For Canada’s House Speaker, going for a plunge brings joy and calm amid the noise of politics | Canada Voices

If you’ve ever tuned in to Question Period in the House of Commons, you know that parliamentary democracy can get heated, noisy and sometimes unruly. As House Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia’s job is to maintain order as his colleagues debate the future of that democracy and government decisions that affect Canadians.

How does a person find joy in an argumentative political environment? And where does the veteran Liberal MP representing the riding of Lac-Saint-Louis find solace in what he called an “increasingly turbulent world”?

In this instalment of Joy Diaries, Mr. Scarpaleggia says his daily habit of swimming laps helps him find calm and clarity – and sometimes even a dose of inspiration – amid the political fray.

My favourite part of my day is whenever I get to go swimming, which actually depends on where I’m at: If I’m at home in my constituency, it’s usually the evenings, and when I’m in Ottawa, it’s more often in the mornings, when things are quiet before the House opens and a busy day is launched.

I’ve been swimming all my life, not competitively or anything, but regularly since I was in university. I do it basically to stay in some kind of shape, but more for its refreshing qualities and the way it clears your head. Here in Ottawa, I go swimming in the mornings before I start my day, so I can approach the day with a sense of calm.

I swim about a kilometre every time that I go. It’s not an enormous amount, but it’s good enough for me. I wear goggles but not a swim cap and I have a routine: I start with a freestyle crawl and finish off with breaststroke. I don’t warm up or anything; I just dive right in and get going. I’ve sort of built up a resistance over the years so I go without stopping until my kilometre is done. I can do it in half an hour and I try to go four or five times a week.

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I don’t know the physiology of it, I just know that every time I go swimming, I feel refreshed. I feel somehow reborn. I don’t think that’s necessarily just from swimming, as any form of exercise calms and focuses the mind, but swimming somehow lets you work out a lot of things during however many laps you do. You can plan your day or reflect on your day and just sort out your thoughts.

As Speaker of the House, I often have to react to points of order and points of privilege as they arise. But when members raise more substantive points, then there’s time to reflect and come back in the following days. Because swimming is just part of my routine, I don’t even have to make a conscious effort to use that time to reflect: As soon as I’m in the pool, I start working through problems that I haven’t yet found solutions to. I’ve found a lot of inspiration while I’m swimming laps.

I’ve tried other forms of exercise, of course, but I just don’t find them as refreshing. Swimming has some kind of mysterious cleansing quality. You feel like you can start over. You’re cleansed of whatever it is that’s bothering you and you’re starting over brand new. I’ve never got that from a StairMaster.

As told to Rosemary Counter