He’s not flashy and he’s not controversial.

He’s just a guy you can trust to get the job done.

Wednesday night in Ottawa, Paul Szabo was honoured as Canada’s hardest-working MP. It’s the third consecutive year the long-serving representative from Mississauga South has earned that title, recognition bestowed upon him by a leading Canadian magazine, based on a vote by his peers — Canada’s 308 MPs.

This is a significant acknowledgment.

Szabo is a 61-year-old former accountant who has built a solid reputation as an honest, intelligent, informed and industrious MP.

Outside of Mississauga, not many people knew who Szabo was until the Mulroney-Schreiber affair dropped into the lap of the ethics committee that he chairs last year.

But his calm handling of the histrionics of the two main combatants, the parties and the press, while working to air the facts of a complicated matter, won him accolades from all quarters. Szabo has written books on domestic violence, divorce, child poverty and fetal alcohol syndrome.

He has sponsored more than 40 private member’s bills and almost every year he is the MP who speaks most often in the House of Commons.

There are more than a few politicians who could learn a thing or two from this 15-year veteran servant of the people.