TORONTO - Ontario's youngest provincial politician came to the legislature almost two years ago prepared to do battle with the governing Liberals.
Instead, Ottawa-area Conservative Lisa MacLeod found herself fighting for the legislature cafeteria to provide a booster seat for her one-year-old daughter Victoria. A Parliament Hill veteran, MacLeod said she expected the legislature to be more family-friendly, but she was in for a shock.
"That is just common sense, having a booster seat in a cafeteria where you have 107 members and lots of staff,'' MacLeod, 32, said in an interview.
"It's one of those things -- it's really an institutional mindset at the legislature that is reflective of a bygone era in politics.''
Now, she's trying to change that. After intense lobbying and behind-the-scenes negotiation, all parties have agreed to create an non-partisan panel that will look at cutting hours for politicians by reducing evening sittings and setting up a legislature daycare.
The panel will be assembled in January and has been asked to report back "as soon as possible'' with recommendations to the speaker.
Although the exercise hasn't garnered much public sympathy, proponents say the idea is to make life more bearable for politicians, especially those with small children, and make the calling more attractive to younger women.
Despite being grilled by talk-show hosts for her crusade, MacLeod said today's legislature shouldn't be stuck following traditions that were set more than 200 years ago -- long before women sat in the chamber.
Today, she said young politicians like her need to grapple with how to toilet-train a toddler while commuting across the province and how to find child care when the legislature sits until midnight.
"Politics shouldn't be done that way anymore,'' she said. "I'm not going to play politics the same way anymore.''
That feeling seems to be shared across party lines.
Liberal house leader Michael Bryant said it's high time the legislature made some changes to the way politicians do business. The fact that all three parties put politics aside and agreed to form a non-partisan panel shows the desire to bring the legislature into the 21st century, he said.
The father of two young kids said the legislature's evening sittings have been singled out by members on all sides of the house. But Bryant said it will be up to the panel to decide how vital they are to the work of the legislature.
"The legislature operates in unpredictable ways that make it very difficult for families to plan, let alone to see each other,'' Bryant said.
"If you don't know whether or not you're coming home at 6 p.m. or you're at the legislature until midnight, it's very frustrating for both the MPP and their family members.''
But some say the Liberals don't need a panel to make a real difference in the lives of politicians. New Democrat house leader Peter Kormos said evening sittings used to be rare. Now, he said they are the norm.
This is particularly hard on opposition members because there are fewer of them to share house duties, Kormos said. It's also hard on young families and deters younger people from entering politics, he added.
If the government were serious about making the legislature more family-friendly, he said the Liberals would start by following the hours set out in the parliamentary calendar.
"Here is a workplace that has the capacity and should be the leading edge,'' Kormos said. "It should be experimenting with and demonstrating how any workplace can become more accommodating of the family needs and interests. It should serve as a model for other workplaces."
