Left out

Before the session of Parliament goes into full swing, let's note one final point about the long list of Cons who are reported by their own party as having done little or nothing during the course of their Harper Holiday.

I've actually been disappointed to see relatively little other commentary based off the list. But I can see why on its face, the Cons' list wouldn't seem like a promising target for criticism. Even doing small amounts of research around the edges, there's no doubt that some of the MPs not listed have in fact made public appearances - so it might seem counterproductive to engage in an MP-focused naming and shaming when at least a good number of them may be able to point to activities if challenged.

But there's an important reason why the list still matters.

After all, there's no doubt that the Cons are run as a singularly top-down operation. Even activities which normally focus on MPs - private members' bills, question period slots, committee actions, and the like - are micromanaged to a ridiculous degree. And when it comes to developing the budget which supposedly made for the Cons' top priority, it's fairly obvious that if Jim Flaherty and Stephen Harper aren't aware of the outcome of a particular event or consultation, then it may as well not have happened.

In other words, the fact that the Cons' central office didn't include a particular MP's event on its list doesn't mean the event didn't happen. But an omission certainly means that the event either wasn't noted at all, or wasn't seen as important enough to be worth even a one-line mention by the Cons' inner circle.

So while it's undoubtedly true that some events took place which aren't on the Cons' list, it's equally true that those events are best seen as resulting in the attendees spinning their wheels. Either their input didn't get passed along to the actual decision-makers, or their MP's attempt to pass it along wasn't seen as important enough to be worth including even in a broad list of what the Cons are bragging about having done during the prorogation. And either way, there's every reason for citizens to be disappointed in both their MP and the Harper government in general.

(Edit: fixed wording/typo.)