Will Parliament be a 'gong show' again in 2025?

One afternoon earlier this month, Charlie Angus stood in the House of Commons to lament.

"Mr. Speaker, I always say what a great honour it is to rise in a House such as this, chosen by the people of Timmins—James Bay," the NDP MP said. "But I have to say that I am less and less proud every time I am asked to stand up, because I do not know how to tell young Canadians to believe in democracy when they watch this dismal gong show day after day."

Angus, who is not seeking re-election, has made a recent habit of comparing the proceedings in Parliament to the absurdist American game show of the 1970s and 80s.

Complaining about the state of the House of Commons is something of a tradition in Canada. But it might be hard to find anyone right now who is willing to disagree with Angus. That the House is "dysfunctional" might be the one thing on which all parties agree, even if they disagree on who is to blame.

It's too late now to get things back on track for 2024. But will Parliament be any more functional in 2025?

Why the House of Commons is stuck

Angus was speaking just days after Conservatives and New Democrats traded accusations of drunkenness and intimidation in the House. But the primary cause of dysfunction this fall has been the Conservative filibuster, which has now hamstrung the House for two and a half months.

The Conservatives argue that their actions are justified and grounded in high principles. Parliament has ordered the government to produce documents related to a troubled green technology fund; the government has so far refused to fully comply. The Conservatives say they're obstructing the government's legislative agenda in the spirit of parliamentary accountability.

"The right to order the production of documents is fundamental to the proper functioning of Parliament," Conservative MP Michael Chong said in a speech last month.

But the argument in favour of the filibuster is complicated by two facts. First, the Conservatives are actually filibustering their own motion, which proposed that the dispute be sent to a House committee for further consideration.

Second, the order passed by Parliament called for the documents to be turned over not to MPs, but to the RCMP — a potentially problematic demand that even the national police force seems to find awkward.

Steven Chaplin, a former legal counsel to the law clerk of the House of Commons, has written that the order was a "misuse" of Parliament's power with "no constitutional basis." Rob Walsh, a former law clerk, has said that handing over documents to the RCMP is "an abuse of the powers of the House."

While obstruction is a time-honoured and legitimate tool for opposition parties in a parliamentary system, the Conservative effort is remarkable for how long it has gone on and how much it has disrupted. Except for a brief opening to pass the government's temporary GST break, the House has not been able to consider government legislation since late September. All consideration of private members' bills has also been blocked.

The Trudeau government's failure to end the filibuster can be put down to a few factors.

The Liberals don't have a majority in the House and would need the support of another party to invoke closure. The New Democrats walked away from their confidence-and-supply agreement with the Liberals in early September and are apparently in no rush to help the government out now. (A limited deal with the Bloc Quebecois briefly seemed possible in October, but the government and the Bloc could not agree on a boost to seniors benefits.)

In a pinch, a governing party can trigger an election (or at least threaten to trigger one) to break an impasse. But the Liberals clearly are in no position to choose that route at the moment.

The Liberals might comfort themselves with the fact that the Conservative filibuster has not, for the most part, prevented them from governing. Thanks to the supply and confidence agreement, much of their existing agenda had been implemented before the Conservative obstruction began. And the House managed to approve the latest round of financial appropriations this week, thus ensuring the government won't run out of money.

Can anyone get this Parliament back on track?

But the obstruction has not been entirely painless for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government. The online harms legislation, first tabled in February, has not moved forward. Neither has the Nature Accountability Act, which was tabled in June. The First Nations Clean Water Act, tabled last December, hasn't been able to get out of the House. Changes to the capital gains tax, announced in the spring budget, haven't been formally adopted into law.

The government also will need to clear roadblocks in the House if it hopes to move forward with changes to the Elections Act to make it easier to vote, or a Safe Long-Term Care Act (which has yet to be tabled).

Time is an increasingly precious commodity for this government. If the next federal election takes place in October, this House of Commons may only have 14 sitting weeks left.

As that election draws closer, the fight for every inch of turf on Parliament Hill is only going to get more intense — and possibly more ridiculous. So it's easy to imagine the gong show being renewed for 2025, perhaps culminating in Parliament's premature collapse.

The Conservatives are obviously impatient for an election and equally eager to make the case that everything in Canada is "broken," so it suits their purposes if parliamentary business breaks down.

But prolonged dysfunction risks seriously undermining how much (or how little) the public values Parliament. The fact that its current deadlocked state hasn't attracted more widespread concern already reflects poorly on Parliament's status as an important public institution.

As Angus argued earlier this month, this also might be a particularly bad moment for Parliament to break down.

"We are in a crisis of democracy around the world," he said.

At some point, the Liberals and New Democrats might also have to decide whether they would like to make more constructive use of what could be the final weeks before a Conservative government takes office. 

The onus in that regard is largely on the Liberals, both practically and politically. And the New Democrats still have a strong incentive to differentiate themselves from an unpopular government.

But the two parties also still share some of the same goals. And if the Conservatives win a majority next fall, it may be a while before either the Liberals or New Democrats have the power to advance those goals.

The confidence-and-supply agreement was born out of the "freedom convoy" protests that snarled downtown Ottawa in 2022. That deal allowed the House to function and showed that two progressive parties could get some things done. 

If the House is to be something other than a gong show in 2025, Liberals and New Democrats might have to figure out together how to make things work again.