Alberta’S Speaker Engages the Charles Robert (Deputy Chair) Public and Enhances Democracy Philip Massolin
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Canadian eview V olume 42, No. 3 The Politics of Seat Reductions 2 CANADIAN PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW/SUMMER 2019 Elin Salome Halldorson was the first female elected from a rural riding and the second woman to be elected to the Manitoba Legislature. She was also the first female of Icelandic descent to be elected in Manitoba. Salome, as she was known, was born in Lundar, Manitoba in 1887, shortly after her parents emigrated from Iceland. Salome studied at Wesley College, the University of Manitoba and completed post-graduate studies in the United States and France. She taught languages at a private Icelandic school in Winnipeg where she was also the principal and dean. Salome was elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for St. George in the 1936 provincial election. During her campaign, she gained popularity by speaking in French, Icelandic, English or German, depending on her audience. A strong believer in the Social Credit movement, she was one of five candidates who won a seat; she later became the president of the Manitoba Social Credit League. She was defeated in the next general election in 1941 by Skuli Sigfusson. However, another Halldorson defeated Sigfusson in the following provincial election. Salome’s younger brother, Christian Halldorson, was first elected in 1946 and served three terms as the representative for St. George until his death in 1956. Unlike Salome, Christian was a member of the Liberal-Progressive party. Christian was born in Lundar in 1891 and was educated at the Manitoba Agricultural College. He served in World War I and upon his return he worked in the insurance industry prior to his election. Heidi Rees Head of Government Publications & Library Systems Manitoba Legislative Library 2 CANADIAN PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW/SUMMER 2019 Legislative Assembly of British Columbia Legislative Photo Credit: Stephanie Raymond, The Canadian Parliamentary Review was founded in 1978 to inform Canadian legislators about activities of the federal, provincial and territorial branches of the Canadian Region of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and to promote the study of and interest in Canadian parliamentary institutions. Contributions from legislators, former members, staff and all other persons interested in the objectives of the Review are welcome. The Review is published for the Canadian Region, CPA. Any opinions expressed are those of individual contributors and should not be attributed to any Branch of the Canadian Region. Editor Will Stos Layout Frank Piekielko Production Team Albert Besteman Claudette Henry Tiffany Ribeiro Kim Dean Bryony Livingston Wendy Reynolds The Inception of an International Grand Committee Yasuko Enosawa Joanne McNair Kay Samuels Alexandra Savoie and Maxime-Olivier Thibodeau...............2 Editorial Intern She Should Run: An Interview with Laura Ross Elena Senechal-Becker Interview by Elena Senechal-Becker ....................................7 Editorial Board François Arsenault (Chair) Tricorne Tweeting: Alberta’s Speaker Engages the Charles Robert (Deputy Chair) Public and Enhances Democracy Philip Massolin .....................................................................9 Blair Armitage Tonia Grannum Heather Lank Shannon Dean Kim Hammond Kate Ryan-Lloyd The Politics of Seat Reductions in Canadian Neil Ferguson Linda Kolody Michel Patrice Legislative Assemblies Danielle Labonté Alex Marland ....................................................................13 Subscriptions Reducing Seats in a Legislature Must Be Looked at in Four (4) issues in English or French Canada International Context $40.00 - $75.00 Lorraine Michael ................................................................18 Four (4) issues in English and French Canada $75.00 - International $125.00 Instead of Increasing Seats, Provide More Resources Cheques should be made payable to: to Members of Parliament Canadian Parliamentary Review Kellie Leitch ........................................................................21 Contact Insights into Being the Minister of Education Canadian Parliamentary Review Patrick Rouble ....................................................................24 c/o Ontario Legislative Library Queen’s Park CSPG Seminar: The #MeToo Movement and Toronto, ON M7A 1A9 Parliament E-Mail: [email protected] Charlie Feldman .................................................................30 Web: http://www.revparlcan.ca (New) http://www.revparl.ca “Open Parliament”: More Than Data Wendy Reynolds .................................................................33 Editor: (416) 325-0231 Fax: (416) 325-3505 CPA Activities ....................................................................35 E-Mail: [email