A Day in the Life of the 32nd Parliament

Posted on 2021/09/17 by J.W.J. Bowden

The first televised proceedings of the House of Commons of Canada began in 1977, fully two years before C-SPAN began televising the United States House of Representatives. Our equivalent of C-SPAN, CPAC, has now uploaded online all the video footage going back to the late 1970s and the first ministry of Pierre Trudeau. CPAC’s archives provide a window into the past. Don – “Welcome to the Brooooaaaaaadcaaast” – Newman has observed that the House of Commons changed starkly after the election in 1993, which wiped out the old Progressive Conservative Party and saw the rise of Quebec nationalism in the Bloc and Western alienation in the Reform Party; having now watched far too many of these videos or listened to them in the background whilst working on other things, I have begun to grasp what he means. The House of Commons truly did seem more collegial – and therefore more witty and entertaining – and full of banter rather than truly bitter acrimony during the Trudeau and Mulroney governments than it has since at least 2000 or 2004; I would regard the 35th and 36th Parliaments elected in 1993 and 1997 as a transitional phase. Chretien, in his rhetorical clumsiness, seems to have popularised the practice of speaking from notes in the House of Commons of Canada, while Trudeau and Mulroney could carry out quite eloquently without them.

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Posted in Decorum, Parliament, Traditions and History | 2 Comments

The Caretaker Convention in Newfoundland & Labrador in 2019

Posted on 2021/09/01 by J.W.J. Bowden

The Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law published my and Lyle Skinner’s piece on recent developments concerning the Caretaker Convention in Newfoundland & Labrador, including the Executive Council Office’s Guidelines from 2019 (similar to those of PCO in Ottawa) and how the previous Liberal Premier, Dwight Ball, circumvented them in a minority legislature by asking the Lieutenant Governor to re-appoint him to the office that he already occupied.

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Extreme Risk Aversion: The Caretaker Convention in 2021

Posted on 2021/08/27 by J.W.J. Bowden

The Caretaker Array in Star Trek: Voyager

Prime Minister Trudeau advised Governor General Mary Simon to dissolve the 43rd Parliament of Canada and issue the writs of election on 15 August 2021. The Privy Council Office marked the occasion by releasing another edition of its Guidelines on the Conduct of Ministers, Ministers of State, Exempt Staff and Public Servants During an Election – naturally, in HTML alone, and using the same URL as the earlier editions from 2019 and 2015, now over-ridden and consigned to Internet oblivion. This document contains guidance on the Caretaker Convention.

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Posted in Caretaker Convention & Government Formation | 4 Comments

Recalling a Parliament Already Dissolved? Not in Canada: the 43rd Parliament Is Dead

Posted on 2021/08/19 by J.W.J. Bowden

Introduction

On 15 August 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson requested that the Speaker recall the House of Commons from its summer recess early so that MPs could hold an emergency debate over the fallout of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, which the Taliban took as an opportunity to recapture Kabul and to install themselves as the de facto government once more.[1] The House of Commons would originally have reconvened on 6 September under its regular sitting calendar but met instead on 18 August.[2] The Lords Speaker also recalled the House of Lords for the same day. The British House of Commons and House of Lords could meet to discuss the British response and efforts to evacuate their diplomatic personnel and refugees because the two houses had merely adjourned for their regular summer recess. The British House of Commons has cut short its adjournments in such a manner on 34 occasions since 1948.[3]

In Canada on 15 August 2021, Governor General Mary Simon dissolved the 43rd Parliament of Canada and issued the writs of election on Prime Minister Trudeau’s advice. Perhaps drawing inspiration from across the Atlantic, Annamie Paul, leader of the Green Paper, argued on Monday, 16 August that the Parliament of Canada should be recalled so that MPs can hold an emergency debate on the aftermath of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Green Party’s statement reads:

OTTAWA – The Green Party is calling on the Prime Minister to ask the Governor General to reconvene Parliament to debate Canada’s response to the foreign policy emergency unfolding in Afghanistan, and to ensure that Canada remains accountable for the safety of the Afghan nationals who assisted our mission and who are now desperate to flee the country. 

