40th Canadian Parliament

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40th Parliament of Canada minority parliament   November 18, 2008 – present
House of Commons
Seating arrangements of the House of Commons
Speaker of the Commons	Hon. Peter Milliken
	Jan 29, 2001 – present
Prime Minister	Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper
	Feb 6, 2006 – present
Leader of the Opposition	Hon. Stéphane Dion
	Dec 2, 2006 – Dec 10, 2008
	Michael Ignatieff
	Dec 10, 2008 – present
Government House Leader	Hon. Jay Hill
	Oct 3, 2008 – present
Opposition House Leader	Hon. Ralph Goodale
	Feb 10, 2006 – present
Senate
Seating arrangements of the Senate
Speaker of the Senate	Hon. Noël A. Kinsella
	Feb 8, 2006 – present
Government Senate Leader	Hon. Marjory LeBreton
	Feb 6, 2006 – present
Opposition Senate Leader	Hon. Jim Cowan
	Nov 3, 2008 – present
Party standings in the Commons
Government	Conservative Party of Canada
Opposition	Liberal Party of Canada
Third Party	Bloc Québécois
Fourth Party	New Democratic Party
Sessions
1st Session November 18, 2008 – December 4, 2008 2nd Session January 26, 2009 –
Ministries
28th Ministry Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper February 6, 2006 – Parliamentarians Members 305 of 308 Senators 100 of 105 <39th 41st>

The 40th Canadian Parliament is the current Parliament of Canada, with the membership of its House of Commons determined by the results of the 2008 federal election held on October 14, 2008, and it opened on November 18, 2008. It was then prorogued by the Governor General on December 4, 2008 on the request of Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the face of a non-confidence motion and a coalition agreement between the NDP and the Liberal Party of Canada with the support of the Bloc Quebecois. Of the 308 MPs elected at the October 14, 2008 general election, 64 are new to Parliament and three of those sat in previous Parliaments other than the 39th: John Duncan, Jack Harris and Roger Pomerleau.

There have been two sessions of the 40th Parliament so far:

Session	Start	End
1st	November 18, 2008	December 4, 2008
2nd	January 26, 2009	ongoing

Contents 1 Party standings 1.1 Resignations and by-elections 2 1st session and prorogation 2.1 Aftermath 3 2nd Session 4 Members 5 Officeholders 5.1 Speakers 5.1.1 Other Chair occupants 5.2 Leaders 5.3 Floor leaders 5.4 Whips 6 References

[edit] Party standings

Standings in the 40^th Canadian Parliament

Affiliation		House Members		Senate Members
		2008 Election Results[1]	Currently	On Election Day 2008[2]	Currently
	Conservative	143	143	21	38
	Liberal	77	77	58	54
	Bloc Québécois	49	48	0	0
	New Democratic Party	37	36	0	0
	Independent and Non-aligned	2[3]	1[3]	5[4]	5[4]
	Progressive Conservative	0	0	3	2
	Independent NDP	0	0	1[5]	0
	Independent Liberal	0	0	1[6]	1[6]
Total members		308	305	89	100
	vacant	0	3	16	5
Total seats		308		105

[edit] Resignations and by-elections

NDP MP Dawn Black resigned her seat of New Westminster—Coquitlam effective April 13, 2009, to run in the provincial riding of New Westminster in the 2009 British Columbia general election. A by-election has not been scheduled.

Independent MP Bill Casey resigned his seat of Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley effective April 30, 2009 to accept a job as Nova Scotia Department of Intergovernmental Affairs' senior representative in Ottawa. No by-election date has been set.

Bloc Québécois MP Paul Crête resigned his seat of Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup on May 21, 2009 to run in a provincial by-election in Rivière-du-Loup.

[edit] 1st session and prorogation

The first session of the 40th parliament opened on November 18, 2008, after Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives won a slightly stronger minority government in the 2008 election. With a new government in session, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tabled a fiscal update nine days later. Among other things, the update cut government spending, suspended the ability of civil servants to strike, sold off some Crown assets, and eliminated existing political party subsidies. This fiscal update was rejected by the opposition, and became a catalyst for talks of a coalition government. Stéphane Dion of the Liberal Party and Jack Layton of the New Democratic Party, signed an accord stating that in the event that the government lost the confidence of the house, they would form a coalition with the support of Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Quebecois, if asked to do so by the Governor General of Canada Michaëlle Jean. However, Stephen Harper delayed the vote of non-confidence scheduled for December 1, and the Governor General prorogued parliament on Harper's advice on December 4, 2008, until January 26, 2009.

