Ron MacKinley asks 1,300 questions

By Julie Veinot
The Surveyor

A year after claiming the only Liberal seat in the legislature, the sole opposition member wears a bright red rose corsage in the house. One red flower in a sea of blue-tinted carnations. This day, he tables a plastic bag of potatoes, saying American potatoes are being bagged in Canada and that's no way to retaliate against the country holding a ban on Island spuds.

The speaker of the house tells him he's not allowed props in the legislature.

"This is not a prop," says Opposition Leader Ron MacKinley. "This is a bag of potatoes."

There is laughter in the room, from the other politicians, from the media scribbling notes, from the people in the public gallery watching question period.

Even though the speaker tells him to put the bag away, MacKinley uses it as a photo prop when CBC television cameras and Guardian photographers catch him outside.

It is the one year anniversary of the provincial election: April 17, 2001.

It's been just another year for MacKinley, an outspoken farmer who's been in the legislature since 1985. He's been there long enough to see school children he once waved to grow into adults with children of their own.

"It's nice to know that young people who used to wave at me when I first got elected and were waiting for a school bus are now doing senior management jobs," he says. "It makes you proud of your heritage and your community and your province."

This spring, MacKinley presented 1,208 written questions to the government. Last year, he presented 559 written questions, but those led to more. And by the time constituents phoned in with what they had to say, MacKinley had enough to compile many stacks of inquiries.

"A lot of the cabinet ministers aren't returning their phone calls and people then go to the opposition office, trying to have their voice heard. And I am the lone opposition, so I have to be a voice for all people across the province, regardless of their political stripes," he says.

Frivolous is the word Premier Pat Binns uses to describe some of the questions tabled.

MacKinley insists they're necessary.

"The average is only 120 questions per minister," he says. "The premier's whining there about having to answer questions. He only had 22 I asked him."

Considering the house sits only 16 hours each week, it's important to make the most of the time there. "They try to have shorter sessions - what they've been doing - so they don't get as many question periods. The premier and them packed up their little suitcases and all left just before Christmas there and we were supposed to go back in January and we never did," he says. "We could've come back for another couple of weeks."

The house shut down Dec. 20 and reopened March 29. MacKinley took the opportunity to write down the questions he didn't get a chance to ask during the fall sitting, along with new ones. Gathering the questions wasn't difficult.

"It didn't actually take that long because you look at a question and you put it in your little notebook and then you proceed to write up the question."

Over 400 of MacKinley's questions concern education and the ratio of students to teachers in Island classrooms.

"I have got teachers, I have got students and I've got parents claiming to me that there's 32, 34 students in classrooms, yet the government tries to deny that, so by going through and asking certain schools how many students are in this particular classroom, we'll get a handle on it."

Asking so many questions in the legislature is important in a province where freedom of information legislation doesn't exist. Although the government is working on it, Prince Edward Island doesn't allow the public to file for information that normally wouldn't be released.

For a small fee, anyone can file a request with federal or provincial governments, who must give the information within a deadline. Up for grabs is everything from the prime minister's private e-mail to UFO reports, but P.E.I. doesn't have such legislation yet. It could soon be voted upon.

Until the province passes a freedom of information law, MacKinley vows to keep asking his questions.

"That's why I've been pushing for this bill," he says. "And I hope it goes through the house."

Still, passing freedom of information legislation won't solve everything. Only some departments will be involved and it could take a year or two to sort out the "nuts and bolts" of the program and get it running smoothly. And even once it's in operation, it may not provide all the answers, says MacKinley.

"You could get less information because they have more bureaucratics to hide behind."

One of the first questions he asked as the opposition leader was directed at Binns. MacKinley asked the premier if he'd tell his ministers to answer his questions to the best of their abilities.

"Will you make a commitment here, in this house, before the public of Prince Edward Island, that you will direct your ministers to answer all my questions to the best of their ability on the floor of the house, and if they can't, to get back with the answers," MacKinley remembers saying.

"And he said, 'I will.'"

Binns says his government has been answering most of the questions fired their way.

From 1990 to 1996, when the Liberal government ruled the Island, the opposition asked 497 written questions. About 101, or 20 per cent, weren't answered by the Liberal government. Binns says since 1997, when the Tories came into power, they have responded to 99 per cent of the questions, made all the more amazing because 1106 were asked.

"Since we've become government, up until this new batch of questions, I think we've been able to answer all but one per cent," says Binns. "We are answering questions, we'll do the research. The opposition has a right to ask them and we'll answer to the best of our ability."

The premier doesn't have a problem with the amount of written questions his ministers must answer. He's more concerned the inquiries could've been more direct, saving everyone a lot of time. As an example, he cites the 400 questions regarding the number of students in each Island classroom.

"I think he's probably coming at another question and that is the student-teacher ratio," says Binns. "We already know the answer to that and we could very easily give it to him. I'm sort of suggesting - get to the point."

It's too soon to know how much the more than 1,000 questions will cost the government, since they've never kept track of it before. This year, however, Binns is asking his people to write down how much time they spend on researching them.

"I don't want to be unfair," says Binns. "The opposition certainly has a right to ask the questions. I just think they could save people time if the questions were more direct."

Written questions can be used as a tactic to slow down and frustrate the government, says John Crossley, a political science professor at the University of Prince Edward Island. The only way to draw attention to the government is to slow them down, preventing them from passing laws and getting their business done.

"I don't think that's why Mr. MacKinley's doing it, but that's the sort of thing opposition parties do when they want to punish - if you will - a government they think is behaving badly."

Oral questions are often answered on the spot while written questions require more detail or background preparations. Oral is about accountability - publicizing and criticizing things the government does.

However, all of the nearly 1,300 questions may not be worth their weight in gold.

"It's not as if we have a lot of people sitting around doing nothing," says Crossley. "So now, in addition to what they're doing, they have to research or they have to drop something else."

Stripped to bare bones during the 1990s, there's no excess of public servants across the country. They're the people who must do the research, like the school administrators who must record how many students are in someone's class.

The professor says it's going to generate an enormous amount of information, although it's not clear what MacKinley will do with it. Crossley says he also understands the premier's position.

"Politically, what he wants to argue, at some point, is that this cost more than the benefit was worth."

"There may well be buried in there some really interesting questions. There may be stuff that no one ever really cares about, but presumédly, there's some thought that goes into them."

Voters placed MacKinley in the legislature for the first time in 1985 when he won a byelection. He's been in the house since then, elected in 1986, 1989,1993,1996 and last year, where he became the only Liberal and a one-man opposition party, while still running MacKinley Farms and being a partner in MacKinley Brothers Beef Farm.

Having one opposition member in a room filled with Conservatives isn't a bad things for Islanders, says MacKinley.

"I look at it as a democracy, it's a democratic system. It's the best anywhere in the world, Canada, and the general public are always right. They voted in the Tories and I was fortunate enough there's people in District 16 (who) had the faith and confidence to re-elect me for the sixth term."

What are his future plans?

"To hold the government accountable until the next election is called and then the next plan would be work with the Liberal party of P.E.I. to help get the Liberal party back in power after the next election.

"It looks pretty good right now."