BC election

Instead of Premier Clark having to ask a Liberal MLA to resign their seat it would be better to create in the BC Assembly’s rules non-voting members. Here from manifesto 42 on the party’s wiki is a policy resolution to do that for the House of Commons.

 ​​Title: House delegates

Introduction

Non-voting members of the House of Commons
Under the standing orders of the House of Commons there shall be created a class of members called House delegates who can motion and debate but have no seat on any committee and no vote in the House of Commons.

Be it resolved

Delegates can be created by an absolute two-thirds majority vote (206) of the Commons. These delegates have a term of office for the duration of that parliament. A House delegate called a Member-emeritus can be created by an absolute three quarters majority vote (231) of the Commons. A Member-emeritus serves for the duration of five parliaments starting with the one in which they are created. All Speakers of the House become a Member-emeritus in the Parliament after they retire.

Be it further resolved

There shall be ex-officio House delegates who are any member of the Council of Ministers or the Council of Opposition who does not have a seat in the House of Commons. Furthermore both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition shall only be House delegates. If they are members of the House of Commons at the time of appointment as Prime minister or Leader of the opposition they then shall resign that seat in the House of Commons. Also if any leader of an official political party does not have a seat in the House of Commons they shall become a delegate member of the Commons. The status of an official political party shall be granted to any party, which got 5% or more of the popular vote in the last election or who has 1% or more of the membership in the House of Commons.

​Summary

What does this change federally? It means that the House of Commons would have 308 voting members plus 3 House delegates. The three House delegates would be the Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Leader of the Opposition Mr. Thomas Muclair, and the Leader of the Bloc Mr Daniel Paille. There could be more delegate members of the House of Commons depending on whom the Prime minister and the Leader of the opposition appoints to the Cabinet or the Council of opposition. Both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition become solely national leaders without any responsibilities attending the office of Member of Parliament. Also their ridings will have full time MPs serving their constituents.

Author

Barry Aulis compton-stanstead / QC