MP Bill Blaikie honoured as Canada's "Parliamentarian of the Year" in Ottawa

    Maclean's, in association with The Dominion Institute, hosted
    second-annual Parliamentarian of the Year Awards at Fairmont Chateau
    Laurier in Ottawa, Nov. 21, 2007. Award results can be found at
    www.macleans.ca/poy2007.

    TORONTO, Nov. 21 /CNW/ - Maclean's magazine celebrated the second-annual
Parliamentarian of the Year awards this evening, Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007, at
the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa. Attended by Members of Parliament,
some of the country's most prominent journalists and other Canadians of note,
the event honoured Canada's top MPs, as voted by their peers in the House of
Commons. Award winners will be highlighted in a special issue of Maclean's
hitting newsstands tomorrow, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2007.
    This year's Parliamentarian of the Year, Deputy Speaker Bill Blaikie, has
held numerous critic portfolios for the federal New Democratic Party caucus
during the 25-plus years he has represented his Winnipeg constituency in the
House of Commons. As the longest continuous-serving MP, he is recognized as
the 'Dean of the House.' In addition to Deputy Speaker Blaikie, five MPs were
recognized as hardest working, most collegial, most knowledgeable, best
constituent representative, and best orator.Maclean's Parliamentarian of the Year Winners:

    -   Bill Blaikie, "Best Overall"
        Riding: Elmwood - Transcona (Manitoba), NDP
        Blaikie is an associate member of the Health, Veterans affairs, House
        Affairs, National Defence and Justice and Human rights committees.

    -   Paul Szabo, "Hardest Working"
        Riding: Mississauga South (Ontario), Liberal
        Szabo is currently the chair of the Access to Information, Privacy
        and Ethics committee.

    -   Peter Stoffer, "Most Collegial"
        Riding: Sackville - Eastern Shore (Nova Scotia), NDP
        Stoffer is currently the vice-chair of the Veterans Affairs committee

    -   Joe Comartin, "Most Knowledgeable"
        Riding: Windsor - Tecumseh (Ontario), NDP
        Joe Comartin was a candidate for the leadership of the New Democratic
        Party of Canada in 2003 and currently is a member of the Justice and
        Human Rights and Bill C-2 committees.

    -   Charlie Angus, "Best Constituent Representative"
        Riding: Timmins - James Bay (Ontario), NDP
        Angus is the vice-chair of Government Operations and Estimates, and
        an associate member of the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern
        Development, Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, Agriculture
        and Agri-food, Canadian Heritage and House Affairs committees.

    -   Michael Ignatieff, "Best Orator"
        Riding: Etobicoke - Lakeshore (Ontario), Liberal
        Ignatieff ran for the federal Liberal leadership in 2006 and serves
        as an associate member of the Foreign Affairs and International
        Development committee.How the winners were selected

    Each MP was given the opportunity to evaluate MPs within their own Party
and within each of the other Parties against six criteria including: hardest
working; best orator; best at representing constituents; most collegial; most
knowledgeable about the issues of the day; and best overall. To ensure that
parties with more elected MPs or those parties with higher participation rates
in the study would not dominate the selection process a scoring system based
on the ordinal rank within each category was used.

    About Maclean's:

    Maclean's is Canada's only national weekly current affairs magazine.
Maclean's enlightens, engages and entertains 2.8 million readers with strong
investigative reporting and exclusive stories from leading journalists in the
fields of international affairs, social issues, national politics, business
and culture. Visit www.macleans.ca.

For further information: Jacqueline Segal, [phone],
[e-mail]