Through almost 20 years, Alberta MP Leon Benoit has not built a reputation in Ottawa as a Conservative rebel.
He arrived in 1993 as a red meat Reform MP with little time for eastern elites, bilingualism, supply management, protectionism, government deficits or boss control of political parties and MPs.
Over those two decades, he has evolved as has his party — from a “the West wants in” outsider to a veteran government MP voting for Quebec special treatment, bilingualism, supply management protectionism and the largest government deficits in Canadian history.
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Through all those compromises and reversals, his northeastern Alberta constituents have continued to give him massive majorities through seven elections. He remains on the conservative side of the Conservative government.
Yet there he was last week, challenging his own party elites. He complained in the House of Commons that party bosses — in this case the prime minister’s office and Conservative whip Gordon O’Connor — have refused to allow him to make House of Commons statements on sensitive issues that conflicted with government policy.
“I believe this is infringing on my right as an MP to freedom of speech and to represent my constituents freely,” he said in the Commons as one of more than half a dozen Conservative MPs taking the unprecedented step of challenging the iron control of prime minister Stephen Harper and his henchmen.
At the core of the issue is British Columbia MP Mark Warwawa’s attempt to promote an end to the practice of aborting female fetuses because of their gender.
Because Harper promised in the 2011 election campaign that his government would not revisit abortion policy, Warwawa was not allowed by his party to speak to the issue in the Commons.
In many ways, it is a classic parliamentary battle between party loyalty and the rights of MPs.
Media and critics of Harper can’t lose.
If MP X stands up to promote a policy that conflicts with government policy, say abortion, critics will cry that this is Harper’s private agenda being played out through a backbencher because Harper controls everything, don’t you know.
And if a backbencher is shut down for promoting a policy that could harm the government, then the critics proclaim that Harper is stifling free speech in his caucus and ignoring the Reform ethos on which he was first elected.
It is a complicated issue.
Centuries-old parliamentary rules are on Warwawa and Benoit’s side.
On private member’s bills and during MP statements before question period, MPs are supposed to speak for their constituents or their consciences.
Of course, in real life that rarely happens. The NDP opposition, like the Conservatives, routinely forces MPs to vote the party line on private member’s bills or pay a price.
On the Conservative side, when some MPs or cabinet ministers stray, there is much comment about either a “hidden agenda” or erosion of party discipline.
Parliamentary tradition aside, Harper and all recent prime ministers and party leaders before him impose discipline to keep the government message on track.
Recently, Reform godfather Preston Manning told a conference that for Conservatives to win mainstream support, they have to keep MPs with less-than-mainstream views from voicing them publicly.
Cynical as it is, there is practical political truth to that.
Then there is the point that MPs rarely are elected as independents but as members of a political party with a platform that voters support or not.
Once they get to Parliament, often on party coattails, can they then defy party policy to espouse their own views, even if it hurts the public perception of the party?
One rookie Alberta MP offered a blunt message during the debate.
Lethbridge MP Jim Hillyer said any MP is free to say what he wants but if he wants to be part of the party “team,” he should toe the party line.
“Members are never forced to vote how they are told to vote or speak on any subject they want to speak on,” he said.
“They are told that if they want to be part of the team, they must work with the team.”
The consequence of not being part of the “team” is almost certain electoral defeat.
The chances of this backbench revolt weakening Harper’s control of the party agenda are nil. So Conservative MPs at odds with the party platform on sensitive issues are faced with a stark choice.
Last year, Thunder Bay New Democrat Bruce Hyer refused to follow his party’s pro-gun registry position in light of his constituents’ anti-registry opinion.
His only option was to leave the party and sit as an Independent, likely ending his parliamentary career at the next election.
It is the reality of party politics in the modern-day Canadian parliamentary system.