“As of yesterday, the Taliban had captured all major cities in Afghanistan, including the capital Kabul.” said Ms. Paul. “The Taliban’s advance has been swift and merciless; we are witnessing the complete recapture of Afghanistan by the Taliban. […]

“Parliament has been dissolved and therefore cannot debate this emergency situation and determine how Canada can do its utmost to protect Afghan civilians and ensure global security in honour of the sacrifice of our military who served in Afghanistan. This is yet one more agonising item to add to the list of reasons that this national election should not have been called at this time.”[4]

The first sentence of the last paragraph of the Green Party’s statement sums it up: “Parliament has been dissolved and therefore cannot debate this emergency”. In Canada, a dissolved parliament cannot be recalled. But in other jurisdictions, death is not the end.

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Posted in Comparative, Crown (Powers and Office), Dissolution, Eastminster System | 4 Comments

Why Justin Trudeau’s Snap Election in 2021 Does Not Break the Fixed-Date Elections Law

Posted on 2021/08/19 by J.W.J. Bowden

The Signs Pointing to a Snap Election, June to August 2021

Since at least mid-June, the media had treated an early election as a fait accompli, and politicians and political parties began acting as if the writ had already begun by early July. On 15 June, several MPs in the House of Commons delivered their “Farewell Speeches”, including Jack Harris (New Democratic Member for St. John’s East), Simon Marcil (Blocist Member for Mirabel), and Kate Young (Liberal Member for London West).[1]The very same day, Elections Canada announced that it could administer a general election during the pandemic without the statutory amendments contemplated by Parliament which ultimately died on the Order Paper on 15 August.[2]On 22 June, Prime Minister Trudeau denounced the 43rd Parliament for its “obstructionism and toxicity,” not the sort of thing that one would say in advance of a productive fall sitting.[3]

Justin Trudeau then shaved off his beard and cropped off his pandemic locks around Canada Day.[4] The rest of July then saw a plethora of campaign-style announcements and joint press conferences with willing mayors and premiers; Trudeau appeared alongside Naheed Nenshi, Mayor of Calgary, on 7 July to pledge “Build Back Better” funding to expand the city’s commuter rail,[5] and he held a joint press conference with John Horgan, the New Democratic Premier of British Columbia, the next day to announce funding for childcare.[6] In a marked contrast to the last snap federal election in 2008, the CBC supported the prospect of an early election so strongly that when Jagmeet Singh appeared on Power & Politics on 11 August to implore the Prime Minister to let the current 43rd Parliament meet for its fall sitting in September, the reporter tried to goad Singh three times to embracing the inevitable early election as an opportunity to convince voters that the New Democrats can best govern Canada at the end of this pandemic.[7]

Ever mindful of new political developments, Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s top public health official, declared a potential snap election during the onset of the fourth wave of the pandemic safe on 5 August as safe — “there are ways to vote safely.” [8] (The previous week, she argued that Canada finds itself “in a slightly precarious moment” until 80% of Canadians are vaccinated).[9] The Liberals briefed the press on 12 August that the Prime Minister would kick off the election on Sunday[10], and Justin Trudeau, with wife and children in tow, dutifully paid an anti-climactic visit to Rideau Hall and Her Excellency Mary Simon to tender his constitutional advice to dissolve the 43rd Parliament for a general election on 15 August.[11] The Chief Electoral Officer, Stéphane Perrault, told the Procedure and House Affairs Committee in June that Elections Canada would prefer a longer writ closer to the 50-day maximum rather than the 36-day minimum, because of the logistical challenges of administering an election during a pandemic.[12] But Trudeau opted for the minimum of 36 days and thus a polling day of 20 September, perhaps because, as Paul Martin and Stephen Harper could both corroborate, the longer elections over the last 15 years have not benefited the incumbent.  

What Canada’s Fixed-Date Elections Do and Do Not

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Posted in Crown (Powers and Office), Dissolution, Fixed-Date Elections | 3 Comments