DCHP-2

bell-ringing DCHP-2 (June 2016)

• n. — Politics

  the ringing of bells to call members of a legislative assembly to a vote.

  Type: 5. Frequency — In Canada, and other countries governed by the British parliamentary system (the Westminster system), bell-ringing calls members to vote when a recorded vote (also called a recorded division) is required. All other work stops while members make their way to the appropriate chamber. The party Whips (members who are in charge of getting members to vote) are expected to appear at the end of the bell-ringing to bow to each other and the Speaker, signalling they are ready to vote.
  In the Parliament of Canada bell-ringing now has a maximum length of either 15 or 30 minutes, depending on the type of motion and if the vote has been scheduled or not. These time limits were set after an episode in March 1982, where the bells rang continuously for over two weeks because the Opposition Whip refused to enter the Chamber (see the 1982 quotation; see also Parliament of Canada reference). The term is used throughout the Commonwealth, but has cultural significance in the North American context and, as Chart 1 shows, is more frequent in Canada than elsewhere.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "bell-ringing", which is marked "Cdn".

  See also: prorogue  

  • 1967  The Conservative Leader charged that the extended bell-ringing had turned the Commons into a puppet show. "I protest with all the force at my command. There is no Parliament in the British parliamentary system which would countenance a delay of this extent, wasting the time of members of Parliament for the benefit of a Government which was frightened." 
  • 1982  After 15 days of bell-ringing and a few more days of discussion, the federal Government and the opposition parties have agreed to divide the proposed Energy Security Act into eight parts. Good sense has prevailed -- a rare enough occurrence in recent weeks to merit special notice. 
  • 1989  No sooner had the bells stopped echoing in the marble halls of the Saskatchewan legislature Monday than the Conservative government moved to prevent extended bell-ringing in the future. 
  • 1990  Refusal of an opposition to show up for a vote (commonly called "bell ringing") has been virtually outlawed as a delaying tactic [...]. 
  • 1997  But they are giving parliamentary filibuster a bad name by forcing hours of bell-ringing [...] clearly to tie up the House. 
  • 2006  [...]he engineered the famous "bell-ringing" incident in which the Tories refused to heed the division bells summoning them to a vote on the government's omnibus energy bill, bringing the Commons to a halt for 15 days [....] 
  • 2007  Several times the government tried to speed things up by asking that the bell-ringing time between votes be reduced to one minute. 
  • 2011  [What has happened over time is that whenever the opposition has found ways to use existing procedural rules to stymie the progress of Government business, the Standing Orders have been amended in order to either close that option or else introduce a new measure that would allow the Government to curtail it in some way. For example, in 1982, the Progressive Conservatives resorted to a filibuster tactic to block the Government’s Energy Security Bill. At that time, the Standing Orders provided no time limit for bells rung for unscheduled votes. A recorded vote was demanded on a motion to adjourn. The Opposition Whip refused to accompany the Government Whip into the Chamber to indicate to the Speaker their readiness to proceed with the vote. Consequently, the division bells rang continuously for over 14 days (Debates, March 2, 1982, pp. 15539-41; March 18, 1982, pp. 15555-7). As a result of this episode, the Standing Orders were amended so that now, division bells can ring for a maximum of either 15 or 30 minutes. Once they stop ringing, the vote proceeds, as long as the required quorum is present.] 
  • 2016  Omnibus bills became controversial only fairly recently in parliamentary history. The first recorded objection in the House of Commons to an omnibus bill was in 1953 and we have to wait until Pierre Trudeau's omnibus criminal law bill in 1967 for any further serious objections. In the 1970s, objections became more frequent, reaching their apex in 1982 with the famous "bell ringing" incident when the Progressive Conservative opposition succeeded in shutting Parliament for two weeks to protest against the Liberals' omnibus energy bill.