Political Parties

• Author: Steven Chaplin
• Pages: 71-78



 

Political Parties

Political parties are a necessary reality in the functioning of the

Canadian parliamentary system. ey are not only important in

the electoral system. Much of the structure and work of the House

of Commons is based on the fact that political party aliation

of those elected is integral to the determination of the House’s

makeup. e caucuses of members with the same political ali-

ation provide stable support for government, provide coordinated

opposition, and select the various House ocers that allow the

business of the House to proceed in an orderly fashion. Funding

for research, membership in committees, and participation in the

management of the administration for the House is also based on

the relative size of each party’s caucus.

Development and Entrenchment of

Political Parties Within Parliament

Although each Member of Parliament is individually elected and

has equal constitutional status and authority, with limited excep-

tions, members were elected as candidates representing a p articular

political party. In the United Kingdom, until the late eighteenth

to early nineteenth centuries, there were only loose aliations of