Notes

• Author: Rob Walsh
• Pages: 153-157

Page 153

Notes

cHaPter one | Introduction

1 In this text, “Government,” with an upper case “G,” refers to the prime minister and the Cabinet and does not include the public service or other government agencies. he term “government,” with a lower case “g,” includes the public service and public agencies as well as the parliamentary houses.

2 here are 338 seats in the House of Commons: 158 seats are held by the

Liberal Party of Canada, 117 by the Conservative Party of Canada, thirty-two by the Bloc Québécois party, twenty-ive by the New Democratic Party, two by the Green Party of Canada, and two seats are vacant at time of writing. he Liberal Party, having the most seats, forms the Government of Canada,
a minority government as it does not hold a majority of the seats at the time of this writing.
3 he Senate was moved to the Government Conference Centre, the old

Ottawa train station, on the other side of Wellington St from Parliament Hill. For current details on both the temporary and original chambers, see online: tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca.
4 For further details visit “Quarterly Progress Report,” see online: tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca.
5 John Ivison, National Post (19 November 2008).
6 Ibid.
7 James Travers, “he Quiet Unravelling of Canadian Democracy” Toronto Star
(4 April 2009), online: www.thestar.com/news/insight/the-quiet-unravelling-of-canadian-democracy/article_2881f20b-5929-57ad-8f4b-5e622d05cb7c.html.

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THE HOUSE OF COMMONS OF CANADA

8 RSC 1985, c P-1.
9 Yet this solidarity serves a useful purpose, as we shall discuss later.
10 he number of seats is adjusted every ten years based on the decennial national population census. At Confederation in 1867, there were 181 seats in the House of Commons, divided between Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, the founding provinces of Canada. Based on the 2012 redistribution, the 338 seats are distributed as follows: British Columbia forty-two, Alberta thirty-four, Saskatchewan fourteen, Manitoba fourteen, Ontario 121, Quebec seventy-eight, New Brunswick ten, Nova Scotia eleven, Prince Edward Island four, Newfoundland and Labrador seven, and the territories of Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut one each.
11 By “political” function, I mean the House’s function as the arbiter of policy choices that must be made and that often relate to deeply held values on which Canadians can honestly and vehemently disagree.

cHaPter two | The Making of the Parliamentary...