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THE SUNDAY

OBSERVER

THE OTTAWA CITIZEN, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1999, PAGE A14

Under pressure

A new study says the life of a backbench MP

is filled with dangerously high levels of stress.

BY SUSAN DELACOURT

· On the heels of Statistics Canada's findings the previous month about the alarmingly high levels of stress in the population, the Parliamentary Centre has isolated one demographic group - MPs - and taken a close look into particular stresses of political life. Titled Stress and the MP, the study was conducted through interviews with doctors and politicians and compared against several leading medical studies into the causes of stress.

· "It comes as a disturbing surprise to many newly elected MPs that their powers are substantially circumscribed," Peter Dobell, head of the Parliamentary Centre, writes in his report. "When they decide to seek office, many assume that, if successful, they would be in a position to participate centrally in debating and forming national policy. Instead, they discover that most policy is formulated by public servants working closely with the ministers and that power is actually wielded by the prime minister."

· Politics attracts high-strung workaholics who arrive in Ottawa only to discover that they are mere cogs in the government machine, with about as much say over their "product" as a worker on an assembly line.

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