Anything But Neutral

"For me, a party leader should be loved like (former leader) Jack Layton and not feared."
"Today, I have the courage to make a significant gesture, to take a weight off my shoulders and stand by my convictions."
Sana Hassainia, NDP MP for Vercheres-Les Patriotes, Montreal

NDP MP Sana Hassainia with her three month old baby Skander-Jack Kochlef in her office on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.    (Dave Chan/The Globe and Mail)

"The New Democratic Party [NDP] has a long-standing position in favour of the two-state solution in the Middle East -- a safe, secure state within negotiated borders for Israelis and a safe, secure state within negotiated borders for Palestinians."
"Sana in her note, made it clear she doesn't agree with that. That's been our position for many years; it was Jack's position, it's mine, and so she'd decided that she doesn't want to sit with us. That's her choice."
New Democratic Party Leader Thomas Mulcair

Those within the party seem to feel that Ms. Hassainia, elected in an orange-landslide out of Quebec in 2011, has been a rather less than ideal Member of Parliament. Since that election, the now-39-year-old has given birth to two children. As a mother of two young children she has amassed the absolute worst voting record of all MPs, while collecting her handsome salary as a Member of Parliament.

Attending a bare 8.7% of votes in the House of Commons, all efforts to encourage Ms. Hassainia to appear for important functions like votes and to perform other parliamentary duties appear to have failed.

Canadian House of Commons Chamber.  Michele Falzone / AWL Images / Getty Images

She represents, in other words, a failed Member of Parliament. While collecting her salary of around $164,000, she has done little to earn it. The party she represents in the House of Commons has attempted to be understanding in her need to be with her young children. She was even offered the use of the leader's office to breastfeed her children.

It has been theorized within the party that she has lashed out at the party's leader for his even-handed stance on this resonating matter of balancing the needs of Palestinians and Israelis alike, in response to soft pressure to earn her status as an MP. Singling out NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair for a personal complaint, the Tunisian-born Ms. Hassainia, reflects her cultural-religious bias.

The party's whip has been frustrated by her inability to entice this wayward Member of Parliament to perform the basic duties expected of any MP. Making allegations that she has been "punished" for her support of leadership rival Brian Topp, she was taken off a position on the Commons committee on the status of women. Perhaps that committee too required its members to be present on occasion.

But, she averrs, she was forced to remain silent in party solidarity over her views on the Middle East, in reflection of a leader whose approach to the issue of support for Israel balanced with support for the Palestinians has now been of a more even temper than under previous leaders.

All things considered, the NDP should be congratulating itself for ridding itself of the averse presence of this woman who has done nothing to deserve the position she holds and the recompense she receives for holding it.