Parliamentary Tour Guiding Around Canada

Tour guides at federal, provincial and territorial parliaments serve an important role as educators; sometimes, they are the first point of contact for Canadians, newcomers and tourists who are seeking to learn more about Canada’s political system. In this roundtable discussion, chaired by Canadian Parliamentary Review intern Mariya-Kvitlana Tsap, seven tour guides and tour officers from British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec and the Parliament of Canada shared insights into their typical day on the job, some memorable personal anecdotes and their take on the most intriguing facts about their respective building and programming that might be of interest to visitors.

CPR: How would you describe a regular day at your job?

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Seminar: Members and Their Constituency

Article 9 / 10 , Vol 41 No. 2 (Summer)

Seminar: Members and Their Constituency

Every Member of Parliament represents a constituency. Yet the amount of attention paid to the Member-constituency relationship by scholars is quite small compared to its importance in our democratic system. Members must spend time building connections to their constituencies, understanding concerns, and mediating these tensions within a party caucus if party policy conflicts with what an MP is hearing locally. Additional responsibilities such as being in cabinet or having a constituency far from Ottawa where travel is difficult can create other challenges. The Canadian Study of Parliament Group organized a seminar on March 16, 2018 which brought parliamentarians, academics, parliamentary staff and journalists together to explore ideas of constituency representation and engagement. This article summarizes the seminar’s sessions and provides some insight into how these various groups of stakeholders think about the nature of constituencies.

Connecting with Constituents: Observations on how MPs engage at home

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Parliamentary Bookshelf: Reviews

Article 7 / 10 , Vol 41 No. 2 (Summer)

Parliamentary Bookshelf: Reviews

Representation in Action: Canadian MPs in the Constituencies, by Royce Koop, Heather Bastedo and Kelly Blidook, (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018), 235 pp.

There is no doubt that Canadians take the work of their Members of Parliament for granted and there is a reason for this: almost all MPs are elected because of the label they represent, not because of their personal qualities or politics. Parliamentary representation has rarely worked out in practice the way it was supposed to in theory. The democratic ideal was that electoral districts would choose one of their own to represent the region without compromise within a unifying assembly. Instead, political parties have used their own organizing and ideation powers and quickly overcame whatever an individual might offer (exceptions do exist, but they are extremely rare). Members of Parliament are seen as practically anonymous and interchangeable, utterly dependent on the party and programme they represented during the previous electoral contest.

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New and Notable Titles

Article 4 / 10 , Vol 41 No. 2 (Summer)

New and Notable Titles

Eichhorn, Jan. “Votes at 16: New insights from Scotland on enfranchisement.” Parliamentary Affairs 71 (2), April 2018, pp. 365-91.

This article presents new evidence on the experience of 16-year olds voting after the reduction of the voting age in Scotland following the 2014 independence referendum.

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Legislative Reports

Article 2 / 10 , Vol 41 No. 2 (Summer)

Legislative Reports

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Sketches of Parliaments and Parliamentarians Past

Article 1 / 10 , Vol 41 No. 2 (Summer)

Sketches of Parliaments and Parliamentarians Past

Now you see it, now you…won’t!: The growing porticoes, disappearing wings, and secret attics of PEI’s Province House

Prince Edward Island’s Province House was very much a work-in-progress as it was being built – with budgets and popular opinion changing the scope of the project several times and leaving some quirky architectural features. But it has stood the test of time for over 170 years and ongoing renovations mean it will be preserved for many more.

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Know Your Mace – Nova Scotia

The current Mace of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly has been in use since it was gifted to the House on March 5, 1930 by Chief Justice Robert Edward Harris, the fourteenth Chief Justice of the Province and his wife. It is silver gilt, measuring four feet in height and weighs approximately 18 pounds. The four sides of the Mace depict the Royal Crown, the Armorial Achievement of Nova Scotia, the present (before Confederation) Great Seal of the Province, and the Speaker in his robes of office. Also found on the Mace is the floral emblem of Nova Scotia, the mayflower and the Scottish thistle. The Mace was manufactured in England by Elkington and Company, Limited.

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Commonwealth Parliamentarians With Disabilities Conference

Article 1 / 10 , Vol 41 No. 1 (Spring)

Commonwealth Parliamentarians With Disabilities Conference

A founding organizational conference for a proposed Commonwealth Parliamentarians with Disabilities was held in Halifax from August 30 to September 2, 2017. Following this successful gathering of 24 delegates, a proposal to establish this group under the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association was accepted by the CPA’s executive committee for further review and discussion at the association’s upcoming meeting in Mauritius.

For a democracy to adequately represent and serve its people, it stands to reason that the elected officials within that democracy would need to be as diverse in background as the people they serve. When done correctly, this allows for the wide range of experiences and expertise found within a community to have a place at the table where policy is made, leading to the development of policy that better reflects the needs of the community. Through my experiences as a person with a disability, both as a private citizen and as an elected official, I have witnessed firsthand how a diverse government can have a significant impact not only on what policy is put forward, but on the procedures and practises of government itself, leading it to become more inclusive.

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Democratic Reform on the Menu in Newfoundland and Labrador

Article 2 / 10 , Vol 41 No. 1 (Spring)

Democratic Reform on the Menu in Newfoundland and Labrador

What should democratic reform look like in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador? In advance of the provincial government’s plan to strike an all-party committee to study this question, two Memorial University professors used a public engagement grant to create a first-of-its kind, independent grassroots initiative in hopes of supporting this committee’s work. The Democracy Cookbook explores many options for better democratic governance in a way that is accessible to the public and in a manner that promotes greater public awareness of the committee’s mandate. In this article, the authors inform readers about how this initiative was designed, why it may be an effective model for other small jurisdictions, and some of what people will find in the open-source publication that resulted.

Conversations about democratic reform are stirring in Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2015, the provincial Liberal Party’s election platform made the following commitment:

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Canadian Universities: Emerging Hubs for International Parliamentary Research and Training

Article 3 / 10 , Vol 41 No. 1 (Spring)

Canadian Universities: Emerging Hubs for International Parliamentary Research and Training

Canadian universities have recently emerged as important centres in applied parliamentary research and training, joining universities in Australia, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. This article reviews the growth of these research and training programs at three institutions – McGill University, Université Laval and the University of Ottawa – over the past five years. It also points to possible future areas of work, which will allow parliaments elsewhere to learn from Canada’s experience, and vice versa.

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