A Focus On Constituency Offices
It’s been a decade since the Canadian Parliamentary Review’s first produced a theme issue on constituency offices (Vol. 37, No. 2, Summer 2014). We return to the subject matter in depth again for several reasons.
This topic continues to be of great interest to parliamentarians and their staff; yet, strangely, it has not been as well explored by researchers as other aspects of parliamentary democracy. Moreover, in the years since our first theme issue, security issues surrounding parliamentarians, their offices, and their staff have come to the fore. Within this larger theme issue, we feature three articles which specifically examine the impact of security threats on parliamentarians in this sphere.
We begin with a roundtable discussion with two parliamentarians who offer a unique perspective on constituency office management. Former British Columbia MLA Katrina Chen (Burnaby-Lougheed and current Quebec MNA Elisabeth Prass (D’Arcy- McGee) both worked as staff in constituency offices before their respective elections. They discuss how their experience has allowed them to gain an appreciation for what works in these offices, what doesn’t, and how their new roles as parliamentarians necessitated a change to how they approached constituency office work.
Three federal MPs, Carol Hughes (Algoma— Manitoulin—Kapuskasing), Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East), and Philip Lawrence (Northumberland— Peterborough South), take part in a Q&A on mobile or “pop-up” constituency offices that temporarily bring services and staff to areas of ridings away from permanent bricks-and-mortar office locations.
Rhonda Sorensen, Manager of Communications at the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, offers details on how the Assembly’s emergency and contingency planning worked when natural disasters temporarily necessitated the closing of several provincial constituency offices. Reflecting on reports of how constituent information is managed during turnovers of parliamentarians, I outline the benefits of establishing minimum standards of records management and maintenance across all constituency offices in a given jurisdiction and submit a proposal for what such a system could look like.
In the first of three security-themed articles, MNA Nathalie Roy, the President of Quebec’s National Assembly, describes how her province has implemented more advanced safety and security features across its constituency offices.
Mike Freer, a former UK MP, takes part in an interview in which he describes being a high profile target of extremists, and how he responded to physical intimidation, death threats, a potential assassination attempt, and the firebombing of his constituency office.
Finally, former Parliamentary Intern Programme participant Jonathan Ferguson explores how MPs and their staff felt about their safety and security in the aftermath of the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa. He discovers that MPs who responded to his survey expressed a sense of greater security while working in and around Parliament Hill as opposed to in their constituency offices.
As always, the Canadian Parliamentary Review welcomes comments, suggestions, and submissions on topics like this one – particularly from parliamentarians themselves. If you have an idea or a proposal for a future theme issue or an individual article concerning this or other topics of interest to our readership, please feel free to contact me to discuss them.
Will Stos
Editor