House Of Commons

Canadian Parliament Structure of Parliament :The House of Commons

At its most basic, Commons consists of two parts the prime minister and Cabinet, which constitute the government, and the MPs. The prime minister and cabinet ministers, usually MPs themselves, function as Canada's executive branch, proposing and implementing laws and initiatives. The other MPs function as the legislative branch, passing laws. As leader of the government, the prime minister holds the most power in Commons. The prime minister is the leader of the political party with the greatest number of seats in Commons. If the party with the most seats in Commons changes leaders, the governor-general will automatically invite the new leader to form a new government.

As leader of the government, the prime minister has a number of powers that can be used to influence other MPs. First, the prime minister can call for a general election any time within the five-year maximum life of each Parliament. The prime minister can use this power to put opposition parties at a disadvantage, by choosing a time when the government party is most popular. The prime minister can even stifle dissent in his or her own party, since the election of a new Parliament dissolves the old one, and MPs of all parties have to campaign to win reelection. Second, the prime minister controls several thousand appointments to positions in the Cabinet, the Senate, public agencies, the courts, and elsewhere.

In the case of cabinet appointments, prime ministers are technically free to appoint whomever they want, and they usually appoint someone from among the members of their party in Commons. Prime ministers are expected to appoint a balanced Cabinet by considering criteria such as an MP's region, language (English and French are the official languages), gender, ethnic background, experience, and policy perspective. Generally the only cabinet minister from outside Commons is the leader of the government party in the Senate. The prime minister will sometimes ask additional senators to join the Cabinet if there are no MPs in the governing party to represent a particular region or language group. The prime minister decides the size and structure of the Cabinet, sets its agenda, and presides over its meetings.

A majority government exists when the ruling party holds more than half of the seats in Commons. In this situation the legislative process is quite predictable, and government-sponsored bills and budgets are rarely defeated, since MPs in the government's party feel bound by party loyalty. Six of the 14 general elections between 1957 and 1997 resulted in minority governments, in which the party that won the most seats held less than half of them. When there is a minority government, the government party must rely on support from members of other parties to pass legislation. In a minority government situation, the opinions of the MPs from other parties supporting the government party carry more weight. There is a growing concern that majority governments concentrate too much power in the hands of the prime minister and Cabinet, leaving other MPs with too little influence in the national policy process.

The best opportunity for MPs to influence government policies is through work in the standing committees of Commons. Committees in Commons perform three functions: they examine bills, review the estimates (budget proposals for the next fiscal year), and conduct inquiries into public policy issues. Standing committees usually have about ten members representing the parties in proportion to their respective strength in Commons. The committees consider all matters referred to them by Commons, including budgets, and they produce regular reports on the various government departments. Subcommittees form to deal with narrower topics. MPs serve on an average of two committees (cabinet ministers and leaders of opposition parties are not members of Commons committees). The government insists on tight control over the committee proceedings. However, some MPs want to create more independent committees, which would have more freedom to question or change government-sponsored bills. (1)

More about the Canadian Parliament

• Canadian Parliament
• Parliament Powers
• Parliament Constitutional Conventions
• Responsible Government
• Collective Ministerial Responsibility
• Individual Ministerial Responsibility
• Debates About Ministerial Responsibility
• Parliament Membership
• Parliament Structure
• House of Commons
• Senate
• Governor-General
• Parliamentary Sessions
• Legislative Process
• Influences on the Legislative Process
• History of Parliament
• Parliament (in General in Canada)
• Parliament (in the World)

Resources

Notes and References

1. Encarta Online Encyclopedia

See Also

Law is our Passion

This entry about House Of Commons has been published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC BY 3.0) licence, which permits unrestricted use and reproduction, provided the author or authors of the House Of Commons entry and the Encyclopedia of Law are in each case credited as the source of the House Of Commons entry. Please note this CC BY licence applies to some textual content of House Of Commons, and that some images and other textual or non-textual elements may be covered by special copyright arrangements. For guidance on citing House Of Commons (giving attribution as required by the CC BY licence), please see below our recommendation of "Cite this Entry".

• APA
• MLA
• MLA 7
• CHICAGO
• OSCOLA

Usage Metrics

244 Views

Google Scholar: Search for House Of Commons Related Content

 

Schema Summary

This entry was last updated: March 23, 2014