Arnold Chan’s Final Words in the House of Commons

A Clarion Call for Democracy Mark Holland, the Member for Ajax, paused debate on Bill S-2 yesterday to deliver a moving reflection on his twenty-plus years of friendship with the late Arnold Chan. Following this, he read the speech Arnold had hoped to give himself, outlining the challenges that Canada’s democratic institutions face in the ...

Changing the Standing Orders of the House of Commons in order to improve parliamentary democracy

Elizabeth May Mr. Speaker, yesterday I spoke to the issue of prorogation, because we now have a historic opportunity to ensure that prorogation will never again be used improperly, and I said that the motion fails to eliminate that possibility. I was about to close on the subject of prorogation by suggesting to the House, ...

Question on eliminating the undue influence of money in Canadian politics

Elizabeth May Mr. Speaker, it is true that political party leaders do fundraisers, and people buy tickets to come to those fundraisers. However, when the political party leader becomes the prime minister, there is a very large and important distinction to be made that we do not want government policy influenced by those who can ...

Critiquing Bill C-44, an omnibus budget bill that limits parliamentary debate

Elizabeth May I now have the honour of debating the omnibus budget bill, Bill C-44, at report stage. I find this so ironic, because I truly believed that the era of the omnibus budget bill would end when the new Liberal government took power. In fact, the new government promised that it would not use ...

Update on Electoral Reform – Disappointment in Parliament

Dear Friends and Supporters of Electoral Reform, A disappointment in Parliament on Wednesday, when the Liberals used their majority to defeat a motion to accept recommendations from the Special Committee on Electoral Reform. It was a slim majority in a vote of 159-146, with two courageous Liberal MPs Nathaniel Eskine-Smith and Sean Casey voting with integrity ...

Calling for cooperation on using MPs’ time in the House of Commons more productively and effectively

Elizabeth May Mr. Speaker, I recently had the great privilege to work with members on all sides of the House on a book called Turning Parliament Inside Out, about how we could improve decorum in this place. One of the problems that we now see ourselves facing, it is very much in front of us, ...

TEDx Stanley Park: Electoral Dysfunction and Reform

Why does Canada use a voting system that allows the minority of voters to elect a majority government? How does 39% of the vote translate into 100% of the power? How does a voting system that allows a micro-targeted riding-by-riding campaign style lead to negative campaigning, toxic politics and a hyper-partisan, never-ending campaign replacing governance? ...

Parliament: Raising a point of order on the issue of heckling in the House of Commons

Elizabeth May Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. As we know, we are debating in this place changing the Standing Orders, but I would like to refer, for my point of order, to our existing rules, Standing Orders 16(2) and 18. The combined effect of these two Standing Orders is that interrupting ...

Speaking to the Importance of Committee Membership Rights for All Parties

Elizabeth May First of all, let me thank you Mr. Chair for giving me the ability to speak at this moment on this very critical issue for all members of parliament. I would very much appreciate the consideration that, as the committee goes forward, all members, and particularly the Government Leader in the House, consider ...

Elizabeth May urges public to engage on Anti-Terrorism Act (C-51) changes

Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada (Saanich-Gulf Islands), encourages all Canadians to participate in the final days of public consultation on changes to Bill C-51: The Anti-Terrorism Act. Public consultation will end on Dec. 15. Ms. May submitted her response to Our Security, Our Rights: National security Green Paper, 2016 on Dec. 1. In it, Ms. May ...