Appendix: statistical trends in law-making

• Author: Craig Forcese - Aaron Freeman
• Pages: 549-554

549

a

Appendix: Statistical Trends

in Law-Making

This section outlines long-term statistical trends in parliamentary legisla-

tive activity.

1. General Observations

As Table A.1 indicates below, the proportion of all bills receiving royal assent

by Parliament since the Second World War is erratic, but in overall decline.

Thus, in stark contrast to the early postwar era, most bills now introduced

in Parliament never receive royal assent and become statutes. Some are re-

jected, but most “die on the order paper” when Parliament is either pro-

rogued or dissolved.

Most of this trend is attributable to increases in the number of pri-

vate members’ bills. The rate of success for nongovernment bills has been

paltry for decades, except in the senate where the reasonable success rate

for private (as opposed to public private members’) bills has pulled up the

overall success rate on nongovernment bills. Indeed, in the thirty-seventh

Parliament (the last majority government), only eleven substantive private

members’ bills (those other than simply constituency change-of-name bills)

received royal assent.1

1 Library of Parliament, “Private Member’s Bills Passed by Parliament,” online: www2.

parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/compilations/HouseOfCommons/legislation/privatemembers

publicbills.aspx?Language=E.