On his Substack, Brian Lilley noted on Monday that we’ve had very little chance to see the Canadian Parliament in action so far in 2025:
Parliament returns for the fall sitting today, it’s the first time the House of Commons has met since June 20. What’s remarkable is that in the 257 days that we’ve counted in 2025, the House has only met for 20 of them.
As it stands now, the House has not met in 87 days.
More remarkable, the House didn’t sit between December 17, 2024 and May 2025, all during a time of national crisis. Add to that the fact that between the end of September 2024 and the opening of the new Parliament on May 26, 2025 no government business was conducted due to the green slush fund scandal and the Trudeau government’s refusal to release documents to the House.
To say our democratic institutions haven’t been well served over the last year would be an understatement.
Over the last year, the oversight function of the House of Commons hasn’t been working as it should in our system. We’ve either had inaction by government or for most of this year, government by decree with little to no oversight by the people’s representatives.
Hopefully that changes today with a new sitting.
A change in tone…
One thing we’ve heard lots of chatter about is the need for a new tone, but primarily that’s been aimed at Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. Let me point out that Prime Minister Mark Carney is also new to this and we didn’t get the full measure of the man back in the spring.
The relationship between Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre was acrimonious to say the least.
Trudeau towards the end was despised by Canadians and Poilievre couldn’t hit him hard enough in Question Period. Canadians would cheer as Poilievre would use his formidable Parliamentary skills to skewer Trudeau in the House of Commons.
Of course, Trudeau was part of the demise of the relationship and civility in the House as he showed utter contempt for the opposition, for Parliamentary rules and by extension to millions of Canadians.
Well, it’s a new government, a new leader in Carney and so yes, we can expect a new tone coming from both sides. We’ve already seen it from Poilievre in his many media appearances and news conferences over the past several months.
Poilievre has said that he and his party will oppose the government on issues where they disagree, support them on areas where they agree and offer practical solutions to the problems facing the country. That’s exactly what you want from an opposition party, which should in fact operate as a government in waiting.
