Illustration by Kagan McLeod
Why are Canadian MPs browsing their phones during question period at the Parliament?
Whether they’re on Facebook, checking messages or even playing video games, mobile device use in the House is out of control….
Catherine McIntyre, MACLEAN
December 12, 2017: It’s a Wednesday afternoon in the House, and Andrew Scheer is at Bill Morneau’s throat trying to tear a chunk of meat off. Minutes before Question Period, the Conservative leader called for the finance minister’s resignation over conflict-of-interest questions that broke hard on the heels of controversy over his small-business tax plan.
A resignation isn’t remotely likely, but Scheer is looking to draw QP blood. With the pool cameras fixed squarely on the speakers, as required by the rules on televising House proceedings, the scene translates on screen as a heated and consequential skirmish.
But beyond the allowed camera angles, the atmosphere is heavy with routine slouches punctuated by restless fidgeting. Many elected officials appear not to notice the debate unfolding before them, and nearly half are preoccupied with something in the palms of their hands.
From 2:20 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. on Nov. 29—while Scheer was having at Morneau—three Maclean’s reporters tallied the number of phones, tablets and laptops they could see in use in the packed chamber. From the press gallery vantage point above the Speaker’s chair it’s impossible to collect exact statistics (photographs are prohibited), but an estimate for that moment puts 40 devices in the hands of the Liberals, and 50 in use on the opposition side of the aisle.
In Justin Trudeau’s front bench, Ralph Goodale and Chrystia Freeland are glued to their screens. Carolyn Bennett and Jane Philpott gab with each other between clicks and scrolls. Bill Casey taps away on his red-cased tablet, and Nick Whalen is enthralled with a video game—probably Clash of Clans, he later admits—on his iPad.
Among Conservatives facing them, Dave MacKenzie refreshes his Twitter feed, Mike Lake checks Facebook, Ted Falk surveys the stock market, and Todd Doherty scrolls back and forth between his phone’s home pages as if waiting to be beckoned by notification alert. When nothing pops up, he takes out a small cloth and polishes the fingerprints off his device.
It isn’t exactly revelatory to note that handheld devices pervade about every nook and cranny of contemporary life, pushing and pulling on productivity. Visitors, however, might assume that the tradition-saturated heart of Canadian democracy, the House of Commons—where each MP sits as a representative of some 100,000 of their countrymen and women—would be an exception to these bad manners and the continually clicking rule.
MACLEAN