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Tory MP Michael Chong’s bid to give MPs more power elicits lively debate

Tory MP Michael Chong introduced his highly anticipated private members bill, Tuesday, that would give individual MPs more power at the expense of their party leaders.

As explained by CTV News, the "Act to amend the Canada Elections Act and the Parliament of Canada Act (reforms)" would:

- give MPs the power to trigger a leadership review

- give MPs the power to oust a leader if 50 per cent plus one of the caucus desires

- allow MPs to select committee chairs and give them decision making powers with regard to who to retain or to boot-out of caucus

- takeaway a leaders' power to sign-off on election candidates

At a press conference, Tuesday morning, Chong says that his proposals would reinforce the principles of responsible government, would make the executive more accountable to the legislature and make sure that party leaders maintain the confidence of their caucuses.

"Since confederation, numerous and gradual changes have eroded the power of the Member of Parliament and centralized in the party leadership structures," he said.

"As a result, the ability of Members of Parliament to carry out their function has been curtailed by these structures. The Reform Act proposes to address this problem by restoring power in the role of the elected Member of Parliament."

Chong insisted that this bill was not an indictment of Stephen Harper noting that the Conservative leader has his full confidence.

He added that his proposed reforms are similar to current practices in other Westminster parliaments.

"There have been suggestions that the changes proposed in the bill would lead to more frequent changes in government or frequent changes in leadership or more frequent elections. That is simply not the case," Chong said.

"The academic research shows that the rules proposed in this bill, which are currently enforced in the United Kingdom, in Australia and New Zealand, create no more instability than the rules we currently operate under."

If passed, the bill will not take effect until after the 2015 election.

[ Related: Conservative MP Michael Chong makes bid to fix Parliament ]

Over the past week, Chong's PMB has elicited much debate.

The National Post's Andrew Coyne suggested that this bill would significantly change Parliament.

"Should it pass, Parliament would never be the same again. The bill would fundamentally recast the relationship between party leaders and caucuses, and with it the whole structure of our politics. The balance of power would shift, irrevocably, in favour of MPs and their riding associations, and away from the leaders and their apparatchiks. In sum, this is a vastly consequential bill, and fully deserving of the historical echoes in its short title: The Reform Act 2013.

The Huffington Post's J.J. McCullough suggests that the bill would simply transfer power from the hands of one small clique - the PMO — to a different small clique — "a tiny gang of MPs."

[The motion]..proposes giving the inner elite of Canada's political parties the power to overturn the public's clearly expressed preference for who should be PM. Under the terms of his redundantly-named Act to amend the Canada Elections Act and the Parliament of Canada Act, if, at any moment, just over 50 per cent of the MPs of the prime minister's party vote to turf a democratically-elected PM, out he goes. Though the bill wouldn't take effect until after the next federal election, just to give a sense of the numbers we're talking here, 50 per cent-plus-one of all current Conservative MPs is just 81 people.

Pundits' Guide Alice Funke questions the bill's efficacy and argues that MPs already have the ability to remove an unpopular leader.

"The Bill would formalize in legislation a party caucus’ ability to call for and effect a leadership review. I say formalize, because there is nothing in the law currently preventing party caucuses from doing this very thing now, and indeed they have done so frequently in our current system: Joe Clark was pushed into a leadership review, Michel Gauthier was pushed out as leader by the Bloc Québécois caucus, a good part of Stockwell Day’s caucus left him and the Canadian Alliance and joined the remainder of the Tories instead. And a significant group of Paul Martin backers were hatching plots to oust Jean Chrétien as Liberal leader and Prime Minister.

I commend all the debate and discussion on how to strengthen our democracy, but what would really get me excited is a bill to end the use of Omnibus legislation and time allocation. Maybe then we could start properly debating some of the issues that really affect Canadians."

There are also concerns that the bill would take power away from political party members — who vote-in a leader.

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It's unclear whether or not Chong's bill has any hope of passing.

As reported by the Huffington Post, the Liberals have invited Chong to a caucus committee meeting to discuss the bill while the New Democrats have withheld judgement.

Chong said he's looking forward to vigorous debate with his Conservative colleagues at the weekly caucus meeting on Wednesday.

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