Ottawa

The Backbench Top Ten

After a week off to accommodate all that thinking in Montreal, here is the return of our weekly, and wholly arbitrary, ranking of the ten most worthy, or at least entertaining, MPs, excluding the Prime Minister, cabinet members and party leaders. A celebration of all that is great and ridiculous about the House of Commons. Last week’s rankings appear in parentheses.

1. Francine Lalonde (1)
The nagging conscience of Parliament. If Joe Comartin isn’t the next Speaker, Ms. Lalonde probably should be.
2. Shelly Glover (—)
Two days after this, she’s hailed as a rising star in the Conservative caucus. Everything you could want to know about the Harper Era of Canadian politics could probably be explained by the existence of Ms. Glover.
3. Daniel Paille (3)
4. Jack Harris (2)
5. Bob Rae (9)
The man knows how to play for the cameras. (Also note how yours truly has smartly struck a pose of serious consideration.)
6. Joe Comartin (5)
7. Wayne Easter (6)
Imagine listening to Beaker sing the songs of Stompin’ Tom. Does this accurately describe Wayne Easter’s stage voice? Maybe not precisely. But it’s fun to imagine what that might sound like anyway.
8. Derek Lee (4)
9. Maxime Bernier (8)
10. Dominic LeBlanc (10)
His heckling of Peter Kent—”Cut to weather!”—is entirely predictable at this point. But no less amusing.

Previous rankings: March 12. March 19.

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