Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 6th, 2010

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Professor, for being here. I really found this very informative. Thank you for pointing out that MPs may in fact be working as hard in their constituencies as when they're here.

I have a son who's a high school teacher, and I kid him that there are two good reasons to be a teacher--July and August. But then I know that he also does work a lot during the summer, as well.

Back to the letter you wrote in January, I guess I would categorize it as being fairly hard-hitting. I'll leave it at that. Then today you pointed out that with a minority government situation, it's natural for us to reach for tools that, as you said, might not be needed in any other situation. If you were to write your letter today, would it be different?

[Daniel Weinstock]

Yes, I think it would be a little different. As a philosopher, I get paid to think critically, including about things we've done ourselves. I tend not to agree with myself an hour ago.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Should we call you back?

[Daniel Weinstock]

One point you fastened onto there was that there is a generation of politicians, of which Mr. Harper is definitely a part, that just can't conceive, perhaps--it's just not in their DNA--of minority government as a state of normalcy and not an aberration that we will shortly be getting out of. It might be a natural reflex--one which, I hasten to add, should be counteracted for the greater good--to say, “How can I make this thing function as if it were a majority?”

That's problematic, for the reasons I indicated in my letter, which I won't get back into, but also because what the Canadian population has asked for through its vote is not a minority that acts as if it were a majority. It wants, and robustly, because we're now three elections into this minority part of our history, a sort of new normal, a new way of behaving in Parliament.

You can't get people's attention if you're not a bit hard-hitting for reasons that....

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

So in some ways this was your question period version, and what you're giving us today is the committee version.

[Daniel Weinstock]

I was hoping to make the point in a non-partisan way. As I said, I did get the criticism from a lot of editorialists that this is just somebody who's probably a Liberal or a New Democrat or a Bloquiste. I've never been a member of any political party. The hope I had and the gratification I had was from hearing from Conservative voters that this was an issue that is really non-partisan.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you, Professor. It's been a wonderful hour.

I got a couple of messages from your time here today. First of all, I love that we shouldn't try to put together “gotcha” mechanisms to fix a problem like this. And second, during the month of May, even if Canadians are paying attention, they're only paying attention to the playoffs, so we probably could do anything we want.

[Daniel Weinstock]

That's as long as we still have Canadian teams in the playoffs. Let's hope that we have a longer run of them.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

A point of order, yes.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Mr. Chairman, we received a research study from our analyst on rules of order that relate to prorogation in the various provincial assemblies. One of the things we had asked for, and I hope we can renew this ask, was a history of prorogations in the various....

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

You wanted it in those legislatures also?

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

That's right.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

I read the one about what other legislatures' rules on prorogation are. Can we get a list of when prorogation has actually been used in the provincial legislatures? Is that okay with the committee? Yes?

Go ahead, Mr. Christopherson.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair. I just have a question.

At the next meeting, it looks as if we have three presentations for the same two hours. I just wondered how we ended up with that, and how did we choose which are three and which are two?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

It's when people can attend. When we have a certain number of dates that are open and three say yes to one, and we can't get any of them to move, that's what happens to us.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I only ask because of course one of the witnesses is a very well-known participant in these public discussions.

Thanks, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you.

The meeting is adjourned.