House Inspection: A retrospective of the 42nd Parliament

After the experience of a bruising election campaign, a new Parliament is a chance for a fresh start. For new Members of Parliament (MPs), taking their seat in the House of Commons is powerful, emotional, and memorable. But the day-to-day of parliamentary life doesn’t always match these lofty first impressions. So while a new Parliament is a time to look forward, it is also useful to look back to recognize what was achieved in previous Parliaments and to learn from what went wrong. This report conducts the first in-depth, objective examination of the 42nd Parliament (2015-2019), based on three dimensions of an effective Parliament: high-quality scrutiny of Government, healthy partisanship within and between parties, and civil and constructive debate. Compared to previous Parliaments, the data shows:

Key Findings

1. They like big bills: Despite criticism of omnibus bills, the Government continued to introduce ever-larger bills, which can make serious scrutiny hard.
2. Time (allocation) after time (allocation): The Government continued a much-criticized practice of frequently shutting down debate through time allocation.
3. More tinkering: Parliament spent more time studying Government bills, and amended more bills, largely due to the Senate’s new assertiveness in considering bills and challenging the Government and House of Commons.
4. Herd behaviour: The average MP voted with their party 99.6% of the time. The most rebellious MP in the 42nd Parliament: 96.6%.
5. More collaboration, but things fell apart: Committees more often reached consensus across party lines. But according to MPs, cross-party collaboration declined over the course of the Parliament as unhealthy partisanship increased.
6. Trash talk: MPs see debate as empty, repetitive, and a waste of valuable time. Despite efforts to promote civility in the House, heckling did not decrease in the 42nd Parliament.

The report concludes with recommendations from MPs for the new Parliament to: 

• Exercise diligent scrutiny by getting into the weeds of Government documents and using all the available resources. 
• Overcome toxic partisanship by getting to know colleagues across the aisle, and demonstrating principled independence within the party. 
• Strive for better, more substantive and civil debate, with less note-reading, less heckling, and more dynamic exchanges.
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