“My challenge to members is to find their better angels and put away the anger and false indignation. Criticize by all means, but do it with respect and maybe even wit. Make Canadians proud of this House and the people in it.” – Marc Garneau, scientist, naval officer, astronaut and Liberal cabinet minister, on resigning his Montreal seat on March 8, after nearly 15 years in Parliament.
The first Canadian in space (in October 1984), Garneau was elected in 2008 in the riding now known as Notre-Dame-de-Grace–Westmount, and served as minister of transport and (briefly) foreign affairs in Justin Trudeau’s first two cabinets.
His final task as an MP was to co-chair the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying. Although his resignation came as a surprise on Parliament Hill, he had promised his family he would leave public life once he had tabled the committee’s final report, which he did on Feb. 15, roughly halfway through his fifth term in office. Now 74, Garneau left with the admiration and respect of members on both sides of the House. With experience, he had become a model for other MPs: tough and political when he needed to be, but without descending into the obsessive partisanship that characterizes much of parliamentary debate today,
As he put it in his farewell speech, “I have always viewed those (opposition) members not as enemies but as adversaries, and there is a difference. I know that every single one of them comes here wanting to make Canada a better place. We might have different views about how to do it, and that is fine, but when all is said and done, there is much more that unites us than divides us.”
The dignity with which Garneau took his leave was a striking contrast to the ugly Question Period that had preceded it. A world traveler touring national capitals might, I’ve been told, have thought they’d made a wrong turn and landed not in Ottawa but in New Delhi, where at noon each day members of the lower house of the Lok Sabha (House of the People) are free to raise any issue that concerns them by out-shouting other members in Hindi, English, or any of the SS18 official regional languages. Our House has not achieved a similar madhouse status, but it’s been heading down that slope in recent years. Whatever decorum used to prevail – and most of the time there was some – there is precious little of it now.
Both of the principal players, Trudeau and his nemesis, Pierre Poilievre, can be their own worst enemies, as they were on Wednesday when the opposition leader resumed his attack on the prime minister over reports of Chinese interference in the 2019 and 2021 election campaigns.
For some reason, Trudeau cannot bring himself to give his critics the satisfaction of straight answers. He comes out of exchanges looking thoroughly disingenuous, as though he has something to hide – as he has when grilled about intelligence reports of Chinese activity.
Poilievre makes no pretense of civility. His questions are worded like criminal indictments, each loaded with an assumption of guilt. He’s not interested in the state of national security – that’s the government’s problem. He’s after ammunition to bring down the prime minister. And he never knows when to stop.
On Wednesday, he came to the brink of accusing Trudeau of treason:
Poilievre: “The Prime Minister is not interested in protecting the safety of the people serving this country. He is interested in protecting the Liberal Party of Canada. … It would harm his political career, once he tells how much the Liberal Party or its various arms received in money from Beijing. How much?”
Trudeau: “It is unfortunate and despicable that any member in the House would question the loyalty to Canada of any other member in the House.”
Poilievre: “He is trying to engage in a dramatic distraction. Therefore, I will give him one more chance to answer the question: How much money did his party get from the dictatorship in Beijing?”
Trudeau: “I see the Leader of the Opposition is trying to backtrack from his heinous and disgusting accusations of disloyalty to Canada of anyone in the House, and I am pleased to see him back off from what was an absolutely despicable partisan approach.”
Poilievre: “The Prime Minister is blocking a public inquiry that would compel him to give answers. His members are blocking an investigation here at Parliament. He will not answer questions on the floor of the House of Commons. He even has a bill that would allow him to censor the Internet. It is almost as if he admires the basic Chinese communist dictatorship. Will he tell us whether he still admires the basic Chinese communist dictatorship, as he so profusely said he did several years ago, yes or no?”
Let’s give the last word to Marc Garneau: “Before I finish, let me issue a challenge to everyone in this chamber. Arrive each day in this House with the firm intention of showing respect for colleagues and for this extraordinary place. Be dignified. We must remind ourselves that when emotions run high, as they do for all of us, those emotions need to be channelled in a positive way, whether when supporting something or criticizing it.”
Amen.
Cambridge resident Geoffrey Stevens is an author and former Ottawa columnist and managing editor of the Globe and Mail and Maclean’s. He welcomes comments at geoffstevens40@gmail.com