Samara | Should there be a job description for MPs?

Should there be a job description for MPs?

Welcome to Parliament: A Job With No Description indicated that MPs had varied, and often contradictory, views of the core purpose of an MP. Should there be a job description? If so, how do we decide what it should include?

Comments (3)

Permanent link

Here is a Job Description for MP's.  It took me about 5 minutes to write.

JOB: MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT

1.  Understand and Communicate the agendas of priority stakeholders.
2.  Assign priority to stakeholders based on the net benefit to society of realization of their claims.
3.  Develop productive working relationships with every member of your party, your opposition critic and the leaders of all parties.
4.  Develop responsive, transparent relationships with The Press.
5.  Reform unproductive systems and structures from within.
6.  Defend the status quo until there is proven reason to reject it.
7.  Effectively delegate responsibilities for constituent concerns so as to ensure successful resolution of all matters brought to your attention.
8.  Participate in community events through engaging with the substance of the effort.  What can you do to help...why are you there -- ask yourself this every time you participate.
9.  Promote nationalism and continue your education and study of it's evolving nature.
10. Answer your dectrators with actions.

Responsibilities:  Decision making. Upholding the rule of law.  Promoting community peace.  Promoting social cohesion and equity.  Representing disparate views that are not your own.  Contributing to best practices and solutions that benefit the most deserving stakeholders.

Obviously the job requires many skills.  Assignment to Cabinet posts and Committees requires that MP's assimilate new information quickly.  While no one professional background can guarantee previous work experience that will relate to all decision's MP's are responsible for making, neither can one person's life experience completely inform their knowledge of civil morality (hence the party system wherein policy directions are formed).  The difficulty with Samara's Welcome to Parliament report is that it takes a 'first principals' approach to research that also pretends to 'know nothing' in order to gain a platform to propose reform.  Politics is a very complicated arena, but every citizen should be aware that decision-making, communication and information assimilation are at the heart of an MP's 'Job Description'.

Newsletter

Sign-up to receive our newsletter and other Samara updates via email.

topsy.com

December 3, 2010 17:35 PM

Pingback from topsy.com

Twitter Trackbacks for

        Samara | Should there be a job description for MPs?
        [samaracanada.com]
        on Topsy.com

ipoliticseh

December 3, 2010 18:14 PM

Ann Douglas

December 10, 2010 19:39 PM

It's a great idea -- but given the growing concentration of power in the prime minister's office, that issue needs to be addressed as well. (MPs can have the best job description in the world, but if all decision-making power is being made by the executive rather than the legislative branch of government, empowering MPs won't address the crisis in democracy that Canadians currently face.) Still, it's a start. Thanks for a thought-provoking and inspiring article.