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The House of Commons (in French, la Chambre des communes) is the directly elected lower house of the Parliament of
Canada which sits in the nation's capital of Ottawa, Ontario.
Leadership
Prime Minister and Cabinet
Under the Westminster system, the Prime Minister of Canada is usually selected from, and
answerable to, the directly elected lower house of Parliament. However, the actual formal selection of prime minister is not made
by the House of Commons in a vote; rather they are appointed by the governor general, who selects the person deemed most likely to command the support of the House
of Commons. Usually one party controls a majority of the seats in the House and Canada's highly disciplined political parties
make no other choice possible than the leader of the majority party. In the case where no party has a majority, the governor
general must must find someone who can gain the support of the Commons or call a general election. In practise, this has to be the leader of one of the political parties. (Although
Canadian political parties have a major effect on how the country is run, they are private organizations outside of the
constitution.)
In theory, the governor general then picks the members of the Cabinet, but in
practice these selections have always been made by the prime minister. Although the House of Commons is not involved in the
formal selection process of the prime minister or Cabinet, as in other parliamentary democracies, it does have the ability to
vote no confidence or to reject Supply, and then the prime minister
must resign. The governor general must then find a new Prime Minister or call a general election.
Speaker
The Speaker of the
House of Commons is elected from amongst the MPs by secret ballot after each general election. The speaker presides over the
House of Commons and ensures that everyone respects its rules and traditions. The speaker must be impartial and apply the rules
to all members equally.
The speaker represents the Commons in dealings with the Canadian
Senate and the Crown. In this respect, he or she is considered
"the first commoner." The speaker is also responsible for the administration of the House and its staff and has many diplomatic
and social duties.
The current Speaker of the House of Commons is the Honourable Peter
Milliken, M.P.
Officials
Seated at a long table in front of the speaker are the clerk and other procedural officers of the House. They advise the
speaker and members on the rules to be followed in the Commons. At the end of the table lies the mace, the symbol of the
authority of the House of Commons.
At the end of the chamber, opposite the speaker, sits the sergeant-at-arms. This person is responsible for the security of the Parliament Buildings and has
ceremonial duties, such as carrying the mace into the chamber at the start of each house
sitting. House officers and members are assisted by the parliamentary pages, who carry messages to the members in the Chamber.
Operation
The main role of the House of Commons in practise is as a forum for members to debate government policy. In the House of
Commons chamber, members devote most of their time to debating and voting on bills. Because its members are elected, the Commons
makes decisions on spending public money and imposing taxes. The Chamber is also a place where members represent constituents'
views, discuss national issues and call on the government to explain its actions.
Each day there is the question period where members of the
opposition parties grill the government on their policies and on the state of the nation.
When voting on bills the House of Commons members, as in other legislative bodies in the Westminster system, almost invariably
vote along with their party, and the legislature in practise has very little discretion over the passage of legislation. This is
especially true in Canada where the parties have much firmer control of their members than in the United Kingdom.
In theory, the House of Commons shares legislative power with the unelected Canadian Senate, but in practise the Senate rarely blocks passage of a bill supported by Commons.
The House of Commons meets for about 130 days a year in plenary sessions. Each day the House meets is called a sitting. When
it is in session, the House sits from Monday to Friday. A day in the House is divided into different parts so that members can
discuss all the business at hand. During the summer or holiday breaks special sessions can be called by the government to debate
issues of pressing importance.
Composition
Each of the country's present 308 constituencies, or ridings, elects a single representative to the House using a first-past-the-post ballot. Seats in the House of Commons are
distributed roughly in proportion to each Canadian province's population. Each province is assigned seats based on it's
population, however this is only true in practise for Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta,
due to the "Grandfather Clause" which guarentees that no province shall lose seats in the house due to population decreases. Each
of the territories get one seat regardless of their population. Every province or territory must have at least as many members in
the Commons as it has senators.
Any elector (a Canadian citizen aged 18 or older) may run as a candidate for member of parliament. Candidates need not be
nominated by a political party, but it is very rare for non-incumbent
independents to get elected. The last person to do so was Gilles
Duceppe in 1990, though he was unofficially running for the Bloc. The last truly
independent non-incumbent to win was Tony
Roman who was elected from North York, Ontario in 1984.
Many eminent men and women have served here, such as prime ministers
Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Lester B. Pearson, and
Pierre Trudeau. Other notables include Sir William Mulock (1844-1944), John F. Stairs (1848-1904), Agnes Macphail
(1890-1954) and Allan MacEachen (1921-).
Party standings in the Canadian House of Commons
Information in this section is current as of January 15, 2005.
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