Newfoundland and Labrador MP Voting Records

Have you ever wondered how hard your Member of Parliament has been working on your behalf? Now a great new website lets you know just that.

The site, which can be accessed at: www.howdtheyvote.ca. , identifies MPs by party, name and province. It provides lists of voting records showing how they voted or if they were absent from the vote. It also provides actual quotes from commons debates.

Today I thought I'd spend a few minutes examining the records of the 7 members from Newfoundland and Labrador with an eye to: how many votes they've missed and how often they spoke during debate.

According to this new web site, here are the member’s records.

John Efford, Liberal Cabinet Minister, was absent for 9 of 48 key votes and spoke 86 times.

Bill Matthews, Liberal MP, was absent for 7 of 48 key votes and spoke 12 times.

Scott Simms, Liberal MP, was absent for 4 of 48 and spoke 28 times

Todd Russell, Liberal MP, attended all 11 votes held during his time in office, (recently elected in a by-election). He also spoke 1 time.

On opposing ends of the scale are our winners and our losers.

The attendance and debating champion during the most recent sitting is none other than Conservative MP Loyola Hearn who only missed 1 vote out of 48 and spoke up 157 times. Mr. Hearn is closely followed by caucus mate Norman Doyle. Mr. Doyle was only absent for 2 of 48 key votes and spoke 41 times

Who is the big loser, none other than the people who elected Liberal MP Gerry Byrne.

In an effort to prove to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, not to mention the population of Canada in general that he was earning his hefty salary, Mr. Byrne missed a whopping 23 of 48 votes and only stood to speak 14 times.

All of these numbers are interesting but especially those of Mr. Byrne. His record makes one wonder how he can honestly tell the people of the province that he’s earning his salary and working on their behalf.

Just one month ago Mr. Byrne saw fit to throw a monkey wrench into critical provincial negotiations with Ottawa over income support in the dying town of Harbour Breton (see June 14 article on my web site: “If I only Had a Brain – The Gerry Byrne Story”). Now it appears he has missed 48% of the votes in the House of Commons. As a matter of fact, the 23 missed votes Mr. Byrne has to his discredit is the exact number missed by all other Newfoundland and Labrador MPs combined.

Great job Gerry, keep up the good work. Your pension is only a few years away.

Indeed, the information contained on this web site is both interesting and informative. It's easy to access and I’d suggest to all Canadians that they take a few minutes to visit and learn exactly how the member they elected is doing. You may be pleasantly surprised or, like Gerry Byrne’s constituents, you may be shocked and dismayed.