Friday, June 22, 2007

One NDP MP is doing the work of 9 Liberals and 18 Blocistes

Yesterday, NDP MPs Nathan Cullen and Judy Wasylycia-Leis held a press conference to sum up the session that was.

But it wasn't a typical partisan press conference with bluster and charges based on one or two instances of incompetence by the other parties – they had actually done their homework. They presented a thorough analysis of the session looking at votes and bills and questions to the government.

Their findings in a nut-shell: each NDP MP is doing the work of 9 Liberal MPs and 18 Bloc MPs.

Check out the graphics:



Other findings:

- The Liberals are 55% of the opposition benches but have submitted less than a third of the private members bills. (So, where are all these great ideas Dion says Liberals have?)

- Gilles Duceppe has voted with Harper nearly half of the time; while Layton has voted against Harper over 65%.

- Liberal MPs have the worst record for attending votes of any party with 16 MPs missing on average. (If an MP does nothing else, shouldn't he or she be expected to vote?)

Bottom-line: The NDP is the workhorse in the House of Commons. And with by-elections coming this summer, working Canadians are right to wonder why they should reward Liberal and Bloc MPs who sit idle in Ottawa.

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