John Baird is Canada's Parliamentarian of the Year

Ottawa, ON - John Baird, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Member of Parliament for Ottawa West-Nepean, and the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, has been named Canada's Parliamentarian of the Year by his House of Commons peers in the fourth annual survey of Canada's 307 sitting Members of Parliament (MPs). The study was conducted by Ipsos-Reid on behalf of Maclean's in partnership with the The Historica-Dominion Institute and L'Actualitй, and is designed to honour the public service of Canada's parliamentarians.

Based on the scoring system outlined below Baird received 34.5 points out of a possible 60 total points. The top four point getters for best MP are Gilles Duceppe (Bloc Quйbйcois) at 32.5, Bob Rae (Liberal) at 31.9, and Jack Layton (NDP) at 30 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.

In addition to the parliamentarian of the year award, awards were given to members winning in each of six categories: hardest working; best orator; best at representing their constituents; most collegial; most knowledgeable about the issues of the day; and - a new category this year - "rising star," which identifies the most promising Members of Parliament elected to their first full term of office during the 2008 election.

The winners and runners up within each category, as well as the points received within and outside their parties, are identified in the table below.

* Among the categories, there was one three-way tie on points for Best Orator, with Bob Rae (Liberal), Gilles Duceppe (Bloc Quйbйcois) and Jack Layton (NDP) each scoring 10 points. The tie was broken by the number of first-choice votes each member received from outside their party. On this basis, Bob Rae wins with 19 first place votes from outside his party, followed by the runner-up, Gilles Duceppe with 15 first place votes, and Jack Layton with 10 first place votes.

Methodology

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.

There are 307 MPs currently sitting in the House of Commons and 202 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 seven categories, including: hardest working; best orator; best at representing constituents; most collegial; most knowledgeable about the issues of the day; "rising star"; and best overall. Please note that the determination of the best Member of Parliament was not based on responses to the "best overall" category alone, but was based on an aggregate scoring system (see below) that tallied the points members received across all categories (excluding "rising star").

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 providing a first and second choice within and outside their party in each of the seven categories.
• The six categories, excluding "rising star," 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.
• In the event of a tie, the winner was selected based on the number of first choice votes received outside of the party. This was the case for Best Orator as described above.
• 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.

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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