On procedure and politics

Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined

Parliamentary reform would work

In a recent article, Don Lenihan argues that parliamentary reform won’t “force a government to engage in meaningful debate” and reverse the fact that Parliament is, in his words “broken”. Lenihan writes: MPs like Michael Chong and Nathan Cullen remain hopeful. They think that the right combination of rules and procedures can fix Parliament. Unfortunately, [...]

A video is worth a thousand words

I have written many posts about various procedural measures used in the British House of Commons that I think would be welcomed additions to the Canadian House of Commons. While I have attempted to describe these measures in detail, viewing them in action would probably be far more enlightening. The BBC’s Democracy Live website makes [...]

Thoughts on “Saving the House of Commons”

Aaron Wherry of Canada’s Maclean’s magazine recently wrote a blog post proposing a series of reforms to “save” the House of Commons. Some I have previously discussed on this blog, such as changes to Question Period. Readers proposed other reforms and ideas the comments. I thought I would offer my own thoughts on some of [...]

Comparing UK and Canadian House of Commons procedure

Going by the keyword search activity on this blog, there seems to be much interest in comparisons of parliamentary procedure in Canada and the United Kingdom. I have written many posts about various parliamentary proceedings which differ notably in both countries, and so I thought I would regroup that information into one post, with links [...]

Keyword post: Attending Question Period

Quite a few people seem to be looking for information on how to attend Question Period in the Canadian House of Commons. That information is easily found on the Parliament of Canada website: Groups of 10 individuals or more may reserve seats in the public galleries in advance through a Member of Parliament’s office. Individuals [...]

The media and oral questions

Contemporary mediated democracies may have enlightenment trappings, but in the Twenty-first century Question Time is essentially a media event. Especially if you’re, say, helping to turn it into a collective viewing experience on the #qt stream, there’s not much point complaining about that. (source) It was a shocking experience – the first nice prime minister’s [...]

Keyword post: Some answers to search results

This post will provide answers to actual search engine queries that led people to this blog. None of these would really make a full blog post on their own, which is why I’ve decided to answer a few in one post. 1. How many people did/didn’t vote for David Cameron? This one is very easy [...]

On Australia’s Question Time

I don’t write much about Australia, not because of lack of interest in how parliamentary politics unfolds in that country, but because there is rarely ever any coverage of Australian politics here in Canada. I can access online news coverage of course, but not being very familiar with the key players and parties makes it [...]

Fixing Ottawa: Question Period

(This is the second in a series of posts on Fixing Ottawa. Other installments are: Fixing Ottawa: Committees, Fixing Ottawa: Draft Legislation and Fixing Ottawa: Empowering Backbenchers.) Canada’s Liberal Party released its election platform (manifesto) this weekend, and it included this pledge (p. 72): Liberals believe that all parties must act to increase the civility [...]

Another oral questions comparison

I am still somewhat fixated on comparing the quality of exchanges during Oral Questions as they occur in both the Canadian and UK House of Commons. I was finally able to find a comparable exchange between both countries’ Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition on a similar topic: the nature of each country’s mission [...]

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