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Well now the Liberals are back, with a new, more attack-proof House Leader, Bardish Chagger, and a new attempt to rewrite House rules in the interest of “efficiency.” Officially it’s just a “discussion paper,” but if so it’s one the government seems peculiarly unwilling to discuss or even explain. Once again there are limits proposed on time-honoured procedural tactics with which opposition parties might delay government business or otherwise express their unhappiness. So, too, there are new and more draconian proposals to limit debate and scrutiny of government business, with fixed numbers of days set for each stage of a bill’s progress through the House — thus sparing the government the unpleasant necessity of passing a motion to curtail debate — limits on speeches in committee, and the elimination of Friday sittings.

Other proposals are more in the nature of missed opportunities. As in the British Parliament, there is a proposal that one day of question period each week be reserved for questions to the prime minister, which would be more worthy of praise if this were in addition to his regular daily question period appearances and not, as seems strongly probable, in place of them. The only limit on the government’s power to prorogue the House, which Stephen Harper notoriously used to get out of tight political situations, would be a requirement for the government to explain its reasons for proroguing. (In fairness, the Liberals did not promise to limit this power, only that they would not abuse it.) More encouraging is a proposal to give the Speaker the power to break up omnibus bills into separate parts, with separate votes on each.