protected] New and Notable Titles ..................................................43 Legal Deposit: National Library of Canada Legislative Reports ..........................................................45 ISSN 0229-2548 Cette revue est aussi disponible en français Lawrence O’Connor Doyle – Wit and Beheader of Eagles? David McDonald .................................................................68 CANADIAN PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW/AUTUMN 2019 1 Feature The Inception of an International Grand Committee Many issues studied by parliaments cross borders and boundaries. Concern about a major data breach involving social media users prompted similar parliamentary committee studies in both Canada and the United Kingdom. Information exchanged between the two committees and their willingness to work together paved the way for the inception of an International Grand Committee (IGC) – a series of meetings held by existing national-level parliamentary committees where parliamentarians from other countries are invited to participate. In this article, the authors outline the process to create the IGC, summarize two IGC meetings, and present comments on the IGC’s work by three Canadian parliamentarians who participated in these meetings. They conclude by noting the IGC meetings enabled parliamentarians from various countries to work together on issues of shared concern and importance, using existing national parliamentary committees as hosts and conduits for these international meetings; this structure differs from the work of multilateral interparliamentary assemblies. Alexandra Savoie and Maxime-Olivier Thibodeau Introduction Later reporting revealed that the number of Facebook profiles acquired by Cambridge Analytica On March 17, 2018, The Guardian and the New York was closer to 87 million and may have included the Times reported a data breach involving Cambridge profiles of approximately 600,000 Canadians.4 Analytica, a company founded in the United Kingdom (U.K.), and Facebook.1 When the data breach was reported in March 2018, the U.K. House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media With the help of Christopher Wylie, a Canadian and Sport Select Committee (the DCMS Committee) whistleblower who was a former employee of was already conducting an inquiry on disinformation Cambridge Analytica, the papers revealed that the and “fake news.”5 News of the breach led the DCMS company had scraped the data of over 50 million Committee to focus part of its inquiry on Cambridge Facebook users. The personal information collected Analytica and other parties involved in that scandal. had been used in various campaigns, including the 2016 presidential elections in the United States and The similarities between the Canadian and U.K. the referendum on the U.K.’s exit from the European parliamentary studies, in addition to the fact that Union (a process nicknamed “Brexit”).2 the whistleblower at the origin of the scandal was Canadian and that a Canadian company – Responding to this situation, Canada’s House AggregateIQ – was also involved, convinced the of Commons Standing Committee on Access to two committees to collaborate.6 Damian Collins, the Information, Privacy and Ethics (the Canadian Chair of the DCMS Committee, appeared before Committee) adopted a motion on March 22, 2018, to the Canadian Committee in April 2018 and both study “the privacy implications of platform monopolies committees exchanged information regarding their and possible national and international regulatory and respective work.7 legislative remedies to assure the privacy of citizens’ data and the integrity of democratic and electoral The unprecedented collaboration between the processes across the globe.”3 U.K. and Canadian parliamentary committees and their will to collaborate at an international level in a parliamentary setting led to the inception of an Alexandra Savoie and Maxime-Olivier Thibodeau are analysts “International Grand Committee” (IGC). with the Library of Parliament. 2 CANADIAN PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW/AUTUMN 2019 The term “grand committee” is not novel in the U.K. Meeting of the International Grand Committee in the Parliament. It is the name attributed to an existing United Kingdom forum. Current grand committees in that country include the Welsh Grand Committee, the Scottish Held on November 27, 2018, the inaugural IGC Grand Committee, the Northern Ireland Grand meeting included parliamentarians from Argentina, Committee, the Grand Committees: House of Lords Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Latvia, and the Regional Grand Committees.8 The purpose Singapore and the U.K. of a grand committee is to allow U.K. members of Parliament “to debate issues affecting their region.”9 Parliamentarians from other countries were formally In a similar fashion, the purpose of the IGC was to listed as witnesses to allow them to participate