OTTAWA — A Conservative backbench MP's bill designed to restore a measure of power to MPs in Parliament has passed another critical hurdle.
A Commons committee has finished its study of Michael Chong's Reform Act 2014, meaning it will now go back to the House for two more hours of debate and a third-reading vote in the new year.
Conservatives on the committee passed a series of amendments to the private member's bill that were consistent with changes that Chong himself had proposed as a way to get all-party backing.
If passed, the bill would explicitly give MPs the power over such decisions such as suspending and reinstating colleagues, electing a caucus chair, initiating a leadership review and even ousting the leader.
Each party's group of MPs would have to vote to adopt such new rules after each election, vote to create their own version of the rules, or else elect to stick with the status quo.
Chong has been a proponent of strengthening the role of parliamentarians, in the face of increasingly powerful and controlling leader's offices.
The MP said he is happy to see the bill enter its final phase in the Commons, but noted it must still get through the Senate before Parliament adjourns in June in advance of the fall election.
