The clip below is from a fairly negative Ottawa Citizen article. I'm not sure it's such a bad thing for MP's to have careers in other fields. Regardless, the statistics are striking:
"Operating under minority governments since 2004 has resulted in a Parliament where more than two-thirds of federal politicians have less than five years' experience. In analysing the demographic statistics of the composition of the House of Commons, the Public Policy Forum found that 67.5 per cent of MPs have been elected since 2004; almost one-quarter of all current MPs were voted in for the first time in October 2008. A mere three per cent of MPs have more than 15 years' experience.
Not only have the vast majority of MPs not been on the Hill for very long, but most of them also don't come with much other political experience either.
More than 61 per cent of MPs come from business or the private sector, while almost 14 per cent come from academia. The remaining one-quarter of members come from public and health services areas, non-profit organizations or other areas of politics.
"The old complaint used to be that there were too many career politicians," Public Policy Forum chief executive David Mitchell said Sunday.
"We got a bit jaded that they had little or no real-life experience, but now we've gone the other way. The stunning lack of experience, and hence memory of Parliament as an institution, provides the context for the acrimony we see in the House on a day-to-day basis.""
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
3 comments:
I am swayed by this argument. We expect people to be experts in every other discipline. Why not politics?
What is an "expert" in politics?
A liberal and only a liberal?
Unreal how ignorant the leftists are.
Yeah, I wrote about this story almost a week ago. Pretty sad, and the veterans aren't exactly helping either. Example? Wayne Easter's recent conversion into a screaming lunatic.
Post a Comment