I've been struggling for useful things to say about how Parliament is reacting as an institution to the pandemic. What strikes me more than anything is how it again demonstrates that Parliament is a paradox, with multiple conflicting expectations. 1/9 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-in-a-time-of-crisis-the-trudeau-government-should-not-be-sidelining/

Parliament operates under two competing logics - the logic of representation (voices) and the logic of governance (decisions). Both are important, but their primacy varies, usually depending on where one sits - government or opposition; cabinet or backbench. 2/9

The permanent tension between the two logics is now exacerbated by an unanticipated crisis. So the institution has to make things up on the spot, trying to meet the competing values above while adapting them to the strange new world of social distancing. 3/9

As this excellent new research by @pejthomas and @SamaraCDA comparing the Canadian, Australian, UK and NZ parliaments shows, each institution has taken a different approach and made different tradeoffs. 4/9
https://www.samaracanada.com/democracy-monitor/westminster-parliaments/

Tradeoffs in Canada include:
-All-party agreements can expedite consensus decisions, but at the expense of transparency and further restricting backbencher power
-Minimizing the number of MPs in the chamber can lead to representational deficits; gender, region, etc. 5/9

These and other tradeoffs aren't surprising as they are rooted in the fundamental tension in Parliament between representation/voices and governance/decisions. Parliament has multiple purposes and plays multiple roles, and is trying to adapt them to this crisis. 6/9

Canada has always seemed to struggle with these paradoxes more than its Westminster counterparts. And as the @SamaraCDA research shows, we seem to be lagging (especially compared to NZ) in adapting the institution to the current crisis. 7/9

Discussions in Canada are also very politicized, with party leaders attacking each other rather than reaching what might seem to be common-sense decisions. This indicates the underlying tension and immaturity in Canada in reconciling the paradox that is Parliament. 8/9

The solution might seem easy: a virtual Parliament, and committees are doing that. But setting up a fully virtual Parliament in Canada will require consensus on what Parliament is for. We've never fully answered that question because we can't deal with the paradoxical answer. 9/9