Canada PoliticsHelp Justin Trudeau create a question for Question Period
Have you ever wanted to ask a question during Question Period?
To hear the government of the day deflect the question?
For some reason Justin Trudeau thinks that there's a lot of people who would want to do that.
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On Monday, Trudeau and the Liberals released this video asking Canadians to send them their questions about "middle-class concerns." If your question gets picked, they say, it will be read in Question Period.
On the Liberal website, they even offer some tips on how to structure your question:
How to structure your question:
Describe the current situation;
(1-2 sentences)
Describe the problem you want addressed;
(1-2 sentences)
Ask a question of the government that seeks action or information.
(1 sentence)
Aaron Wherry of Maclean’s notes that this isn't the first time somebody tried this.
Michael Ignatieff tried something like this in the fall of 2010—see here and here for examples. I don’t recall whether Mr. Ignatieff actively solicited questions as Mr. Trudeau is doing now, but (as Susan Delacourt notes as well), during its earliest days in the House, the Reform party had phone and fax lines through which constituents could submit questions that would be asked in the House (note the Speaker’s concern about that gambit).
It sounds a little 'gimmicky' to me.
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It also seems like yet another attempt by another political party to get your email addresses for their outreach databases.
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