Canadian Politics

A01(c) - Executive and Ministers

Date: Jun 3 | Time: 08:30am to 10:00am | Location:

Chair/Président/Présidente : Elizabeth McCallion (University of Toronto)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Elizabeth McCallion (University of Toronto)

An Examination of Federal Ministerial Exits 1867 to 2024: J.P. Lewis (University of New Brunswick)
Abstract: Using an original data set (1867-2024) this paper examines trends in Canadian federal cabinet governance with a focus on ministerial exits. The central research question for the paper is how do ministerial exit trends in Canadian federal cabinet reflect our understanding of Canadian federal cabinet composition? The widely read modern literature on Canadian federal cabinet (Bakvis 1991, Savoie 1999, White 2005) focuses on qualitative, anecdotal and interview data without much attention to longitudinal data. The last examination of Canadian federal cabinet with a strong focus on longitudinal data was Bill Matheson’s 1976 book The Prime Minister and Cabinet which considered multiple cabinet governance trends with exit and tenure data. The findings will contribute to our understanding of such cabinet governance dynamics as demographic descriptive representation and the dominant attributes of cabinet composition overtime.

Canadian House of Commons committees; Continuously Underperforming?: Jonathan Malloy (Carleton University)
Abstract: Committees in the Canadian House of Commons have widely been viewed as underperforming, especially compared to their similar UK counterparts. While the modern Canadian system of standing committees predates the UK system of departmental select committees and is similar in purpose and scope, Canadian committees are typically divided along partisan lines and struggle for relevance and impact, especially on high-profile issues and when scrutinizing government actions. On the other hand, the Canadian system may operate better than realized on an everyday basis on more routine legislation and issues, and comparisons to other systems like the UK may be selective and overstated. This paper will provide an overview of the Canadian committee system, attempts to reform it, assessments of its performance under various criteria, and an overall discussion of its dynamics and how it reflects the strengths and weaknesses of the Canadian House of Commons more generally.