It’s a new political world, with the rise of nationalism and the chaos of communication. But two of the newest and youngest MPs in Canada are navigating the waters with comfort and optimism.
Conservative Alberta MP Rachael Harder, 30, and Liberal MP from New Brunswick Matt DeCourcey, 33, acknowledged politics can sometimes seem like a full-contact sport with personal attacks and heated debates. At the end of the day, though, the 338 representatives in the House of Commons are bound by respect for one another.
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“I think there is a lot of goodwill among parliamentarians across party lines,” DeCourcey told The West Block’s Tom Clark. “I think the perception of partisanship is something that we always have to work to dissuade Canadians of that view.”
One such example of that cross-party work from the last year is the bid to establish a national strategy for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
“A Conservative colleague and an NDP colleague, they came together, they put forward this bill … It got support from the Liberals, and off we go,” Harder said.
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That bill, C-233, is currently before a House of Commons committee for further study.
And while tradition forms of communication, whether it be newspapers and television or pamphlets and newsletters, are collapsing, these young MPs are still focusing on their messages to Canadians.
“I think communications needs to be about building relationships with every-day Canadians,” Harder said. “We need to be finding a language and a way of presenting topics that’s going to resonate.”
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