Live chat with Preston Manning: Should special training be required for Parliamentarians ?

hello PM

by Preston Manning 2/8/2013 5:13:41 PM
Hi. Let's get started.

by Chris Hannay 2/8/2013 5:14:18 PM
Should the government in power be held responsible in some way for poor behaviors in the House of Commons?

by Steve 2/8/2013 5:14:29 PM
All the parties, and the Speaker, have responsibilities for House behaviour. The media also, as good behaviour is generally not newsworthy whereas emotional confrontations get you on the evening news.

by Preston Manning 2/8/2013 5:16:02 PM
You were the leader of a political party. What will it take for party leaders to better invest in their "human resources," i.e., the members of their caucus? Most organizations provide regular training and executive coaching to senior execs. Why is politics so different?

by Alison 2/8/2013 5:16:36 PM
Political parties (and I am not against parties) have become marketing mechanisms for fighting elections. That's the main thing they do and all their resources go into that activity. If training is to be provided to politicos it will need to be provided by others who are sympathetic to a party but operate outside it and make training their mission. This is what I am trying to do through the Manning Centre's School of Practical Politics

by Preston Manning 2/8/2013 5:19:19 PM
What kind of training do you think would help to build confidence in Parliament?

by JV 2/8/2013 5:19:41 PM
First of all, training in lawmaking. At the end of the day that is what elected officials do but there is little or no training or preparation for this activity. Other subjects should include political ethics, constituency relations (the art of representation and constituency service), small office management, how to read a government financial statement and analyze a budget, etc

by Preston Manning 2/8/2013 5:22:01 PM
Since I know you are a deep believer in efficiency and democracy, how long do you think it takes for a government to become more corrupt and inefficient?Why?(regardless of party)

by Eric L 2/8/2013 5:26:22 PM
It depends what emphasis the leaders and members put on maintaining the ethical integrity of their administration and on "renewal from within". One of the ways to keeping a party from corruption is for the leadership to consistently stress the principle that "those of us who make and administer the laws must keep the laws or we lose our moral authority to govern" and establish internal mechanisms for enforcing this. This was my father's approach in running the government of Alberta for 25 years.

by Preston Manning 2/8/2013 5:29:53 PM
Any profession that has a fiduciary duty must be trained, licensed, operate within the spirit of their professional codes of ethics, and maintain their professional standing through continuing education. Yet elected, and appointed, officials that have the responsibility for directing or influincing the use public / tax payers funds have no such accountability other than potentially not being re-elected. It is ludicrous that Canadians do not have a framework for recalling inept or corrupt elected/appointed public officials.

by Michael Kolodnicki 2/8/2013 5:30:07 PM
Reform and several of the other, older western based parties (The Progressives, Social Credit, and the CCF) all had recall planks in their platforms and I still believe there is merit in this idea as a means of keeping elected officials more accountable. The problem in getting greater acceptance of this mechanisms has been in getting agreement on exactly how it should work, with British Columbia being further ahead on recall legislation than any other Canadian jurisdiction.

by Preston Manning 2/8/2013 5:33:28 PM
In your view, to what degree should MPs be engaged with citizens over social media? Do you believe there is a bona fide role for the tools in shaping discussion, debate and decisions for constituencies and in Parliament? (with particular attention to engaged rather than just having requisite accounts and using them to issue statements or broadcast activities)

by Mark Blevis 2/8/2013 5:34:16 PM
It seems to me that social media will have an increasingly important role in revitalizing democracy and improving communications between elected officials and their constituents. But the growng influence of social media can also have is downside that needs to be guarded against - some of the political commentary on social media is even more partisan and polarizing than politicla discourse in the conventional media or in parliament.

by Preston Manning 2/8/2013 5:38:25 PM
We have a lot of comments coming in. I'm going to share a few from readers now, before we get back to questions.

by Chris Hannay 2/8/2013 5:39:06 PM
A huge problem with the recall legislation in BC is that it goes along with a huge paycheque for the offender. That's not what the intent was in the mind of the electorate. The government in power still did as they wished.

by Andrew 2/8/2013 5:39:15 PM
Special training to change to what. As long as parliamentarians follow party politics instead of representing the constituents, nothing is gonna change. The other issue every politician has is that they have a hard time giving a straight answer to a straight question. There is no transparency and dishonesty seems to rule their lives. People are dreaming if they think that politicians are going to change to serve the voter than their party boss.

by Dissident-Wolverine. 2/8/2013 5:39:21 PM
When I moved from a technical position into a management position there was a mandatory one week intro course required. After that, at least another four in the first year and then one or two every couple of years forever. I'm amazed (sarcasm) the government of Canada has such low standards and just expects these people know how to run a country. They are politicians elected by an in-party popular vote. Perhaps the training and experience should be started at the party level. It would certainly give the general populace more faith in the system if we had a higher standard of candidate to vote for. Start with the junior party members on the Schmoozing 101 track. I think mentors assigned within the party would be a great help to them.

by Andrew 2/8/2013 5:39:28 PM
Mr. Manning, any of those you'd like to comment on?

by Chris Hannay 2/8/2013 5:40:02 PM
These are good suggestions. What is needed is a properly funded mechanism to act on some of them. That is what the Model Parliament Project mentioned in my op ed is all about. If we could have a heavy duty training place to implement the suggestions for raising the knowledge and skill levels of aspirants to public office, this would be very useful. And if that same institution could act as a laboratory for testing change proposals this might move the cause of parliamentary reform along considerably.

by Preston Manning 2/8/2013 5:43:10 PM