Ottawa Sun
Published: Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Mother of all issues: MPs can distinguish themselves by championing worthy causes

Given present happenings on Parliament Hill, these are not good times to be a federal politician, or as Michael Ignatieff poorly mused, a member of the so-called political class.

Sadly, Canadians have become blase if not immune to political scandals -- imagined, overblown or real -- and just accept them as the same old, same old.

This is a dangerous situation with Canadians across all age groups, professions and income groups tuning out, according to pollsters, of the daily happenings in Parliament, from the absurd theatre of question period to the more substantive work of committees.

At the risk of belittling the role of our 308 MPs, much of it is routine, from EI concerns to passports to immigration issues. An MP is very much an ombudsperson for their constituents, helping them navigate the complex federal bureaucracy. Much of this can be competently accomplished with the assistance of a great staff team on the Hill and in their riding offices.

Since relatively few MPs ever get the chance to serve in cabinet, where most MPs can distinguish themselves -- either in opposition or in the shadow of their own government -- is by becoming political entrepreneurs and championing a cause or issue through framing public debate, getting a private member's bill passed or moving the government to act in the international sphere.

Former Conservative MP Patrick Boyer was an expert on referendums and the role of parliamentarians; he addressed the democratic deficit before we even called it the democratic deficit. Present Liberal MPs Dan McTeague and Paul Szabo have made themselves experts on gas price fluctuations and fetal alcohol syndrome respectively, while Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar often speaks out reasonably on City of Ottawa issues.

And former Reform then Canadian Alliance now Liberal MP, Dr. Keith Martin, is pushing the government on maternal health -- to be fair, it is on the government's agenda -- in the lead up to this June's G8 and G20 meetings.

PREVENTABLE DEATHS

Martin, an MD, has seen first-hand the issue of maternal health around the globe. He has practised medicine in some of Canada's aboriginal communities as well as participating in diplomatic and medical missions to the far reaches of the planet.

As he noted when we chatted a few weeks back, a pregnant woman dies every minute of every day on our planet, mostly in the developing world. And over 80% of these deaths are preventable through better primary care, nutrition, clean water and reliable power. Worse still, reducing maternal deaths is the most neglected of the five Millennium Development Goals.

Martin has created a Facebook group -- Saving Mothers Lives -- authored newspaper opinion pieces and is reaching across the proverbial aisle to all parties to form a consensus on maternal health and assist the government in responding to some of its own members, and other MPs, who have fundamental and deep-seated concerns with the family planning aspect of the maternal health initiative.

Moreover, he believes Canada could meet its maternal health goals by reallocating monies within existing development funding envelopes.

More of this political entrepreneurship from our parliamentarians, on a host of issues, would quickly change the daily headlines and I dare say, help to restore our faith in the political system to boot.