Carleton held an orientation session on Jan. 19 and 20 for newly elected Members of Parliament (MPs) to help them get up to speed with their new roles and responsibilities in Ottawa.
“I just hope that we can shorten the period until they become effective and more quickly give them a better sense of the key players in Ottawa,” said Maureen Boyd, director of the Carleton Initiative for Parliamentary and Diplomatic Engagement.
The orientation was meant to give the new MPs a better understanding of how the Supreme Court functions, the role of the Governor General, and the key players in Ottawa, Boyd said.
The session was planned for the week before the House of Commons resumes sitting.
At the event, titled “Your House, Your Time,” MPs heard from various speakers, including the CEO of the National Capital Commission (NCC), and toured Earnscliffe, the British high commissioner’s house in Ottawa.
“MPs do find this valuable and they’re making contacts and thinking about things that perhaps they wouldn’t be doing for quite a bit longer,” Boyd said.
She said Carleton also hosted the orientation to remind MPs and diplomats of the support the university can provide them.
“Carleton is incredibly lucky to be in the capital and it’s a tremendous resource for the Parliament of Canada,” Boyd said.
“We want to be able to be a support to MPs and the diplomatic community as much as possible,” she added.
Audrey O’Brien, the clerk of the House of Commons, was a member of a panel on how Ottawa works, and said she thought the session was useful for MPs new to the city.
“I think it can take a different perspective and it can be slightly looser than what the House itself can do,” O’Brien said.
This is the second MP orientation Carleton has hosted. The first one was held after the federal election in 2011.
Boyd said she received positive feedback last time from a number of MPs, including Jean Charest, the former premier of Quebec.
He said he wished there had been something similar when he was first elected to the House in 1984.
Each party’s elected MPs were invited to the orientation but most of the attendees were Liberals, Boyd said.
This is due to the party’s majority in the House, and was the opposite in 2011 when the Conservative Party held a majority.
No New Democratic Party MPs attended, as the party held its caucus meeting at the same time.
Boyd said planning for the event started in May 2015, before the election was held, to work out possible dates.
Both the Conservatives and Liberals promised not to hold a caucus meeting at the same time as Carleton’s orientation.
Carleton president Roseann Runte spoke to the new MPs at a breakfast on Jan. 20, the second day of the orientation.
She offered attendees the support of the university and invited them to visit campus and engage with Carleton.
“Our mission is your mission and together we can make Canada an even better country than it is,” Runte said.
