By Lloyd Mackey

I had looked forward to hearing MP5 sing, and was not disappointed.

MP5 is a southern gospel-style quartet whose members, as it happens, are also members of parliament; thus the eye-catching name. They are: Ed Fast (pianist), Indian Affairs minister Chuck Strahl, parliamentary secretary (environment) Mark Warawa, Randy Kamp and Kevin Sorensen.

They keep popping up together by popular demand and, so far, I had missed every performance. They had even been referred to obliquely by Rick Mercer on the CBC, when he did a playful profile of Strahl, a couple of years ago.

Then came the Concert on the Hill, on Monday, November 30. And there they were, in dark suits and Christmasy-green fluorescent ties.

Concert on the Hill is put on each year by the Parliamentary Spouses Association, led, this year, by Valorie (spouse of Stockwell) Day and Ann (wife of Noel) Kinsella. Day's spouse is international trade minister and Ann's, speaker of the Senate. Chair of the concert committee was Ruth Kamp, spouse of aforementioned Randy Kamp of the MP5. (He self-effacingly told the crowd that he and his fellows singers got to sing because he had a 36 year relationship with the woman who put the program together.)

Close to 500 people turned out for the noon hour concert, held in famous and soon-to-be-renovated Room 200, the ballroom in the ancient West Block. It was about as faith-based as one could expect of a parliamentary-sanctioned event, using the Christmas occasion to spread fellowship and good cheer.

Defense Minister Peter MacKay and General Walter Natynczyk were on hand to receive the $18,000 cheque for the support of special needs for military families - raised in large part from the association's draw. Top prize in that draw was a return flight for two anywhere in Air Canada's world.

But the event had the side-effect of revealing how much musical talent there is in and around parliament.

A choir made up of the House of Commons pages started us off with O Canada and Winter Wonderland.

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The parliamentary spouses' choir added Ding Dong Merrily on High and Away in a Manger. A piano serenade Embraceable You, followed, with Andre Sebastien Savioie, spouse of Senator Andree Champagne, at the keyboard.

Drawing a standing ovation were the Senate Pages, who rendered Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. The singing pages were bolstered by pianist Jonathan Yantzi, guitarist Michael Molzan, flutist Hannah Wylie and violinist Peter Doherty.

Maurice Montpetit, who most of us recognize as a dignified Commons security guard, sang, self-accompanied on guitar, Sonne ta cloche.

A small selection of NDP MPs were in fine form, even without the promised attendance of their leader, Jack Layton. Alex Atamanenko from B.C.'s ranch country, belted out a rendition of Blue Christmas. Halifax's Megan Leslie did a sultry Santa Baby. Caucus staffer Rob Sutherland accompanied.

The Singing Senators, Elizabeth Hubley, Jean Lapointe, Pierette Ringuette and Bill Rompkey, accompanied by Tommy Banks. Their number was The Three Bells/Les Trois Cloches - likely best remember by the lines that go:

All the chapel bells were ringing, twas a great day in his life
For the songs that they were singing was for Jimmy and his wife
And the little congregation prayed for guidance from above
Lead us not into temptation bless oh Lord this celebration
May their lives be filled with love

It was a nice Quebecois Catholic cultural complement to the firmly Bible-belt-based numbers that were to follow from the aforementioned MP5. The latter rendered us the bouncy Feeling Mighty Fine and the haunting Mary's Little Boy. Sorensen carried the latter as a solo. He is a fine and strong tenor.

Altogether, it was a good way to spend a noon hour, and an excellent Ottawa-style way to embark on the season of Advent.

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Lloyd Mackey is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa and author of Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press, 2006), More Faithful Than We Think: Stories and Insights on Canadian Leaders Doing Politics Christianly (BayRidge Books, 2005) and Like Father, Like Son: Ernest Manning and Preston Manning (ECW Press, 1997). Lloyd can be reached at lmackey@canadianchristianity.com.

December 3/2009