CMHoC House of Commons
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House of Commons of Canada Chambre des communes du Canada | |
|---|---|
| 5th Parliament | |
 | |
| Type | |
| Type | Lower House of the Parliament of Canada |
| Leadership | |
Speaker | Vacant |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 16 |
 | |
Political groups |
|
| Elections | |
| Party-List Proportional | |
Last election | July 5, 2023 |
| Meeting place | |
 | |
| House of Commons Chamber West Block - Parliament Hill Ottawa, Ontario Canada | |
| Website | |
| www | |
The House of Commons of Canada (French: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the only chamber in the Parliament of Canada. The House of Commons currently meets in a temporary Commons chamber in the West Block of the parliament buildings on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, while the Centre Block, which houses the traditional Commons chamber, undergoes a ten-year renovation.
The House of Commons is a democratically elected body whose members are known as Members of Parliament (MPs). There were 25 members in the 1st to 3rd Parliament , but that number rose to 338 following the 4th election. Members are elected closed list-proportional system in each of the country's 32 electoral districts, which are colloquially known as ridings. MPs may hold office until Parliament is dissolved and serve for constitutionally limited terms of up to five years after an election. Historically however, terms have ended before their expiry and the sitting government has typically dissolved parliament within four years of an election according to a long-standing convention. In any case, an Act of Parliament now limits each term to four years.
Seats in the House of Commons are distributed roughly in proportion to the population of each province and territory. However, some ridings are more populous than others, and the Canadian constitution contains provisions regarding provincial representation. As a result, there is some interprovincial and regional malapportionment relative to the population.
The House of Commons was established in 1867, when the British North America Act (now called the Constitution Act, 1867) created the Dominion of Canada and was modelled on the British House of Commons.
Members and Ridings
The House of Commons comprises 338 members, each of whom represents one of the 32 multi member electoral districts (also called a riding). The constitution specifies a basic minimum of 295 electoral districts, but additional seats are allocated according to various clauses. Seats are distributed among the provinces in proportion to population, as determined by each decennial census, subject to the following exceptions made by the constitution. The districts number of seats range from 19 (Vancouver City) to 3 (Territories) and seats are distributed proportionally by using D'Hondt method.
In the last election, only 31 out of the 338 members of parliament were human MP's. By the rules, the remaining 307 members are NPC and vote in accordance to the influence of the human MP's. MP's have different amounts of influence depending on their roles and the size of their party, with parties with more MP's having less influence for each human MP.
Process
Every week 3 bills are tabled for debate, with one being from the government, one from the official opposition and the last being a private members bill from a backbench or other opposition. The bills are slotted like this in order to allow different groups in parliament a chance to get their legislation debated on the House Floor. Each of these slots is called a "docket".
Government bill are legislation that is on the Governments list of bills they wish to pass. Often these bills are based off promises from the Throne Speech, however it does not require it. All bills submitted here must have the approval of the Prime Minister in order to be given this docket slot, and are traditionally are written by Ministers within their respective department.
The Opposition slot is revered for Her Majesty Loyal Official Opposition, and is the only slot promised to a single party. It is meant for this party to challenge the government by proposing laws as examples of their solutions to issues, and it allows the opposition to push issues especially privy to them. All bills presented in this slot must have been approved by the Leader of the Opposition and it is often written by a Shadow Minister.
The final slot is the Private Member bill slot (PMB). While officially it is open to any Member of Parliament who is not a Minister or Shadow Minister, it is often used by the other opposition parties in a similar fashion to the opposition slot. PMB's that are to be presented are selected by the Speaker from all the submitted PMB's for that week by random draw and require no-approval to be submitted. These bills often have a much harder time being passed as they did not already have the approval of the government or the opposition and thus have to get support from their bill on their own.
Current Composition
| Party | Leader | Seats | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Democratic | Nathan Cullen | 149 | 44.2 | |
| Conservative | Adrian Nym | 139 | 41.2 | |
| Pirate | Matthew Engarde | 16 | 4.7 | |
| Freedom | Nick Panin | 15 | 4.5 | |
| Libertarian | William Joiner | 10 | 3.0 | |
| Progressive | Tekaronhió:ken d'Anson | 8 | 2.4 | |
| Green | Jacob Baron | 1 | 0.3 | |
| Independents | n/a | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 337 | 100% | ||