Parliamentary working conditions, through the policies MPs enact, become our social conditions
Hannah Sung is a co-founder of the Media Girlfriends production company. Sabreena Delhon is the executive director of the Samara Centre for Democracy. They are producers ofWhat makes for a good workplace culture? Free snacks? No-meeting Fridays? How about just the basics, such as time to eat, rest and have a life outside of work?
Our suggestions come directly from in-depth interviews we conducted over the course of 18 months with more than two dozen former MPs from across the political spectrum. They shared in their own words what the job of a parliamentarian is really like. Unfortunately, they painted a bleak picture, describing life in Ottawa as “a grind,” with health effects that made the, at times, “the worst place” they had ever worked.
No one should have to put up with a workplace that is a “horror” or a “nightmare,” but that’s how former NDP MP Cheryl Hardcastle described working in the House of Commons. She wasn’t alone in vividly recounting the routine heckling and hostility she witnessed among her colleagues. Ms. Hardcastle described a moment during Question Period when a senior male MP shouted at a younger female cabinet minister, telling her to “sit down, sit down! You’re in over your head, just sit down.
Former environment minister Catherine McKenna often questioned the culture of Parliament in her early days on the job: “Why are there not normal practices here? Why aren’t there normal rules about, you know, not keeping people up all night for days on end with votes that were [held] to make a point?” She described a short-sighted, toxic organizational culture that unnecessarily put people at risk. “It’s almost like harassment,” she said, “It’s like this little cage match. Everyone’s screaming.
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