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3 votes
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Kurt
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One yardstick I like to use to give a quick indication of if & how much a particular MP is willing to stand up for their local constituency, which must naturally statistically mean voting against their party at times, is to see if & how often an MP actually does vote against their party.
An error occurred while saving the comment Kurt
commented
I believe that the Constitutional responsibility of Members of Parliament, to represent their local area on the national stage, is fundamentally important & frankly in jeopardy as the power of parties to whip the vote seems to be increasing. If all the votes were whipped there wouldn’t be much point in having MPs at all; we could just have the three or four party leaders in the House making all of the decisions.
Kurt
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75 votes
This is among the most popular requests, but unfortunately there’s no current way to do this short of having someone on Parliament Hill do a count. I can and do report when a member doesn’t vote, but we’re unable to tell the difference between an absence and an abstention, and many days there simply aren’t any votes in the House. There’s been some noise about having Parliament release attendance records (which are currently self-reported by the parties but not made public), but at the moment those records simply don’t exist.
Kurt
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59 votesKurt
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26 votesKurt
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31 votesKurt
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I think there is significant political / career pressure for MPs to vote with their party, or otherwise risk not being supported by their party in future elections or at minimum not putting themselves in a good position for increased responsibilities like cabinet positions ...therefore limiting or potentially sacrificing their careers. I think it is altruistic & courageous, although unfortunately infrequent, for an MP to vote against their party; so I would love to be able to recognize & help encourage this altruism.