Section 49 of the Constitution Act, 1867, requires that all questions be determined by a majority of voices. There might be some who think that's not terribly important.
Section 48 of the Constitution Act, 1867, requires that the House have a quorum of 20 before it starts its business. Every day in the morning, if any of you have been in there first thing--and I'm sure many of you have--the Speaker waits until he has a quorum. That's because the Constitution requires it. Also, there's a five-year limit for each House of Commons. Also, money bills can't be introduced in the Senate first; they have to be introduced in the House. That is respected, and you can be sure the House will insist that it be respected. And of course you have the royal recommendation. On Wednesday of last week the Speaker gave a ruling or a statement in the House on royal recommendations, and twice in his statement he referred to observing the Constitution. The next day, June 1, he revisited that subject at the invitation of a member who rose on a point of privilege and suggested that the matter could be taken to a committee and the committee could consider the matter and perhaps change the practices that the House currently has on private members' bills, subject to the Constitution.
I think it's quite evident that when you have something in the Constitution that directly applies to the House, it has to be taken seriously. As my paper indicates, the majority of voices is yea or nay. Someone said to me, what about electronic voting? With electronic voting, you still have to vote yea or nay, and then when you vote electronically, if you're sitting there, Mr. Murphy, in your chair, and you press a button and it goes up electronically to indicate what your vote is, that's fine, it's a way of recording your vote. Or you stand in the House and record your vote. But to go to a ballot, and no one knows how you voted.... The point isn't just that we like the sound of your voice on the yea or nay, but the point is, in my view, that the public is entitled to know how their representatives vote. Secret ballot votes go against that. I'm assuming here that this is the thinking behind section 49. It's a longstanding tradition that votes are done, yea or nay, and if you record, you rise in your place and you indicate how you voted. The second recording vote is not the vote. The vote took place earlier and then the members rise to confirm.