Canadian Parliamentary Review – La Revue parlementaire canadienne
Canadian Commonwealth Association – L’ Association parlementaire du Commonwealth
The years following the creation of the Province of Alberta were marked by a dynamic era of rapid growth and development. This was a time of economic expansion, infrastructure projects, building provincial institutions, establishing the education system, and social change. People were drawn to the province by the promise of new opportunities.
In our democracy, a parliamentarian has a duty to represent the interests of all people in a particular constituency or district. But parliamentarians who belong to communities that extend beyond their electoral district often find they assume a secondary responsibility to bring attention to community interests and/or share some common experiences with other parliamentarians who are part of these communities. In this roundtable, Canadian Parliamentary Review Intern Kaitlin Gallant spoke with three Black parliamentarians to discuss their experiences campaigning, as members of legislatures and political parties, and about the value of Blacks caucuses and multiparty organizations such as the Canadian Congress of Black Parliamentarians. *Responses from two separate telephone conversations were compiled into a transcript which was then reviewed and revised by all participants.
Participants: Patrice Barnes, MPP, Tony Ince, MLA, David Shepherd, MLA Moderated by Kaitlin Gallant
Continue reading “Reaching a Critical Mass: A Roundtable with Black Parliamentarians”
On January 18, 2024, the Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy welcomed three parliamentarians to discuss the experience of Independent parliamentarians and independently-minded partisan parliamentarians in Canada. Moderated by Professor Alex Marland, roundtable participants included Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin, an MLA who won re-election as an Independent after previously being elected with a party, Bobbi Ann Brady, an MPP who was elected as an Independent without previously being elected with a party, and Scott Simms, a backbench MP who spent time on both the government and opposition sides of the House. Topics included the pros and cons of sitting as an Independent or as a party member, the constraints of party whips and “messaging,” and how these parliamentarians carved out a degree of freedom while either inside or outside of a party during their time in office. The session was dedicated to the memory of Peter Russell, author of Two Cheers for Minority Government: The Evolution of Canadian Parliamentary Democracy and other works, who passed away shortly before the event. *This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. The original recording of the event is available on the Churchill Society’s YouTube Channel.
There are many examples of elections in Canada in which the successful parties who formed government earned a majority of seats that were disproportionate to their proportion of the vote. Some argue these outcomes signal the need to transform to a system of proportional representation. Several types of proportional representation systems exist. In some of those systems, determining how seats should be distributed among parties requires applying some form of seat allocation method. This article discusses two such methods, the largest remainder and highest average methods, and presents a novel method developed by the author, referred to as “priority allocation by rank.” Voting results from British Columbia’s 2020 election were used to create a hypothetical election scenario for the purposes of comparing seat allocations produced by these three methods. The results suggest that the priority allocation by rank method has potential to be a viable alternative to the other two methods.
The days of hushed huddles and paper note passing between MPs appear to be coming to an end. The use of messaging apps by parliamentarians and staff have permitted instantaneous communication between people on the Hill and beyond without anyone ever needing to leave their seat. But do parliamentarians and their staff believe this new technology has changed their work for the better or the worse? In this article, the author uses interviews with MPs and staff from all recognized parties in the House of Commons to analyze how and why they use and choose specific messaging apps. Although there are clear benefits of having open channels to communicate among and between staff and parliamentarians, concerns over information security, work-life balance, and the growing influence of the Leader’s and Whip’s office were identified by interviewees.
A selection of recent publications relating to parliamentary studies prepared with the assistance of the Library of Parliament (December 2023 – May 2024).
Edwards, Cecilia. “Curating the record of free speech in Parliament.” Australasian Parliamentary Review 38 (2):146-68, Spring/Summer 2023. Continue reading “New and Notable Titles”
This year, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Office of the Assembly and is organizing various events to commemorate the milestone. Over the course of those 50 years, the Office of the Assembly has evolved from very humble beginnings to become a modern, independent organization committed to providing impartial, professional support to Ontario’s Parliament.
Joanne McNair
Continue reading “Fifty Years of the Office of the Assembly”