the government when votes are called. Now, I ask you – who needs a Chief Whip much less a Deputy Whip when you have a 75 seat majority?

But to the main matter. Under our system, MLAs fall into one of three general categories.

First there is the Cabinet which is more correctly called the Council and they, including the Premier of course, are the government. Technically one does not have to be an MLA to be a cabinet minister but by long tradition he is. Those MLAs who are in Cabinet are the only MLAs in the government, period.

Second, there are the government MLAs which is to say the MLAs who have elected to sit in the government caucus. They are called government backbenchers but they are not, repeat not part of the government.

Thirdly, there are MLAs in opposition to the government

What is critical to note is that a backbencher MLA is not a member of the government. He has not been sworn into Her Majesty’s Council and therefore remains outside the government. This is an important distinction for the backbencher, government or opposition, is not there to make government policy but to examine and pass judgment on it. Quite a difference. There is a provision for backbenchers making government policy and it’s called the Private Members’ Bill. These are often introduced by backbenchers to focus some attention on a favoured area but are rarely brought to the floor of the House and voted on.
What I have just said is what distinguishes a British style parliament from a republican Legislature. In the United States, a member of Congress is forbidden to be in the government so that the government, or the executive, comes from outside. This means that all the legislating is done my members of Congress and, seniority aside, all are equal.

It isn’t that Committees are unknown to our system – far from it. There are committees of the House on various heads of government but they are not committees of a caucus but of the entire House with opposition members as well as government members sitting on them.

The marked departure from custom, by Mr Campbell, is that he is appointing committees of his own backbench not to sit and judge government policy but, in fact, to help formulate it. He has put backbenchers on what have always been government committees – Treasury Board, for example. He has blurred the line of demarcation so that Backbenchers, if not technically part of government, are no longer again, at least technically, independent of government.

Does this mean anything really in practice?

One might argue that with a 75 seat majority, not much. Only purists like me will object. The real question is, why is this happening?

Mr Campbell will argue that it is to bring more MLAs into the governing process. But that begs the question because under our system the MLAs are not supposed to be part of government. The real reason is something much more practical and it’s called a huge backbench that must be given something to do and money to do it so MLAs can feel important without being able to do any damage.

Just by way of aside it should be noticed that while the Chairs of the Caucus Committees get more money, the members don’t and there has been no indication that Chairs of the Parliamentary Committees, which in one case must be an opposition member, will get extra pay.

The MLAs job, despite all the bleating you will hear to the contrary, is not an onerous one. He has ample secretarial help and a constituency office paid for. When he is sitting in the Legislature, apart from the make work projects Premier Campbell is dreaming up, he has really no work at all. He should read the government bills but since he is bound to pass them this isn't a critical task. He will seldom be called upon to debate because of the sheer numbers in the House and when he does, it’s all about as meaningful as a debate in a pre 1989 Communist country. He will take part in a sham where government members will, on cue, say how wonderful the government is and how important this wonderful piece of government legislation is. He can make Hansard copies of this and circulate them amongst his constituents who don’t understand what is really going on. His hours are short and time hangs heavy on his hands.

Gordon Campbell has a rather special problem with his backbench. Because there were almost no safe NDP seats in the last election, the Liberals didn’t elect any duds that accidentally upset an incumbent. This means, of course, that the backbench is not only huge, it has a lot of people in it that are used to successful careers and are not about to sit on their hands for four years.

In short, this slagging of parliamentary tradition with extra lolly for good little boys and girls is make work, at public expense … it’s a way Gordon Campbell has of keeping peace on the backbench.

As I said in the beginning, it may not be the biggest deal in the world – a few shekels here, a few there … here a title, there a title … and thrown into the mix some very important sounding tasks to be done. The only important thing is that the public understands what is happening and why, and is not deluded into thinking that anything of a moment’s importance is coming out of all this.