The interior of the House of Commons chamber, also called the "Green Chamber"

The House of Commons (in French, la Chambre des communes) is the directly elected lower house of the Parliament of Canada which sits in the nation's capital of Ottawa, Ontario.

Leadership

Prime Minister and Cabinet

Under the Westminster system, the Prime Minister of Canada is usually selected from, and answerable to, the directly elected lower house of Parliament. However, the actual formal selection of prime minister is not made by the House of Commons in a vote; rather they are appointed by the governor general, who selects the person deemed most likely to command the support of the House of Commons. Usually one party controls a majority of the seats in the House and Canada's highly disciplined political parties make no other choice possible than the leader of the majority party. In the case where no party has a majority, the governor general must must find someone who can gain the support of the Commons or call a general election. In practise, this has to be the leader of one of the political parties. (Although Canadian political parties have a major effect on how the country is run, they are private organizations outside of the constitution.)

In theory, the governor general then picks the members of the Cabinet, but in practice these selections have always been made by the prime minister. Although the House of Commons is not involved in the formal selection process of the prime minister or Cabinet, as in other parliamentary democracies, it does have the ability to vote no confidence or to reject Supply, and then the prime minister must resign. The governor general must then find a new Prime Minister or call a general election.

Speaker

The Speaker of the House of Commons is elected from amongst the MPs by secret ballot after each general election. The speaker presides over the House of Commons and ensures that everyone respects its rules and traditions. The speaker must be impartial and apply the rules to all members equally.

The speaker represents the Commons in dealings with the Canadian Senate and the Crown. In this respect, he or she is considered "the first commoner." The speaker is also responsible for the administration of the House and its staff and has many diplomatic and social duties.

The current Speaker of the House of Commons is the Honourable Peter Milliken, M.P.

Officials

Seated at a long table in front of the speaker are the clerk and other procedural officers of the House. They advise the speaker and members on the rules to be followed in the Commons. At the end of the table lies the mace, the symbol of the authority of the House of Commons.

At the end of the chamber, opposite the speaker, sits the sergeant_at_arms. This person is responsible for the security of the Parliament Buildings and has ceremonial duties, such as carrying the mace into the chamber at the start of each house sitting. House officers and members are assisted by the parliamentary pages, who carry messages to the members in the Chamber.

Operation

The main role of the House of Commons in practise is as a forum for members to debate government policy. In the House of Commons chamber, members devote most of their time to debating and voting on bills. Because its members are elected, the Commons makes decisions on spending public money and imposing taxes. The Chamber is also a place where members represent constituents' views, discuss national issues and call on the government to explain its actions.

Each day there is the question period where members of the opposition parties grill the government on their policies and on the state of the nation.

When voting on bills the House of Commons members, as in other legislative bodies in the Westminster system, almost invariably vote along with their party, and the legislature in practise has very little discretion over the passage of legislation. This is especially true in Canada where the parties have much firmer control of their members than in the United Kingdom.

In theory, the House of Commons shares legislative power with the unelected Canadian Senate, but in practise the Senate rarely blocks passage of a bill supported by Commons.

The House of Commons meets for about 130 days a year in plenary sessions. Each day the House meets is called a sitting. When it is in session, the House sits from Monday to Friday. A day in the House is divided into different parts so that members can discuss all the business at hand. During the summer or holiday breaks special sessions can be called by the government to debate issues of pressing importance.

Composition

Each of the country's present 308 constituencies, or ridings, elects a single representative to the House using a first-past-the-post ballot. Seats in the House of Commons are distributed roughly in proportion to each Canadian province's population. Quebec gets 75 seats and the other provinces get a number of seats depending on the size of their population compared to Quebec's. However, under the terms with which the smallest province, Prince Edward Island, entered Confederation, it gets a minimum of four seats regardless of its population. Each of the territories get one seat regardless of their population. Every province or territory must have at least as many members in the Commons as it has senators.

Any elector (a Canadian citizen aged 18 or older) may run as a candidate for member of parliament. Candidates need not be nominated by a political party, but it is very rare for non-incumbent independents to get elected. The last person to do so was Gilles Duceppe in 1990, though he was unofficially running for the Bloc. The last truly independent non-incumbent to win was Tony Roman who was elected from North York, Ontario in 1984.

Many eminent men and women have served here, such as prime ministers Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Lester B. Pearson, and Pierre Trudeau. Other notables include Sir William Mulock (1844-1944), John F. Stairs (1848_1904), Agnes Macphail (1890-1954) and Allan MacEachen (1921-).

Party standings in the Canadian House of Commons

Information in this section is current as of January 15, 2005.

See also

• Members of the Canadian House of Commons
• Canadian federal election results since 1867
• List of Canadian federal parliaments

External link

• Parliament of Canada (http://www.parl.gc.ca)
• Rules & Regulations of the Canadian House of Commons (Précis of Procedure) (http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/process/house/precis/titpg-e.htm)
• How Canadians Govern Themselves by Eugene A. Forsey (http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/idb/forsey/index-e.asp)