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]

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]

Our first set of MP exit interviews began this week, our first of what will be several dozen interviews with MPs who left public life between 2004 and 2008. Incidentially, the period of these departures also kicked off what general wisdom has us believe to be a prolonged period of minority government in Canada. After nearly five and a half years of this not-unprecedented situation, recent medi... [More]