Whenever Peter Stoffer rose to speak in the House of Commons last year, the MP sitting directly behind him would lean forward and quietly whisper an affectionate nickname.
Mr. Stoffer, the MP for Nova Scotia's Sackville-Eastern Shore riding, is known as the King of the PMBs: From Jan. 26 to Dec. 30 last year, the NDP politician introduced 24 private member's bills, more than anyone else in the House.
In a parliamentary system where political manoeuvring seems to trump actual policy, a lot of Mr. Stoffer's bills seem refreshingly benign. There is the act to remove the goods and services tax from the cost of funeral arrangements (C-220), prohibit the sale of military medals (C-208) and prevent the distribution of child pornography on the Internet (C-209). Another proposes a program that offers financial assistance to high-school students visiting military memorial sites abroad (C-226) and amending the Canadian Bill of Rights to include a right to housing (C-224).
Mr. Stoffer's efforts reflect more than just an endearing optimism. They're an act of defiance against a system in which most back-bench MPs exert little influence over legislative change.
But his attempts frequently run aground. Because of the frequency of elections recently, Mr. Stoffer has been reintroducing some of these bills for years. And prorogation delays the process further, creating a backlog of PMBs waiting to be read or voted on in the House.
Mr. Stoffer has introduced Bill C-209 repeatedly since 2000. (Before that, it was introduced by another NDP MP, Chris Axworthy.) Bill C-201, to cancel a military-pension clawback, has been introduced four times; Bill C-210, five.
“I'm a very hopeful person,” Mr. Stoffer said. “If I do have to introduce them to the end of time, that means I'm going to be a very old MP.”
Members of Ottawa's Sons of Scotland Pipe Band tune up before the start of the Tartan Day Parade in New York on April 8, 2006.
The 54-year-old former airline employee was born in Holland and won his first election in 1997 by just 39 votes. Since then, he has used old-fashioned retail politics to establish himself in his riding, knocking on doors and dedicating himself to voicing his constituents' concerns in Ottawa. In the 2008 election, he received more than 60 per cent of the votes in his riding.
He sits on the veterans affairs committee and serves as his party's deputy critic for fisheries and industry. He repeatedly has been voted the most fun MP to work for, by The Hill Times newspaper, and is known for hosting his annual “All Party, Party” – a non-partisan fundraiser.
Last year, he took on new Conservative Senator Mike Duffy, challenging the fact that the former journalist had racked up more than $100,000 in expenses during his first three months in the chamber.
But prorogation is wearing on him. “All the work you've done up until that point basically gets forgotten about and you start all over again.”
The closing of Parliament has also shut down his committee work, including a battle to improve the Veterans Charter. By the time they get their act together, Mr. Stoffer said, it will be summer break and the committee will disband again.
“You kind of wonder sometimes why you do it,” he said. “History tells you that in six months to a year, it's all going to get whitewashed and you're going to do it all over again. It is frustrating, there's no question about it.”
But Mr. Stoffer has had some success. In 2005, the Liberal government adopted his bill to have a book of remembrance in the Commons for those who died in the service of Canada since 1953.
