Parliament during COVID. John Milloy wonders if the recent decision to allow virtual participation to continue will breed resentment among Canadians who don’t have that choice.
Canadians want their elected officials to understand what it’s like to be an ordinary person. And many ordinary Canadian can’t work from home, John Milloy writes.
Parliament during COVID. John Milloy wonders if the recent decision to allow virtual participation to continue will breed resentment among Canadians who don’t have that choice.
There’s a joke about a snooty university professor objecting to the way a particular problem was solved: “It might work in practice,” he snorts, “but does it work in theory?”
That is my reaction to the House of Commons’ recent decision to give MPs the option to continue participating in parliamentary business via Zoom, even though COVID restrictions have ended.
Canada is a vast country, and the travel demands on MPs are ridiculous. When I worked on Parliament Hill, I remember an MP from Northern Canada regularly travelling for almost 24 hours to attend weekend events in his riding and then immediately hopping on a plane to return to Ottawa.
True story — I later heard that he married a flight attendant.
And then there are personal reasons why MPs need to be at home — illness, family emergencies and caregiving commitments. MPs have partners, families, and new babies. And it’s not just infants, I remember hearing of MPs returning home after long absences to face teenagers who refused to talk to them.
Of course, Zoom has its downsides. It changes the dynamic of debate and prevents important casual interactions. From a practical point of view, however, giving MPs the right to participate occasionally from home makes sense.
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Besides, don’t many Canadians already have that option?
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And there is the problem.
Not all Canadians can work remotely. Think of those who work in restaurants, stores, or factories. What about garbage collectors, snowplow operators or police officers?
While many of us sleep-in instead of commuting and spend our days in track pants, others need to get up early and fight crowds, traffic or endure long commutes on public transit.
MPs need to pay attention to this reality.
Canadians want their elected officials to understand what it’s like to be an ordinary person. That’s why there is so much interest in politicians’ expenses, the vacations they take, and 24 Sussex Drive lies in disarray.
And many ordinary Canadians can’t work from home. In fact, experts tell us that the pandemic divided society into two groups. On the one side is a professional elite — the “Laptop Class” — who can easily work remotely from their home, cottage, or a vacation property thousands of miles away from their workplace.
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On the other side are those who don’t have that luxury and are often struggling in low paying jobs.
For many of these individuals, life is not easy. Home ownership has become a pipe dream and trips to the grocery story have become hair-raising experiences. Many are mired in debt and are becoming more pessimistic about their economic future as well as their children’s prospects.
They too have personal reasons why they might like to work from home, and I doubt that they much sympathy for those that can.
The “Laptop Class” has been pushing to make working from home permanent and many employers, including governments have been pushing back. Through their decision, MPs seem to have chosen sides in this contentious debate.
MPs working remotely makes practical sense. However, it’s bound to create resentment. Like the snooty Professor, politicians should consider their solution from a different perspective.
