New and Notable Titles
A selection of recent publications relating to parliamentary studies prepared with the assistance of the Library of Parliament (June 2023 – August 2023).
Bélanger, Daniele, Laurence Simard-Gagnon, Adele Garnier, and Gabriel Bergevin-Estable. “Immigration Emergency Rooms – Constituency Offices and Assistants as the front line of immigration to Canada.” World Migration Dynamics, 1-41 (May 2023).
- …immigration files constitute an important part of a constituency office assistants’ work, especially in urban ridings, where the proportion of the immigrant population is higher than elsewhere. In many constituency offices, one or more assistants are dedicated full-time to immigration.
Caplan, Michelle, Christopher Alcantara, and Mathieu Turgeon. “Institutional change and partisanship in the Canadian Senate.” The Journal of Legislative Studies 29, 1-12, (March 3, 2023).
- The Canadian Senate was originally designed to act as an independent check on the House of Commons. Over time, rampant and increasing partisanship rendered the Senate illegitimate in the eyes of a large portion of the public. In 2014, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau tried to reverse these trends by expelling all Liberal Senators from his party in hopes of reducing partisanship and restoring the Senate to its original, independent function. To what extent did this decision reduce partisanship? Using a difference-in-differences design, the authors analyze almost 7,000 interventions over an 11-year period to find that partisanship remains strong in the Senate. For example, ex-Liberal Senators are more likely to raise women’s issues compared to Conservative Senators post-2014. The authors suggest this trend seems consistent with the Liberal Party’s strong and the Conservative Party’s weak feminist agenda after the Liberals formed the government in 2015.
Fleming, Thomas G., and Ghazi, Tasneem. “Parliamentary scrutiny of delegated legislation: lessons from comparative experience.” The Political Quarterly 94, 1-8 (July, 6, 2023).
- Recent years have seen an increase in the use of delegated legislation to implement major policy decisions in the UK. This has exacerbated the longstanding criticism that Westminster lacks sufficiently robust procedures for parliamentary scrutiny of delegated legislation. However, the UK is not the only country to use delegated legislation, or to face the challenge of ensuring it receives adequate parliamentary scrutiny. This article places the UK system in wider context by comparing it to six other national parliaments. The authors highlight one comparative strength of the UK system, two weaknesses it shares with the other six cases, and one way in which the UK might learn lessons from elsewhere. Overall, evidence suggests that no one country offers a clear template for more rigorous parliamentary scrutiny of delegated legislation. Successful reform of the UK’s system is likely to require creative procedural innovation.
Foucher, Pierre. “The eleventh senator. A break from recent constitutional archaeology.” Ottawa Law Review / Revue de droit d’Ottawa 53 (2): 327-86, (January 2, 2022).
- In 1990, eight additional seats were added to the Senate pursuant to Section 26, a relatively obscure provision of the Constitution Act, 1867. The appointment of these eight additional Senators allowed the then government to remain in power by narrowly escaping a vote of confidence. However, the use of Section 26, and particularly the appointment of Senator James Ross, put the constitutionality of the House of Commons in jeopardy due to New Brunswick being left with more seats in the Senate than members in the House of Commons.
Lagassé, Philippe, and Vanessa MacDonnell. “Writing Canada’s political constitution.” Queen’s Law Journal 4 (2): 27-60, Winter 2023.
- Canada’s constitution is legal and political. The legal component, which includes the Constitution Acts, 1867 and 1982, is more easily recognized and appreciated by lawyers, politicians, and the wider public. However, Canada’s political constitution is equally important. The political constitution is comprised of the non-legal rules and norms that underpin Canadian democracy and governmental accountability. Although the legal and political constitutions each form an essential part of Canadian constitutionalism, the written quality of the former tends to ensure its dominance over the latter.