How secret ballots could make Parliament more democratic

Sunday January 17, 2016

The House is back after the winter break on Monday, Jan. 25. What issues are our panelists following in the first weeks back? Emmanuelle Latraverse and Joel-Denis Bellavance discuss. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

It is a feature of Canadian democracy that if you are so inclined, you can check how your member of parliament has voted. 

Canada's parliamentary website offers that access, and thanks to the federal New Democrats in recent years it has become even more accessible. 

There are even a few independent websites — like openparliament.ca and votes.mp — which attempt to increase transparency by making voting records more user-friendly. 

But the Ottawa Citizen's Kady O'Malley sees merit in a little less transparency in the House of Commons. 

She argues secret ballots for parliamentary "housekeeping" issues like time allocations or splitting bills would allow members of parliament to vote as individuals and be free of reprimand from their parties. 

Under the Conservatives, time allocation motions - motions that were used to shut down debate - were literally used for virtually every piece of legislation. And I have to think that on particular issues, there were Conservative MPs who weren't super duper comfortable with being asked every two or three days to vote to shut down debate.