Procedure and House Affairs committee  You're into a very tricky area that's very complex, even in economics. What is normally done in a cost-benefit analysis extending well into the future is that you discount future costs and benefits to the present by what we would normally call an interest rate, but what they woul

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The Speaker found it prima facie, which means there are enough grounds for it to be looked at and for this committee to come to a conclusion on it. I have wrestled with that matter--and I'm an outsider who is not in government or Parliament--and I can say that it raises a concern

Procedure and House Affairs committee  My opening statement is a bit longer, but I'll cut it. First of all, I'll define “contempt”. To be found in contempt of Parliament, a person must be found guilty by the House of Commons of actions that obstruct or impede the House in the performance of its functions. And that's

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In terms of parliamentary government, I would say that a decision by a majority of the House on an issue--and that majority has been as many as seven members on some occasions--is constitutionally both a legitimate and a legal answer. I might not like it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'd be more than happy to help you. Thank you, sir.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I had a talk once with that wonderful Swedish sociologist--or whatever you want to call him--Gunnar Myrdal. I used the expression “illegitimate”, and he said, “You should never call a child illegitimate, because no child is illegitimate. Illegitimacy is in the eye of the beholder

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I am a retired professor, but I spent a lot of my career getting students to think that simple questions were difficult and difficult questions were simple. On the prorogation one, I think that Parliament has served as a very good professor for the country because you've shown

Procedure and House Affairs committee  At the time, the Governor General was in Africa on a state visit, I believe. I doubt that the letter, as a physical entity, was conveyed to her; I have no doubt that the contents were. I have absolutely no doubt, none whatsoever, that at the time the Governor General made her dec

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, we'll just leave it aside there.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Oh, gosh, I haver back and forth on that. I could live with it. As you can appreciate, the only time it would be significant would be in a minority Parliament. Of course, those are the only times when prorogation becomes a dirty word. I always wind up in this by saying that the

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Join the crowd, sir.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  One of the wonderful virtues of the parliamentary system is that the Constitution is what happens. Our Constitution is a little bit written; the British Constitution is a whole series of cases and events with many conflicting things. I tried to give examples of prorogations tha

Procedure and House Affairs committee  C'est formidable. In her memoirs, she says that she consulted widely and carefully on the question. If Mr. Martin were defeated soon after the House met and he requested dissolution, and there was an alternative government in waiting, should she grant him the dissolution or ref

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's nice to see you, sir.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No. I have not examined the historical precedence on this. I suspect if we looked very carefully we would find many times over history that ministers of the crown were found in contempt or the equivalent--impeachment used to be the most common thing there--and it did not force th