The private members’ bill, which generated a storm of interest from MPs in all parties after Mr. Chong (Wellington-Halton Hills, Ont.) held a nationally-televised press conference on Tuesday morning and introduced it in the Commons, will also first be reviewed by a Conservative caucus legislative committee chaired by Mr. Harper’s Parliamentary Secretary in the House, Conservative MP Paul Calandra (Oak Ridges-Markham, Ont.), The Hill Times has learned.
Mr. Chong’s ground-breaking legislation, which has yet even to be placed on an order of precedence for legislative progress that all bills sponsored by backbench MPs require, would radically change the way leaders hold onto power in Canadian federal politics and would also amend the Canada Election Act to eliminate the ability of party leaders to veto election nominations that have resulted from free votes in federal party electoral district associations.
Mr. Chong, a former intergovernmental affairs minister in one of Mr. Harper’s (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) previous Cabinets who resigned after Mr. Harper failed to consult him before tabling a government bill recognizing Quebecers as a nation within Canada, titled his legislation, Bill C-559, The Reform Act, and described it as an “effort to strengthen Canada’s democratic institutions by restoring power and the role of elected members of Parliament in the House of Commons.”
Mr. Chong drafted the legislation after a year of backbench grumbling and the occasional revolt over the control Mr. Harper’s office and his inner PMO circle have over backbench MPs and Cabinet ministers, leading to the resignation of Alberta MP Brent Rathgeber (Edmonton-Leduc, Alta.) earlier this year.
Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton-Melville, Sask.) and other Conservative MPs came out in support of Mr. Chong’s initiative, for which he has taken the unprecedented step of establishing a website, reformact2013.ca, prompting opposition MPs to speculate whether Mr. Chong may also have leadership ambitions.
“Great bill, in a nutshell,” Mr. Breitkreuz told The Hill Times. “I really appreciate what he’s doing, I come from the old Reform stock, and we really need to reinvigorate our democracy.”
But Minister of State for Democratic Reform Pierre Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton, Ont.), and a former Parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, told reporters Mr. Harper’s government has the “most open, free and democratic” caucus in Parliament.
“I’m very excited to debate this subject,” said Mr. Poilievre.
“This Prime Minister has done more to democratize this place than have his predecessors,” he said. “The Conservative Party is the most democratic caucus on Parliament Hill, and this is great opportunity for us to debate and discuss how we can make our system even more democratic for all Canadians.
“Obviously we will have a vote in our caucus and review the bill, to ascertain its strengths and potential weaknesses,” Mr. Poilievre said, without responding to questions about whether Conservative MPs would be able to vote freely on the legislation in the Commons.
“We’re very pleased that the bill has come forward and as the most democratic and open party in the Parliament, we think that it’s always good to work on ways to make our system better,” Mr. Poilievre said.
Conservative MP James Rajotte (Edmonton-Leduc, Alta.) who co-sponsored Mr. Chong’s bill, seemed surprised that the first Conservative vote on the legislation would be behind closed doors.
“I don’t know what Pierre said,” Mr. Rajotte told The Hill Times. “The normal process that I’m familiar with is for private members’ bills, it’s a free vote, a two-line votes system whereby backbenchers have a free vote, and how they choose. My recommendation is it should be a free vote, and I’ll be voting for it.”
“I don’t know, you’ll have to get him [Mr. Poilievre] to explain it,” said Mr. Rajotte.
Liberal MP Gerry Byrne (Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte, Nfld.) said his caucus is interested in the legislation. He said a Liberal caucus committee that studies legislation has invited Mr. Chong to brief the Liberals.
“We’re not intimidated or threatened by this in the least; in fact, we’re quite intrigued by this. We’ve actually asked him to come before us, a Conservative MP, first time ever to my knowledge, and I’ve been in this place 18 years, first time ever to my knowledge, that a member of another party has been asked to attend one of our legislative seminars,” said Mr. Byrne.
But Conservative MP Peter Goldring (Edmonton East, Alta.) appeared dubious.
“You’re removing a leader with 15 per cent,” he said. “I don’t think so, I’m going to have to give it some thought and see if there’s any possibility of making changes. I think this is really putting it in the hands of, as I said, if you have 100 people in the caucus, 15 people could initiate the change of a leader as well as those same 15 people, depending on how many people turned out for the vote, could really change the leadership, so I think there’s some difficulty with some of the language in it.”
NDP MP David Christopherson (Hamilton Centre, Ont.) said the NDP normally holds a “straw vote” in caucus on private members’ bills to see how MPs feel about the legislation, and then MPs are able to vote freely in the Commons.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: Tim Naumetz
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