FIVE THINGS ABOUT HOUSE RULES

1 WAR OF WORDS

“Parliamentary government is war by other means,” says Ned Franks, the dean of Canadian parliamentary procedure from his home in Kingston, Ont. The rules, said Franks, are what you can get away with, as adjudicated by the Speaker. “You’ve got basic human emotions and struggles between two clear sides — one for, one against — and fortunately, it’s a war of words. Four hundred years ago it was a war of people.”

2 RULES & THEN SOME

There are actually three sets of rules, including the formal Canadian Constitution, the written rules of Parliament and the unwritten conventions. The written rules can be found in the House of Commons Procedure and Practice, Second Edition 2009, which runs 1,520 pages and includes almost 7,000 footnotes.

3 DON’T SWEAR, SIR

Among the rules of order and decorum, “the use of offensive, provocative or threatening language in the House is strictly forbidden.” Assault is also verboten, as you would expect. But there’s plenty more. “Members do not refer to one another by their names but rather by title, position or constituency name in order to guard against all tendency to personalize debate.” Also, don’t even think about speaking disrespectfully of the Queen.

4 CONTEMPTIBLE

As Conservative MP Peter Kent, a former journalist, put it Thursday, Parliament is built on “centuries of democratic evolution,” including accumulated precedents, interpretations and “ancient custom.” The prime minister’s behaviour should be treated as contempt of Parliament, he said.

5 CONTEMPTIBLE II

“The temporary delay of the Opposition whip at the other end of the House (by the NDP) may in itself have been ruled a contempt of Parliament,” Kent said.