Last week we released the introductory report of Canada's first-ever series of exit interviews with former Members of Parliament. Our goal is ultimately to encourage a greater understanding of Canada's public life, draw attention to things that are working well and contribute to a constructive discussion on what can be improved. In that spirit, we were happy that the report generated some good d... [More]

Last night I was a fly on the wall as Maclean's announced the results of its annual Parliamentarians of the Year awards, as voted by their peers. The overall winner was John Baird, which drew a few surprises from those in the room, as well as on the Maclean's site.  But Baird's speech was gracious and paid testament to his seventh-grade teacher, to whom he attributed his interest in politics... [More]

Maclean's Aaron Wherry links to the debate on Michael Chong's recent motion that aims to "strengthen the dignity and authority of the House" by proposing a number of changes to Question Period. From Chong's opening remarks: "Canadians know that something is not quite right with their democratic institutions. They know that something is not the way it should be. They may not know exactly what pro... [More]

More from the Parliamentary possibility corner.... Conservative backbencher Michael Chong was on CBC Radio yesterday morning* talking about how to make MPs matter. He's concerned about the role of individual MPs in our legislature, which he called "the weakest in the Western world" in this regard.  Like many observers, he believes the executive branch (the PM and cabinet) is much stronger t... [More]

Yesterday I stumbled upon OpenParliament.ca, a fabulous new resource that does much to make Parliament more meaningfully public. About a decade ago, when I was working with several hundred other Canadians on how cities can attract and retain young talent, one of our team members, a municipal employee, had hired someone to compare the number of times the words "urban" and "rural" were used in Parl... [More]

I added my two cents to the discussion, started here by Alan Broadbent and reinforced here by Andrew Potter, that argued that more MPs would help "reclaim the House of Commons" and "make for more accountable government."  By enlarging the size of party caucuses, so the argument goes, we'd both loosen the grip of the Prime Minister and create more safe seats.  The prior would allow for m... [More]

Rumours to the contrary aside, if March is any indication, there is good reason to believe that philosophy is alive and well in modern life. Today, Paul Saurette encourages us to reflect, in light of Ann Coulter's recently-thwarted attempt to address a crowd in Ottawa, on the appropriate justifications for limiting free speech in Canada.  His plea for a "thoughtful and nuanced consideration... [More]

Recently back in the big smoke after my annual in-person visit to Question Period, I can assure everyone that emotion - real and contrived - is alive and well in Canadian politics. For those interested in exploring emotion and public policy in a slightly more, shall we say, detached fashion, next Tuesday evening, March 16, there is a free public lecture on emotion and public policy at th... [More]

One reader of this blog raised some good questions about the average Parliamentary sitting days we have here in Canada in response to last week's post. Here's my best effort at the answers. First, he wondered how elections skewed the figures. Ned Franks estimates that Parliament sits, on average, about seven fewer weeks (or 35 days) in an election year. Maclean's Aaron Wherry crunched the nu... [More]

Not only is our Parliament sitting less, but it's passing fewer bills too. According to Queen's professor Ned Franks, a smaller and smaller percentage of bills receive royal assent (Parliamentary lingo for becoming law). Sixty years ago, more than 96% of legislation received royal assent. During the last Parliament, it was just over 53%. While it hasn't been a consistent downward climb, it has... [More]

MPs are spending a lot less time in Parliament, and according to Queen’s professor Ned Franks, this is a fact that long pre-dated the latest prorogue. Franks has spent over 40 years researching Parliament, and at a recent conference in honour of political scientist Peter Aucoin he had occasion to reflect on his observations on the institution in a paper called "The Functionin... [More]

Thanks to Aaron Wherry for drawing attention to this panel on our current Parliament, featuring The Star's Susan Delacourt, The Globe's Jeffrey Simpson and Rick Salutin, Queen's professor Ned Franks and the University of Saskatchewan's Janice MacKinnon, and moderated by The Agenda's Steve Paikin. If you don't want to spend 35 minutes watching, you can read Simpson's take here and Salutin's here. ... [More]