Credit: Hansard

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Politicians shouldn’t be afraid to call each other incompetent

Mar 17, 2021 | 4:26 AM

KAMLOOPS — WE CALL GOVERNMENTS many things, but apparently “incompetent” isn’t supposed to be one of them.

The word is a favourite of the BC Liberals right now when talking about the NDP government.

NDP members are also fond of the incompetence word. In one Question Period exchange, Todd Stone accused the government of incompetence on COVID relief funding, to which Jobs and Economic Recovery Minister Ravi Kahlon fired back that the word describes Stone’s handling of ICBC when the Liberals were in office.

That was followed by what are politely referred to in Hansard as “interjections.” Undeterred, Kahlon doubled down, declaring, “Obviously, his incompetence is a bit of a hard thing for him to deal with.” And then, “Maybe he wants to hear more about his incompetence.”

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But the Liberals carried on with their own incompetence theme, member after member throwing the word into the middle of questions. When it was Peter Milobar’s turn, he cited “another example of this premier’s incompetence and his minister’s incompetence.”

But, acknowledging NDP sensitivity to the incompetence word he added, “blundering, bungling, amateurish, incapable, inept, clumsy.”

All of this talk of incompetence finally prompter House Speaker Raj Chouhan to warn MLAs to “be careful” with their language. His concern, he said, was the impression they were leaving on the public. Long has the public demanded that Question Period be made more civil, and long have those demands been ignored.

But since when is it such a terrible thing for politicians to call each other incompetent? Unparliamentary language is rife with worse words: bag of wind, coward, bully, crook, liar, evil, sick animal, pompous ass and the ever popular alternative to “fuddle duddle” among them.

“Incompetence,” on the other hand, epitomizes our entire parliamentary system. If one party doesn’t believe the other is incompetent, why is it there?

Certainly, Question Period could do with some reform but let’s not get worked up about politicians calling each other incompetent.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.