I don’t remember how I found it, but it soon popped up on Nealenews and everyone started to talk about it. It’s a great resource for Canadian democracy and it sheds light on some interesting facts that would otherwise remain buried. Howdtheyvote.ca is a smart and sophisticated website that assembles Hansard data and processes it to help inform the Canadian voter.
I’ve been combing through the website and I’ve already found a few interesting facts.
Most words spoken in the House – Paul Szabo, LIB – 107873 words
Least words spoken in the House – Claudette Bradshaw, LIB – 0 words (she’s even a government minister!)
Maverick MPs (most often go against party line, # dissentions):
Dan McTeague, LIB – 21
Paul Steckle, LIB – 21
Tom Wappel, LIB – 21
Raymond Bonin, LIB – 19
Charles Hubbard, LIB – 19
Gurbax Malhi, LIB – 18
Alan Tonks, LIB – 17
Rose-Marie Ur, LIB – 17
Roger Gallaway, LIB – 16
Jim Karygiannis, LIB – 16
Lawrence MacAulay, LIB – 16
Ken Boshcoff, LIB – 15
Most absences
Chuck Cadman, IND (cancer) – 142
David Chatters, CPC (cancer) – 107
Darrel Stinson, CPC (cancer) – 101
Carolyn Parrish, IND – 79
Gurmant Grewal, CPC – 62
Best attendence records (0 absences)
Ethel Blondin-Andrew, LIB
Francoise Boivin, LIB
Marc Godbout, LIB
Michel Guimond, BQ
Mark Holland, LIB
Richard Marceau, BQ
Stephen Owen, LIB
Karen Redman, LIB
Todd Russell, LIB
David Smith, LIB
Brent St. Denis, LIB
Alan Tonks, LIB
Tony Valeri, LIB
Bills written
Pat Martin, NDP – 23
Peter Stoffer, NDP – 18
David Chatters, CPC – 11
Peter MacKay, CPC – 11
Irwin Cotler, LIB – 10
Cabinet Ministers who have not yet written a bill:
Belinda Stronach, LIB
Lucienne Robillard, LIB
Stephen Owen, LIB
Joseph McGuire, LIB
John McCallum, LIB
Paul Martin, LIB
Tony Ianno, LIB
Bill Graham, LIB
John Godfrey, LIB
Joe Fontana, LIB
John Efford, LIB
Raymond Chan, LIB
Aileen Carroll, LIB
Scott Brison, LIB
Claudette Bradshaw, LIB
Ethel Blondin-Andrew, LIB
Carolyn Bennett, LIB
Conclusion: The award for the most overrated MP goes to Claudette Bradshaw.