Representation in Action: Canadian MPs in the Constituencies.

• Author: Dutil, Patrice
• Position: Publications - Book review

Representation in Action: Canadian MPs in the Constituencies, by Royce Koop, Heather Bastedo and Kelly Blidook, (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018), 235 pp.

There is no doubt that Canadians take the work of their Members of Parliament for granted and there is a reason for this: almost all MPs are elected because of the label they represent, not because of their personal qualities or politics. Parliamentary representation has rarely worked out in practice the way it was supposed to in theory. The democratic ideal was that electoral districts would choose one of their own to represent the region without compromise within a unifying assembly. Instead, political parties have used their own organizing and ideation powers and quickly overcame whatever an individual might offer (exceptions do exist, but they are extremely rare). Members of Parliament are seen as practically anonymous and interchangeable, utterly dependent on the party and programme they represented during the previous electoral contest.

The role of MPs, in Canada as in Great Britain, was basically untouched for 200 years. Two things changed this in the postwar period. First, government expanded and offered a wider variety of services--and inevitably created administrative issues in the implementation of programs. Secondly, the democratic impulses of the 1960s gave expression to the idea that more MP involvement would help resolve problems and create a more solid link between citizens and parliament. As problems multiplied and as the State sought to be more responsive, constituency offices were funded in the early 1970s. The initiative was modest and came with just enough money to rent storefront space in the riding and one or two relatively poorly paid administrative assistants who could respond to the needs of residents. The idea that Members of Parliament were responsible to represent the State instead of the opposite was cemented.

There is a small literature in Canada that examines the role of MPs. David Docherty's Mr. Smith Goes to Ottawa focused on the MP as legislator. Anthony M. Sayers's Parties, Candidates and Constituency Campaigns in Canadian Elections valiantly argued that constituencies were sufficiently unique and that riding associations did make the difference in electoral outcomes. David V.J. Bell and Frederick J. Fletcher's edited Reaching the Voter: Constituency campaigning in Canada (Vol 20 of the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing) came to a...