Lesson 1 — Activity 2: The House of Commons

Warm Up

Canada's Parliament is responsible for governing Canada as a whole. It addresses anything that affects all of Canada. The federal government is responsible for all the topics listed below.

defence
criminal law
employment
insurance
postal service
census
copyrights

trade
regulations
external relations
money and banking
transportation
citizenship

Aboriginal affairs

The House of Commons

Parliament is made up of two separate groups, each called a house. The House of Commons is the lower house, and the Senate is the upper house. In this lesson, you will learn about the House of Commons. In the next lesson, you will learn more about the Senate.

The role of the House of Commons is to introduce ideas and proposals (also called bills), to write new laws or change existing laws, and to develop policies on issues.

The House of Commons is a democratically elected body. This means that Canada has a system of government where all the people are involved in making decisions about its affairs, typically by voting to elect representatives to Parliament or similar assembly. The House of Commons is made up of members who are known as members of Parliament (MPs). There were 308 members in the last Parliament (most members were elected in 2011), but that number rose to 338 following the election on Monday, October 19, 2015. This rise in the number of MPs was based on existing population estimates that showed growth in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. Therefore, more MPs were needed to ensure fair representation in these faster-growing provinces. Each of the 338 MPs represent a single electoral district (also called a riding).

Members of Parliament devote most of their time to debating and voting on bills in the House of Commons chamber where members meet to represent their constituents' views, discuss issues of importance, and ask the government to justify its actions when needed.

Constituent — a person who lives and votes in an area.

As a constituent, you can influence the political system. Click here to see how you can do this as well as the role of the media in relation to political issues.

MPs serve their communities and their constituents by working on committees to solve important issues. Therefore, voting for the member that you think will best represent you is very important.

Click on the Play button below to look closer at the inside of the House of Commons in Canada.

During a federal election, Canadian citizens 18 years and older vote for the candidate they want to represent their community in the House of Commons. At the federal level, Canada is divided into regions that are called constituencies. At present, Canada has 338 constituencies.

Most MPs belong to a political party, but a candidate may occasionally run as an independent. An independent is a person who runs for an election but does not belong to a political party.

In Canada, at the federal level, there are four main political parties: Liberal, Conservative, New Democratic Party, and the Bloc Québecois.

With four major parties, it is possible that no party will win a majority in an election. What happens in this case? There are two possibilities.

The party with the most seats forms what is referred to as a minority government. This means that this party must negotiate constantly with the other parties to gain their support on votes in the House. As soon as the governing minority party is defeated by a vote in the House of Commons, parliament must dissolve, and another election is called.

If no party wins a clear majority in an election, two or more of the parties may join to form a coalition. These parties reach an agreement to support each other's ideas in the House, governing as a group to stay in power.

Coalition — the joining together of different political parties or groups for a particular purpose, usually for a limited time.

In Canada, the party that wins the most seats in the House of Commons in a general election forms the government. If the party wins more than half of the seats in the House of Commons or legislative assembly, then the party forms a majority government. A majority government can pass legislation and maintain the confidence of the House of Commons or legislative assembly to stay in power much more easily than a minority government.

The results in the 2015 federal election, however, were much different. The Liberal Party won 184 seats in the election (39.5% of the vote), which gave the party a majority government. As Justin Trudeau was the leader of the Liberal Party, he became the prime minister of Canada.

The chart below show the results for the 2015 federal election in Canada.

Justin Trudeau
@creativecommons

Regardless of whether there is a majority, minority, or coalition government, MPs meet to debate the laws of our nation. They make very important decisions that affect the daily lives of Canadians. MPs represent all voters, discuss issues of importance, and ask the government to justify its actions when needed. MPs serve their communities by working on committees to solve important issues, so it is very important for voters to choose the member that they think will represent them best. MPs devote most of their time to debating and voting on bills. When a bill is passed by the House of Commons, it goes to the Senate for the next step towards either rejecting the bill or passing it into law.

Try This!

Do you want to learn more about which party's ideas you agree with the most?

Click here to go to a website where you will answer some questions to see how your beliefs match each political party.

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The Parliament of Canada is one element of our system of government. It is made up of unique parts that fit together in specific ways like pieces of a puzzle.

Click here to put the blocks of the Parliament in the right order to reveal how Canada’s parliamentary institutions are connected.

Click on the Play button below to watch a video on the legislative process in Canada and how laws are passed. You will learn more about this process in the next activity.