An MP's Bill of Rights

Like Nelson Mandela or Vaclav Havel, Mahatma Gandhi had to deal with the scorn of many who said that he had supposedly "caved" in politics. Those very qualities that fit them for political reform and renewal, even renaissance, were called into question the moment they failed to give everyone what they wanted once they were in office. Gandhi expressed the paradox exquisitely when he stated:

Men say I am a saint losing himself in politics. The fact is that I am a politician trying my hardest to become a saint."

The truth is that, in federal politics today, the vast majority of MPs came to office sincerely desiring to serve their constituents and their country. But the system itself in Ottawa twists them inside-out; in order to "get along" they have to "go along," and despite their best intentions they most often succumb to a political regime that forces them to act in ways they never would in front of their families or communities.With this reality in mind, and with a hugely contentious Parliamentary on its winter break, I offer the following suggestions to all my colleagues regarding our more refined identities and how to maintain them in a political world that has now become a bloodsport. A Member of Parliament has the right to:

1. voice the perceived will of your constituents, even when it is unpopular to do so. This is democracy.
2. represent the larger realities of Canada's existence to your constituents, even though unpopular, out of a sense of obligation to the country itself. This is statesmanship.
3. follow your God or your conscience and expect the respect of others for standing on principle
4. proclaim your faith in your leader when all seems to be crumbling and to question that same leader even when he/she is wildly popular
5. believe that the institution of Parliament is more important than any political party or political career
6. be humble, even when the media or your party attempt to push you to the forefront
7. believe the media is vital to serious public dialogue even when it at times refuses to live up to that responsibility
8. try to make the system, and the party, bend to the needs of your family and your time with them
9. acknowledge similar goals within the other parties and to work in cooperation with them for the better purposes of the people of Canada
10. put public service ahead of political advancement, and to put the immediate and long-term needs of people ahead of partisan policy
11. acknowledge that career public servants are most often smarter than you, especially in files related to their expertise, and that you have the right to challenge them when the system they have created is no longer sensitive to the needs of citizens or Canada's role in the world
12. sense the potential greatness of your position and yet seek to live it out as though you were elected to serve even the least among Canadians

Naturally, many reading these lines will speak of their naivete, yet there was a time when such a behaviour was more present in Parliament than in its current form. Obviously, there are many other examples, but even if we as MPs opted to follow these achievable guidelines, we might yet pull the respectfulness for public service out of the mire it presently sits in because of our rank partisanship. These are the rights extended to us because we have been elected. Should we fail to be responsible with those privileges, we deserve to be stripped of them by the electorate at any time of their choosing.