Month: March 2024

Parliamentary Relatives: New Brunswick’s Carr Brothers

Article 1 / 11 , Vol 46 No. 4 (Winter)

Parliamentary Relatives: New Brunswick’s Carr Brothers

With more than 34 years of parliamentary service combined, the Carr brothers are New Brunswick’s version of a political dynasty.

Jody was the first to enter provincial politics. He was just 23 years old when he won the seat for Oromocto-Gagetown in 1999 during Bernard Lord’s Progressive Conservative landslide. He held the riding for 19 years, serving as Minister for the departments of Education and Early Childhood Development and Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour, before deciding not to re-offer in 2018. He is now a lawyer in Fredericton.

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Senate Public Bills as “Excellent Policy Value” for Canadians

Article 3 / 11 , Vol 46 No. 4 (Winter)

Senate Public Bills as “Excellent Policy Value” for Canadians

Debates over the legitimacy of the Canadian Senate have been ongoing since its creation. In a democracy, should an unelected body have and wield the power to amend or defeat legislation emerging from an elected body? Should senators restrict themselves to sober second thought that is akin to administrative compliance officers, or should they be proactively legislating on issues of concerns to Canadians? In this article, the authors suggest that recent reforms to the Senate’s appointment process and the emergence of a significant number of senators without partisan affiliation present an opportunity to demonstrate the upper chamber’s utility to public policy creation. The authors point to Senate public bills (SPBs) as a tool to advance important policy ideas that may not otherwise be top of mind to the government of the day. Although SPBs were in existence and widely used prior to recent Senate reforms, the authors contend the non-partisan origins of many recent and current SPBs mean they may have different benefits, including: actualizing or accelerating the realization of specific government proposals included in electoral platforms or ministerial mandate letters; tackling policy blind spots and emerging issues that the government fails to address; and drawing attention to, and initiating public debate on, novel ideas, long-term legislative evolution, or politically difficult topics to expand the “Overton Window” in Canada. The authors conclude that SPBs offer “excellent policy value” for Canadians and, if not stymied by internal vetting or horse- trading politics, could go a long way to moderating public cynicism about partisan politics.

Hon. Julie Miville-Dechêne, Hon. Ratna Omidvar, Jérôme Lussier and Paul Faucette

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Review of the Statutory Offices of Newfoundland and Labrador: Reconsidering Oversight Structures

Article 4 / 11 , Vol 46 No. 4 (Winter)

Review of the Statutory Offices of Newfoundland and Labrador: Reconsidering Oversight Structures

Statutory officers hold an essential role in the Canadian parliamentary structure, but one that has been described as operating in a “constitutional twilight zone” underscored by their largely ad hoc development. In this article, the author describes a chaotic series of events in Newfoundland and Labrador which prompted the province’s Minister of Justice and Public Safety to launch a review of the operations of statutory offices. As a researcher for retired Justice Robert Fowler, the person tasked with conducting this review, the author explains how greater definitional clarity, added oversight, and processes for managing conflicts and independently evaluating officers seeking reappointment were among Justice Fowler’s general recommendations. Although the author notes the effectiveness of the team’s proposed recommendations nor their implementation cannot and should not be presumed, the Review of Statutory Offices hoped to reaffirm the role of statutory officers in promoting good governance. This article is based on the author’s analysis of the cited publicly available materials.

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Destroying “Foul and Filthy” Committee Evidence: Revisiting a Peculiar Private Bill and a Senate Scandal

Article 5 / 11 , Vol 46 No. 4 (Winter)

Destroying “Foul and Filthy” Committee Evidence: Revisiting a Peculiar Private Bill and a Senate Scandal

A unique and dramatic set of events unfolded in the Senate of Canada when Mary Matilda White petitioned Parliament for a divorce bill in 1888. She was the first petitioner since Confederation to allege her husband’s impotence and the ensuing committee procedures involved a medical examination. What happens next is a scandal that resulted in the Senate ordering the destruction of a committee’s evidence. This article recounts this peculiar tale from the annals of Canadian parliamentary history. NB: Quoted source material in this article contains language that is anachronistic and offensive. As such, reader discretion is advised.

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Canadian Network Created to Promote High Standards of Trust and Political Leadership

Article 6 / 11 , Vol 46 No. 4 (Winter)

Canadian Network Created to Promote High Standards of Trust and Political Leadership

A unique partnership among five universities, funded in part by Montreal philanthropist Stephen Jarislowsky, has created what’s believed to be a first-of-its-kind network in Canada to promote ethics and high standards of ethics, trust, and political leadership. In this article, the authors describe the program’s aims and outline past and planned events and activities. The authors conclude with a call to parliamentarians, political staff, and non-partisan parliamentary employees to share ideas with and make requests to the program’s chairs.

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The State of Civic Education: A Roundtable

Article 7 / 11 , Vol 46 No. 4 (Winter)

The State of Civic Education: A Roundtable

If the children are our future, will a healthy participatory democracy be a part of that future? How are schools and non-governmental organizations doing in terms of teaching young people (and, for that matter, all people) to understand their society and the various ways we seek to answer the fundamental civic question: how we live together as a public? In this roundtable, the Canadian Parliamentary Review asked five individuals involved in various aspects of civic education to offer their thoughts on where we’ve come from, where we are, and, ideally, where we want to go when it comes to teaching and engaging the public.

*This is an edited and revised transcript compiled from three discussions with participants.

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The Canadian Scene

Article 8 / 11 , Vol 46 No. 4 (Winter)

The Canadian Scene

New House of Commons Speaker

Greg Fergus, Member of Parliament for Hull- Aylmer, was elected as the new Speaker of the House of Commons on October 3, 2023. Replacing outgoing Speaker Anthony Rota, Speaker Fergus becomes the 38th Speaker and the first Black Canadian to serve in the position. He defeated six other challengers, including Chris d’Entremont, Carol Hughes, Alexandra Mendes, Sean Casey, Elizabeth May, and Peter Schiefke.

Since his first election as a Liberal MP in 2015, Speaker Fergus has served on several parliamentary committees and as Parliamentary Secretary to a number of cabinet ministers including the President of the Treasury Board and the Minister of Health. One of the Directors of the Canada-Africa P a r l i a m e n ta r y Association, Speaker Fergus also founded the Parliamentary Black Caucus and served as its co-chair for six years.

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