A Few Good Moms
Last week I wrote about how bills get passed into law at the Provincial level. To summarize: the “Winner-winner-chicken-dinner” phenomenon allows the party that wins the majority of the seats to vote in (or out) whatever bills their little hearts desire. Barring overthrowing this “winner-takes-all” system in favour of something like Proportional Representation (where a party that gets 5% of the votes gets 5% of the seats, thus making every individual vote count), our best bet is to work our buns off to get good people elected to the majority of the seats.
So the next obvious question is – what makes for a “good person” when it comes to electing an MLA?
Our Top MLA draft pick goes to…
As I’ve admitted in the past, I have a limited understanding of most professional sports. But I have been watching The Last Dance on Netflix, which has pretty much 10x my knowledge of basketball in the past few weeks, and I think it can serve as a great metaphor for who we want playing ball on the political court.
I ask you: would the Chicago Bulls have drafted someone who didn’t know how to play basketball? Would they have given someone a spot because that person “loved basketball” and was a “real fan”? What if that person had a lot of money, or was cunning at negotiating draft picks? The answer to all these questions is OH HELL NO. Sure, they might give that person a job, but the Bulls would not let them on the court if they suck at the game of basketball.
We understand that drafting people who are bad at basketball onto a basketball team is a terrible idea — so why do we draft people with bad governing skills as our politicians? Some of these people might be great for the larger political franchise, but they are frankly terrible choices as MLAs (or, god forbid, Premier)… Yet somehow these people end up on our voting ballots. Here are just a handful of examples that spring to mind:
Rich dude: perfect prerequisite for the role of donor, but I don’t see how wealth offers any qualifications for political office. One could easily argue that people become rich via some combination of luck, inheritance, and exploitation: the first two are not even skills, and the third is not exactly a skill that we should be hiring for in political office, agreed?
Fan: someone who just loooooves politics (without any other seeming credentials to their name) at best makes for a reliable volunteer; at worst, a YouTube conspiracy theorist; but in no Universe does a fan with no governing skills make for a good MLA.
Lawyer: I do NOT understand why this seems to be such a popular prerequisite for politicians. On the research skills side of things? Sure, I guess (but any academic or scientist would fit that box just as nicely). If they got into law to selflessly (read: not motivated by high income) fight for the underprivileged? Okay, you’re starting to sway me. But given that an MLA’s main goal is to communicate clearly with their constituents and write policy that uses clear, simple language and avoids jargon, isn’t the job of many lawyers the exact antithesis of this?? Or am I just permanently scarred by all the complicated contracts and lengthy “Terms & Conditions” agreements I’m forced to sign or “agree” with even though EVERYONE KNOWS THAT NO ONE READS THEM, and even if you did it wouldn’t matter because THE WORDS ARE NOT MEANT TO BE UNDERSTOOD. Don’t get me wrong, I am very thankful for some fantastic lawyers out there fighting the good fight. But I also think that (in general) our lawyer-ing system is broken, and stacking one broken system on top of another does not a great layer cake make. (In this interview, author David Graeber offers “corporate lawyers” as the first example in his list of Bullshit Jobs and I couldn’t agree more…).
Former police officer/military: I think this is a fantastic idea, and it would be just so fabulous for the safety and budgets of our cities and provinces, and you should really read my blog post In Defense of the Edmonton Police.
Sociopaths, psychopaths and egomaniacs: it seems pretty self-explanatory that it would be tricky for someone to effectively listen to and represent their constituents if they are obsessively self-centered, have a weak or non-existent conscience, and lack empathy. But that’s just me!
Good MLA material
So clearly there are people who lack the criteria for making a "good” MLA. So what should we be looking for here? As far as I can tell, a good MLA candidate would absolutely require the following two criteria, first and foremost:
Have significant expertise, knowledge, education and experience in one of the following areas: healthcare, child welfare, municipal affairs, transportation, labour, property/civil rights, economic development, community supports, environment and parks, or education. BECAUSE THESE ARE THE AREAS OUR PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT DEALS WITH.
Have a philosophy and world-view that lines-up with your own values.
Once those first two criteria are met, other necessary characteristics and skills (based on the day-to-day duties of an MLA) include:
the ability to negotiate through the diverse needs and desires of their constituents with patience, humbleness and kindness
firm and consistent on their principles, but fair in each of their dealings
a good listener
great organization and time-management skills
skilled at delegating tasks, as well as coaching/cheerleading their staff
consistent advocates for the issues in their particular area(s) of expertise
After reading through this job description, it is now clear to me who would make the perfect MLA… are you having the same revelation?
Good Moms. The answer is good moms!!!
Like, for real. They are patient and loving when dealing with (literal) shit; they are tough as nails (hello, childbirth or simply listening to a child scream for more than 15 seconds); they can effectively negotiate between, dress and feed multiple distraught humans; they are great listeners; they are strong advocates for both the physical and emotional needs of their constituents; they have experience managing multiple schedules, as well as seamlessly moving between the role of task-master, coach, and cheerleader; they are firm but fair, and will do everything in their power to protect the humans in their care.
Moms of the Legislative Assembly
It’s unclear how many MLAs are moms—nevermind good moms. We do know that out of 87 seats in Alberta’s Legislative Assembly, currently only 26 are taken up by women (that’s just under 30%: across Canada, women represent 33% of legislators). I think we can be reasonably confident in saying that neither the number of women or moms in the Assembly is high enough.
We’ve had enough Members of the Legislative Assembly over the past 100 years. I’ve taken a little taste test and it’s clear: the current recipe could use a lot more Mom*.
*for the purpose of this post, I’m using “mom” almost as a job title or role, rather than a gender: for better or worse, “mom” is culturally recognizable as a North American identifier for the person typically responsible for delivering the majority of childcare needs and household work. Sometimes moms give birth, sometimes they don’t, sometimes they aren’t women, and we appreciate them all!
this post was last updated: August 1, 2020 5:30pm
