Exiting MPs share their views on the state of politics: ‘Toxic atmosphere’ – National | Globalnews.ca

The next elections are not scheduled until 2025, but several MPs have already said they do not plan to seek another term. Before the House of Commons adjourned for the winter break, Global News spoke to some of them about how politics has changed since they were first elected and their concerns for younger MPs.

Carolyn Bennett, a veteran MP with twenty-six years of experience, says she wishes current and future Members of Parliament could share her experience from the late 1990s when she first became an MP.

“I really feel bad that people haven’t had that experience and that things have become so partisan,” the now former Liberal MP, who has retired from politics, said in an interview from her office in Parliament earlier this year. December.

“Even during elections, where you can be very nice to each other in person, but then the ‘keyboard warrior’ comes out at night and ends up being so partisan and so horrible.”

In a chamber where political divisions are often laid bare during question period and in social media posts, there is consensus among outgoing MPs from the three main national parties that the current tone is “toxic”.

“I don’t think we’re trapped forever in this current toxic atmosphere, but I would say the current atmosphere is toxic,” BC NDP MP Randall Garrison said earlier this month. In April, he said he would not seek re-election.

“The current political environment in Ottawa is very conflictive. It’s almost like it’s about achieving political partisanship versus actually doing what’s right for so many Canadians,” Alberta Conservative MP Ron Liepert told Global News.

Liepert, who announced in February that he will not seek re-election, has been involved in politics since the 1970s, first as a journalist covering the Alberta legislature and eventually joining the provincial government as press secretary to Premier Peter Lougheed.

He was first elected as a Progressive Conservative MLA for Calgary-West in 2004, serving two terms. Liepert won his federal seat, Calgary Signal Hill, for the Conservatives in 2015.

Since then, he says he’s seen dramatic changes in who seeks public office.

“There was a very good mix of business people, there were advocates, I don’t think we have that anymore,” he said. “What we seem to find is that we have – and I think it happens in all political parties – many young (former) employees who are now members of Parliament. That’s not to say they’re not good members of parliament, but I don’t think they bring that broad range of experience that we used to see in cabinets, in caucuses 10 or 20 years ago.”

This is part of where Liepert says he sees the growing partisanship coming from. With that improved partisanship, he doesn’t see as many people from the outside considering entering the political arena.

“We have people who are doing very well financially and who have a good life. They just don’t want to give that up to constantly see their name dragged through the mud on a constant basis,” she said. “It’s really unfortunate because the whole country suffers as a result of it. Democracy suffers. “It’s just sad.”

Liepert spoke to Global News just outside the chamber in early December, when he stepped out between debate rounds. She says people trying to get clips for social media are “running the show” this question period. “I just don’t think that’s healthy for democracy. “I don’t think it’s healthy to communicate with Canadians.”

While the public face of debate in the House of Commons can often revolve around partisan criticism and canned talking points, Garrison says there are still productive conversations in parliament and that’s where he keeps his focus.

“Despite the bad reputation that question period gives the House of Commons, it is not where the real work gets done. And there is a lot of cooperation at other levels, particularly in committees, where we really get things done,” he said.

Garrison will end his career when his fourth term ends. He says every parliament he has been a part of has its own composition of party strength, personalities and difficulties that come with it.

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During his tenure, Garrison says he has tried to focus on figuring out how to work with people from all parties on committees to advance amendments and legislation in the House.

“Well, that kind of work is not very sexy, it is not very exciting for social media or even for any type of media. It is very important to the lives of Canadians. That’s why I’m a big fan of getting things done. I didn’t come here just to scream,” Garrison said.

“Although I think that the people who do come here to what I call yelling is important. “They create space for the rest of us, who are really the doers in the House of Commons.”

With his parliamentary career closer to the end than the beginning, Garrison is proud to have found ways to work with his Conservative majority colleagues when he was first elected in 2011 to the current Liberal minority.

However, he does not believe that the current partisan face of politics shies away from an argumentative tone because of one important factor: the election.

“It is a particular choice of a conservative leader, but also of a liberal leader. The choice is to have that confrontational style. So are they going to change that? I don’t think so,” Garrison said.

But Bennett sees this as an obligation to maintain a healthy democracy.

“So if it’s an injustice, if it’s misinformation or disinformation, if it’s actually not true, I don’t know what we do to sit there and address it, whether online or in person. Now I think online we are training ourselves not to respond,” she said.

A by-election will need to be called within 180 days of Bennett’s resignation to fill his seat in Toronto-St. Pablo’s.

In his retirement speech, he said he has no regrets about leaving his medical practice to seek political office, but he worries that it will be harder to find people willing to step up and fill his position in the current climate.

“I think we have to put a more human face on being a parliamentarian. I’m worried that good people won’t show up. “That is the basis of our democracy: that good people run for public office,” he said.

“We need to try to make this a safe place where people are not denigrated and where their character is questioned. That’s what worries me”.