The Daily Program

Oral Questions

Oral Question Period indisputably receive the most media attention of any of Parliament’s activities. Forty-five minutes long, it is part of every normal sitting of the House, coming immediately after Statements by Members.

The Speaker’s role during Question Period is to ensure that the rules of order and procedure are followed; it is not his or her role to comment on the content of the answers, or their usefulness.

The Standing Orders provide that questions must be on “matters of urgency” and addressed to a Minister of the Crown. During his term, Speaker Fraser was called upon to rule on whether certain of these questions were in order or not. Ten rulings are included in this section of the chapter.

One important ruling found that questions about Order-in-Council appointments were in order even if the appointment at issue had been referred to a parliamentary committee. Speaker Fraser also ruled that backbench Members of the governing party could, like their Opposition counterparts, pose legitimate questions to the Government, bearing in mind at the same time that the main purpose of Question Period was to make the Government accountable for its actions.