On the origins of the Canadian Senate
A reader queried as to the origins of the Canadian Senate – why was it decided that the upper chamber should be unelected, why is it based on regional representation rather than equal provincial representation, etc. I would refer readers to an excellent paper prepared by the Senate’s own Committees and Private Legislation Directorate entitled [...]
Australia’s Labor Party’s revolving door leadership
In June 2010, Australian Labor Party leader and Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, was ousted by his caucus in a leadership challenge won by Rudd’s Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, who then became both party leader and Prime Minister. Less than two years later, history appears to be repeating itself, with Rudd now challenging Gillard’s leadership [...]
Scottish Consultation on Independence Referendum
As mentioned in an earlier post, the Scottish Government launched its own consultation on a referendum on Scottish independence, which you can view here. The consultation runs until 11 May 2012. The Scottish Government is looking to hold said referendum in the fall of 2014. This time frame is to allow for the responses to [...]
Some interesting links: rebel MPs, e-petitions, hung parliaments, and political disengagement
1. Rebels of the Chamber Isabel Hardman has a fascinating piece looking at some of the most rebellious backbench MPs in the UK House of Commons: Once an MP starts down the route of the serial rebel, it seems easier for the whips to leave them be. Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn, is one such [...]
Public Perception of Access to Parliament
UK House of Commons Speaker John Bercow established the Speaker’s Advisory Council on Public Engagement (SACPE) which provides informal, independent advice from an external perspective on the programs which the House of Commons has already introduced to improve outreach and to serve as a vehicle for thinking about what Parliament needs to do to convince [...]
Coalition Street or Parliament Hill Street Blues?
There is an interesting article on the BBC website discussing the dearth of British political dramas on television. Inspired by the airing of a Danish political drama, Borgen, on BBC Four, the writer, Terry Stiastny, wonders why there have been no British equivalents since the excellent House of Cards which aired in the 1990s. Borgen is [...]
The debate on Scotland indepedence heats up
Debate on the issue of independence for Scotland has heated up again this past week in the United Kingdom. On Tuesday (10 January), the Government launched its consultation on “facilitating a legal, fair and decisive referendum on whether Scotland should leave the United Kingdom”, which you can download here. The “legal” bit seems to be [...]
On candidate selection
Recently, a Canadian Member of Parliament elected as a member of the New Democratic Party (NDP) from the province of Quebec announced that she was crossing the floor to join the Liberal Party. The MP, Ms. St-Denis, explained that she found herself increasingly disagreeing with the positions the NDP were espousing in the House of [...]
No backbench rebellions, please, we’re Canadians
There has been much media focus in the United Kingdom over the numerous government backbench rebellions among both Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs since May 2010. This is regularly monitored on the Revolts.co.uk website. By September 2011, the number of Coalition Commons rebellions so far this Parliament stood at 150, a rebellion rate of a [...]
Recall of MPs draft bill: some concerns
The UK Coalition government has presented to Parliament a draft bill on the recall of MPs. As I have previously written, there is currently only one Commonwealth jurisdiction which has recall legislation in place, and that is the Canadian province of British Columbia. You can read about BC’s recall legislation in this post. The UK [...]
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On procedure and politics by Radical Centrist is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