[edit] Aftermath

After prorogation, calls came from within the Liberal Party for Dion to resign immediately. Dion initially scheduled his resignation for the party's leadership convention in May 2009, but on December 8, 2008, he announced that he would step down upon the selection of his successor. After the withdrawal of Bob Rae and Dominic LeBlanc from the leadership race, Michael Ignatieff became the only leadership candidate, and therefore was appointed interim leader of the Liberals and the opposition on December 10, 2008.

[edit] 2nd Session

The Harper government recalled Parliament on January 26, 2009. Its first business in the new session (after the Throne Speech) was to present the federal budget, which included a large deficit. After negotiations with new Opposition leader Michael Ignatieff, the government promised to present regular updates on the stimulus budget, and the Liberals and Conservatives joined to pass the budget and keep the Conservative government in power.

The Conservative government has made crime a major focus of this session. The Conservatives have reintroduced their former mandatory minimums bill this session, known as Bill C-15.^[7]

[edit] Members

For full lists of members of the 40th Parliament of Canada, see List of House members of the 40th Parliament of Canada and List of senators in the 40th Parliament of Canada.

[edit] Officeholders

[edit] Speakers

Canada

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Canada

Executive (The Crown) Sovereign (Queen Elizabeth II) Governor General of Canada (Michaëlle Jean) Queen's Privy Council for Canada Prime Minister (Stephen Harper) Cabinet (Twenty-Eighth Ministry) Ministries President of the Queen's Privy Council Privy Council Office Clerk of the Privy Council Government of Canada Legislative (Parliament) Current Parliament (40th) Senate Speaker of the Senate Government Leader in the Senate Opposition Leader in the Senate Canadian Senate divisions House of Commons Speaker of the House Government House Leader Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition Leader of the Opposition Opposition House Leader Shadow Cabinet Elections Parliamentary constituencies Electoral system Last election Judicial Supreme Court Chief Justice (Beverley McLachlin) Lower Courts of Appeal Constitution British North America Acts Peace, Order and Good Government Charter of Rights and Freedoms Provinces and territories Canadian federalism Monarchy in the Canadian provinces Lieutenant Governors Executive Councils Politics of the Canadian provinces Municipal government in Canada General Regions Political culture Foreign relations Office-holders of Canada Civil Service Political movements

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• Hon. Peter Milliken (the Liberal member for Kingston and the Islands) was re-elected Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons on November 18, 2008. Milliken, who has been the Speaker since 2001, was victorious after the fifth ballot.^[8]

• Hon. Noël Kinsella is the Speaker of the Senate (a Conservative Senator for New Brunswick).

[edit] Other Chair occupants

• House of Commons Deputy Speaker and Chair of Committees of the Whole—Andrew Scheer (the Conservative Member for Regina—Qu'Appelle)

• Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole—Denise Savoie (the NDP Member for Victoria)

• Assistant Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole—Barry Devolin (the Conservative Member for Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock)

Senate

• Hon. Rose-Marie Losier-Cool is the Speaker pro tempore of the Senate of Canada (a Liberal Senator for New Brunswick).

[edit] Leaders

• Prime Minister of Canada: Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper (Conservative)
• Leader of the Opposition (Liberal):
  1. Hon. Stéphane Dion (until December 10, 2008)
  2. Michael Ignatieff (from December 10, 2008)

• Bloc Québécois leader: Gilles Duceppe
• New Democratic Party leader: Hon. Jack Layton

[edit] Floor leaders

The following were the parties' floor leaders during the 40th Parliament:

House of Commons

• Government House Leader: Hon. Jay Hill
• Opposition House Leader: Hon. Ralph Goodale
• Bloc Québécois House Leader: Pierre Paquette
• New Democratic Party House Leader: Libby Davies

Senate

• Leader of the Government in the Senate: Hon. Marjory LeBreton
• Leader of the Opposition in the Senate: Jim Cowan

[edit] Whips

The party whips in this Parliament were as follows:

• Chief Government Whip: Hon. Gordon O'Connor
• Deputy Government Whip: Harold Albrecht
• Official Opposition Whip: Rodger Cuzner
• Bloc Québécois Whip: Michel Guimond
• New Democratic Party Whip: Yvon Godin

[edit] References

Wikinews has related news: Canadian Parliament suspended until late January

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