If question period is 'broken,' is anyone going to fix it?

"Question period is broken," Liberal MP Corey Hogan told the House of Commons last week.

In fairness to the current state of question period — and those responsible for it — this is hardly a new complaint. One could spend a long time discussing how Parliament's daily airing of grievances came to be the way it is or who has made it so.

But just because question period has long been lamented does not mean it isn't worth lamenting anew.

"The current format of question period falls short of its goal of providing true accountability," Hogan said. "There are shallow questions, shallow answers, a degree of repetition that would make an advertiser blush and mad applause on both sides as though we were hitting oratory high scores in 35-second exchanges about procurement. "

If he could convey one thing in his remarks, Hogan said, it was "that it does not need to be this way."

That is the eternal promise of political reform. But if question period and other elements of Parliament don't need to be the way they are, change still requires someone to actually do something about it.

Hogan was leading debate during what is typically a little-noticed day on Parliament Hill: the day that is designated near the start of each new Parliament for MPs to discuss possible changes to the standing orders and procedures of the House. In this case, the debate was being held on a Friday, a traditionally half-hearted day in the House that plays out while many MPs have already left Ottawa for the weekend.

Hogan had at least generated some attention last week by publicizing his suggested reforms ahead of the official debate.

"After talking with colleagues on both sides of the House, I … do not believe that what I am going to say is remotely controversial, though we may disagree on how best to resolve it," Hogan said on Friday.

To start, the Liberal MP would like to lengthen the time allowed for each question and response, at least for a couple sessions of QP each week. Hogan hopes this might allow for substantive exchanges.

As others have proposed in years past, Hogan suggests the House could establish a rotation that would have QP focused on certain ministers each day. And he'd like to somehow reduce the repetition that now dominates QP each afternoon (QP has lately devolved into a procession of MPs essentially repeating the same question over and over again, perhaps purely for the sake of generating social media clips).

"I am new to the House, but what I have learned is that while we disagree often and vigorously, we have a chamber full of dedicated, kind and brilliant people from all walks of life; we just do not act accordingly in the chamber," Hogan told the House last week. "Question period as currently constructed shows us at our worst, not our best, so let us improve, or at least try to improve. I believe that Canadians deserve better, and I believe we can do better. I hope to work with all members in providing them with better."

Conservative MP Michael Chong rose after Hogan had finished and noted that much of what Hogan proposed was in line with a motion that Chong once tabled in the House. 

"Canadians know that something is not quite right with their democratic institutions," Chong said when he presented that motion. "They know that something is not the way it should be."