Media Releases

Asper Centre report calls for authoritative, written guidelines for Canada’s unwritten parliamentary conventions

April 12, 2011

TORONTO, ON — A report recent­ly released by the Fac­ul­ty of Law’s David Asper Cen­tre for Con­sti­tu­tion­al Rights calls for an author­i­ta­tive set of guide­lines on Canada’s impor­tant but unwrit­ten par­lia­men­tary con­ven­tions.

“Adjust­ing to a New Era of Par­lia­men­tary Gov­ern­ment” is a report pro­duced from the Con­sti­tu­tion­al Con­ven­tions work­shop host­ed ear­li­er this year by the David Asper Cen­tre for Con­sti­tu­tion­al Rights, fea­tur­ing the lead­ing minds in con­sti­tu­tion­al law and polit­i­cal sci­ence.

Over the last sev­er­al decades, a polit­i­cal muta­tion has tak­en place through­out the par­lia­men­tary world where­by elec­tions have fre­quent­ly pro­duced par­lia­ments in which no sin­gle par­ty has a major­i­ty. This has been the most recent expe­ri­ence in Cana­da and, if the polls are any indi­ca­tion, may con­tin­ue to be the way in which fed­er­al gov­ern­ments are formed. While oth­er par­lia­men­tary coun­tries have been adjust­ing to this new polit­i­cal era, Cana­da has not at the fed­er­al lev­el.

The report calls for:
•    An author­i­ta­tive set of guide­lines on Canada’s impor­tant but unwrit­ten par­lia­men­tary con­ven­tions, much like what New Zealand and the UK have in their Cab­i­net Man­u­als.
•    Exist­ing guide­lines on care­tak­er gov­ern­ments to be made pub­lic imme­di­ate­ly.
•    A review of House of Com­mons Stand­ing Orders with respect to votes of non-con­fi­dence.
•    This review would give the House more inde­pen­dence of gov­ern­ment in decid­ing when such votes may take place, and to lim­it­ing their fre­quen­cy.

Says Cheryl Milne, the exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Asper Cen­tre: “Polit­i­cal debate about these unwrit­ten prin­ci­ples and prac­tices of our con­sti­tu­tion has the poten­tial to plunge the coun­try into a seri­ous con­sti­tu­tion­al cri­sis. With the pos­si­bil­i­ty of yet anoth­er minor­i­ty gov­ern­ment and the cur­rent elec­tion talk about poten­tial coali­tions, the report of the work­shop is a time­ly reflec­tion upon how we can ensure account­abil­i­ty and prop­er func­tion­ing of our sys­tem of gov­ern­ment in today’s polit­i­cal cli­mate.”

Cana­di­ans need more pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion and engage­ment with com­mu­ni­ty and pub­lic pol­i­cy-ori­ent­ed orga­ni­za­tions to begin to move for­ward in a sub­stan­tive way on this ini­tia­tive.  Broad dis­sem­i­na­tion of infor­ma­tion through web­sites and pub­lic events will assist in inform­ing politi­cians, aca­d­e­mics and vot­ers about the role of such con­ven­tions in our par­lia­men­tary democ­ra­cy.
View the “Adjust­ing to a New Era of Par­lia­men­tary Gov­ern­ment” report here: http://bit.ly/hRyBoY
www.aspercentre.ca

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For fur­ther infor­ma­tion and to book inter­views, con­tact:

 

Cheryl Milne, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor
David Asper Cen­tre for Con­sti­tu­tion­al Rights
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Fac­ul­ty of Law
416–978-0092
cheryl.milne@utoronto.ca

Uni­ver­si­ty Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus Peter Rus­sell
Depart­ment of Polit­i­cal Sci­ence
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
416–923-4919
phruss@aol.com

Pro­fes­sor Lor­raine Wein­rib
Fac­ul­ty of Law, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Office 416–978-5075 or Home 416–921-8471
l.weinrib@utoronto.ca

Pro­fes­sor David Cameron, Chair
Depart­ment of Polit­i­cal Sci­ence, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
david.cameron@utoronto.ca