It looks like Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker wants question period to resemble a golf game rather than an attempt to get straightforward answers from government.
On Tuesday, day one of the sitting for P.E.I.’s minority government in the legislative assembly, Bevan-Baker, also Opposition leader, put forward a motion to ban heckling during question period.
Progressive Conservative Premier Dennis King says he plans to support the motion.
And why wouldn’t he? Without heckling, PC MLAs and cabinet ministers would get a free ride during question period – able to stay on message and spin opposing MLA inquiries.
PC MLAs also wouldn’t have to endure the same level of heckling they inflicted on the Liberals for the past 12 years.
We all remember PC MLA Colin LaVie quacking during question period in 2015 as his fellow Opposition MLAs hammered the Liberals over a mountain of tires that had piled up in Huntley. As it turned out, ducks were using the tires as a home.
Now, LaVie, as the Speaker of the legislative assembly, is in charge of making sure the rules of order and decorum are followed.
Heckling during legislative debates has a long history in our parliamentary system. All provinces and territories do it, as do our commonwealth relatives overseas. In the U.K. in particular, heckling is practised at another level with elected officials often shouting at each other, sometimes only a few feet away.
If you walk into question period in the P.E.I. legislative assembly, you won’t get quite the show as you would in the U.K.
But even in P.E.I., heckling can come across as disrespectful, offensive and crude, especially as an MLA on either side of the aisle is trying to speak above heckling from rival parties.
But it does serve a purpose, as it does in other professions. Similarly, a lawyer can ask permission from a judge to treat a witness as hostile when that witness isn’t forthcoming with answers or answering honestly.
At a baseball game, hecklers are usually sitting behind the plate – their voice piercing through the noise of a crowd in an attempt to get the pitcher or batter off their game and break their concentration.
Tennis and golf have zero tolerance for heckling.
These sports aim to be civil, respectful, courteous and polite.
And this is what Bevan-Baker is proposing to do – turn debate in the legislative assembly into golf or tennis.
It’s part of this new, idealistic, love-fest “collaborative” government.
And, like most idealistic proposals, it assumes the best in people. It assumes that MLAs will suddenly set aside the spin and start answering questions directly and unscripted.
If that ever happens, then we can talk about getting rid of heckling. But in the meantime, we may not like it, but heckling helps opposition MLAs to do their job, get straight answers and hold government accountable.
Heckling has a place in politics
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