Under COVID-19 pandemic, MPs across parties and jurisdictions are shifting heavily toward service

What these stories also tell us is that, while there were ongoing calls to see MPs back in Ottawa as soon as possible, perhaps we should be happy that there was not a decision to rush MPs back to their full-scale of House duties.

Infrastructure and Communities Minister Catherine McKenna (Ottawa Centre, Ont.), right, pictured June 1, 2020, arriving for that day's ministerial briefing for the media on the pandemic. Especially for MPs who have shifted their Ottawa staff to aid with constituency work, as many told us they had to do, there are legitimate questions about how soon and how effectively they could take on the same House responsibilities as they did pre-COVID, write Kelly Blidook, Royce Koop, and Lesley Anne Fuga who recently wrote an article on this issue in the Canadian Journal of Political Science. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY KELLY BLIDOOK, ROYCE KOOP, AND LESLEY ANNE FUGA

June 29, 2020

Politicians are often criticized about the work they do and the pay they receive for doing it. Whenever Parliament is in session, Members of Parliament are criticized for what they do while in Ottawa. When Parliament isn’t in session (about half of the year) MPs are criticized for being on vacatio...

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