The duly elected teapot

Tabatha Southey considers the case of David Wilks.

Onscreen, Mr. Wilks’s listeners seem to be searching about for a way to help him visualize this number, as in: “If you were to line up 13 Conservative MPs end to end, their spines would reach – oh, wait a second, I see your problem." ... Canadians, he essentially explained, elect an object akin to a decorative teapot to represent them in Ottawa and, once there, that teapot lives in mortal fear of being broken by the Prime Minister. Backbencher MPs can achieve nothing and it would be silly to attempt to do so.