Bill Blaikie Is Canada's Parliamentarian Of The Year

Ottawa - Bill Blaikie, the NDP Member of Parliament for Elmwood-Transcona and presently Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, has been named Canada's Parliamentarian of the Year by his House of Commons peers in the second annual survey of Canada's 304 sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), in which 151 MPs participated. The study was conducted by Ipsos-Reid on behalf of Maclean's in partnership with the Dominion Institute of Canada, and is designed to honour the public service of Canada's parliamentarians.

Based on the scoring system outlined below Blaikie received 29 points out of a possible 60 total points. The top point getters for best MP in the other parties are Stephen Harper (Conservative) at 25.5 votes, Michael Ignatieff (Liberal) at 23.53 points and Rйal Mйnard (Bloc Quйbйcois) with 12.5 points.

The objective of the survey was to allow all MPs the opportunity to recognize and honour their peers across party lines for their performance in the House of Commons and in fulfilling their duties as Members of Parliament.

Each MP was given the opportunity to evaluate MPs within their own Party and outside of their Parties against six criteria including: hardest working; best orator; best at representing their constituents; most collegial; most knowledgeable about the issues of the day; and best overall performance. To ensure that parties with more elected MPs in the House of Commons or those parties with higher participation rates in the study would not dominate the selection process a scoring system based on the ordinal rank within each category was used. More details on the methodology are outlined below.

The point distribution among the top six MPs were as follows:

In addition to Parliamentarian of the Year, five other awards were given out including:

• Hardest Working: Paul Szabo (Liberal) - winner in the category for the second year running.
• First runner up: Larry Bagnell (Liberal)
• Second runner up: Jason Kenney (Conservative)

• Best Orator: Michael Ignatieff (Liberal) - in a two-way tie with Bill Blaikie, NDP, for first place with 10 points, Igatieff won Best Orator by taking more first-place votes (see explanation below).
• First runner upBill Blaikie (NDP)
• Second runner up: Stockwell Day (Conservative)

• Most Knowledgeable: Joe Comartin (NDP)
• First runner up: Stephen Harper (Conservative)
• Second runner up: Jason Kenney (Conservative)

• Best Constituency Representative: Charlie Angus (NDP)
• First runner up: Bill Casey (Independent)
• Second runner up: Peter Stoffer (NDP)

• Most Collegial: Peter Stoffer (NDP) - winner in the category for the second year running.
• First runner up: Roger Cuzner (Liberal)
• Second runner up: Alan Tonks (Liberal)

Methodology

There are 304 MPs currently sitting in the House of Commons and 151 MPs participated in the survey as indicated in the following table:

Each MP was asked to name the first and second choice MPs within their own party and the first and second choice members outside of their party in six categories, including: hardest working; best orator; best at representing constituents; most collegial; most knowledgeable about the issues of the day; and best overall. Please note that "best overall" was one of the six categories and that the determination of the best Member of Parliament was not based on this one category alone but on an aggregate scoring system (see below) that encompassed all six categories.

To ensure that parties with more elected MPs or those parties with higher participation in the study would not dominate the selection process a scoring system based on the ordinal rank within each category was used.

• MPs were asked to assess their colleagues on both sides of the House of Commons by choosing a best MP from each party in each of the six categories.
• These six categories were then divided, based on the combined total of first and second choice votes an MP received from within their own party and on the combined total of first and second choice votes received outside of their party, essentially creating 12 categories.
• The top five MPs within each party, in each category, were given points based on their ranking. For each first place ranking an MP received five points, for second place four points, for third place three points, for fourth place two points, and for fifth place one point. For example, if an MP finished first in a category within their party they would receive five points, and, similarly if they finished first in a category according to the combined votes of the other parties they would receive five points. The most points an MP could receive is 60 meaning they would have been chosen first within their party in every category by their own party and first in every category by the other parties combined. If an MP finished fifth in all categories they would receive 12 points.
• In the event of a tie, the winner was selected based on the number of first choice votes received. This was the case for Best Orator, with Michael Ignatieff and Bill Blaikie tied with 10 points in this category. Ignatieff won with a higher number of first place votes than Blaikie.
• Only current Members of Parliament were invited to participate and only current members of Parliament were eligible to be chosen as the best MP. MPs were provided with several options for completing the survey, including the ability to respond via the Internet, over the phone or by fax. Each MP was provided with a unique, randomly generated PIN to enter the survey online and only faxes that were received from MPs offices were accepted to ensure that each MP could only answer once. Faxes were monitored and verified to ensure there were no duplicate responses.
• There were not enough Bloc members (11 respondents or 22% of the 48 Bloc seats) who participated in the study to assign points for votes received by Bloc MPs from within their party.

The table below shows how the points were assigned.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
Mike Colledge
Senior Vice President and Managing Director
Ipsos-Reid
Public Affairs
(613) 241-5802
[email protected]

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