Mini-Review
PARTY WHIPS
Wolfgang Koerner
Political and Social Affairs Division
6 December 1988
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Library of
Parliament
Bibliotheque
du Parlement
esearc
84-21E
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CE DOCUMENT EST AUSSI
PUBLIE EN FRAN~AIS
t
CANADA
LiBRARY OF PARLIAMENT
BIBLIOTHEQUE DU PARLEMENT
PARTY WHIPS
The office of party whip developed as a result of the
necessity for maintaining party discipflne in Parflament, thereby ensuring
requisite majorities when needed, The Oxford Dictionary defines the whip
as a “member of a particular party in Parliament whose duty it is to secure
attendance of members of that party on the occasion of an important
division, originally called ‘whipper-~in’,“
The first use of the term in a
parliamentary context has been attributed to Edmund Burke, the British
parliamentarian, who, in 1769, described the intense lobbying over a
particular division as “whipping~in” of Members. However, some have traced
the use of the term back to 1621, when it was used in reference to a
document telling legislators which side to take on a question,
In the
House of Commons, whips of all
information on forthcoming business,
parties
supply
their
members
with
In Canada, the position of party whip has existed since
Confederation,
Unlike the case in Britain, it has not been Canadian
practice to appoint the Chief Government Whip to the Cabinet; nor was there
any official recognition of the office or remuneration for the duties
associated with it until 1963,
In 1963, an amendment to the Senate and
House of Commons Act provided for the payment of a yearly additional
allowance to the Chief Government Whip and the Chief Opposition Whip,
Currently, the Chief Government and Opposition Whips receive additional
allowances of $11,700, while the Chief Whips of other parties are entitled
to $6,700 in extra payment, In the Liberal and Conservative caucuses the
Chief Whips are appointed by the party leaders, while in the New Democratic
Party the Chief Whip is elected by caucus, It should also be noted that
appointment to the position of Chief Government Whip has not become a
“stepping stone” to the Cabinet.
UflANY OF PARUAMENT
BISUOTHtQUE DU PARLEMCNT
2
.
.
Some of the major activities of party whips in Canada
.
indude:
.
a) allocation of Members’ offices;
b) s&ection of
committees;
Members
to
serve
on
parliamentary
c) monitoring attendance of Members in the House of
Commons, and the preparation of a duty roster for
Members to ensure a parliamentary quorum;
d) organization of speakers in the House of Commons for
parliamentary debates;
.e) arranging of •parliamentary pairs”;
f) communication of information to Members regarding votes
and attendance in the House of Conmuons;
g) approving requests for Members to travel from Ottawa.
when the House of Commons is in session;
h) reconinendi ng Members to serve on parl i amentary del ega~
tions.
The duties of whips in Canada and Britain are similar but in
.
Canada the office does not have the same profile nor is it as important.
The party whip in this country has remained a relatively obscure member of
caucus with neither the level of moral authority nor the influence of his
British counterpart. In Britain , whips have played a far more important
role in inter-party negotiations and have assumed duties that in Canada
remain the purview of House Leaders. British House Leaders are not
directly involved in inter-party negotiations and there is no British equivalent of House Leaders’ meetings where the details of the parliamentary
timetable are negotiated. Therefore it is British Whips, rather than House
Leaders, who directly transmit important information and advice to the
party leader about parliamentary strategy and tactics. In Canada it is the
House Leaders who have become the principal channel of inter-party
communication; the whips’ role has become confined to transmitting the
House Leader’s directions to caucus members. Thus the status of the House
Leaders has become enhanced at the expense of that of the party whips.
.
USRARY OP PARUAMENT
SISUOTNEQUC DU PARLtM~NT
3
The rather subdued role of Canadian whips, as compared with
that of their British counterparts, is in part due to the relatively cohesive nature of Canadian political parties. Intra-party dissent, expressed
in the form of cross-party voting, is an even more rare occurrence in
Canada than in BritaIn. In Great Britain the whip constantly monitors
opinion within his caucus and strives to build support for the party position. In contrast, the whip in Canada structures his relations with the
caucus on the assumption that all Members will support the party position
and that his intervention to contain dissent will rarely be necessary.
Rather than canvassing Members, either privately or in small groups, the
Canadian whip uses the weekly caucus meeting to monitor currents of opinion
within the caucus. As a consequence, the role of the whip In Canada has
been compared to that of a policeman whose major responsibility is to
ensure that Members are present in the House to support the leadership of
the party . However , despite party cohesi on , the Chief Whi p must al ways be
prepared to advi se the Party Leader ~and the House Leader of the number of
Members present and accounted for within the caucus, as well as the number
of Members who are paired with a parliamentary colleague.
Staff in the whips’ offices are employed by the political
party and paid from funds authorized by Parliament. The position of the
Chief Co-ordinator helps increase the visibility of the whip’s office among
Members, and relieves the whip of the need to deal with many of the more
routi ne concerns and requests of Members • The more important ~duties of
whips’ offices can then be summarized as follows:
.
1. Members’ travels: All requests to travel, Outside of
Ottawa when the House of Commons is in session must be
approved by the. whip’s office and, for Cabinet
Ministers, by officials in the Prime Minister’s office.
.
2.
Preparation of attendance book: Each morning the Chief
Whip meets his staff to review the parliamentary
agenda, to discuss parliamentary strategy and tactics,
and to assess currents of opinion within both the
government and opposition caucuses.
Requests from
members to travel are reviewed, and by 11:00 am. each
day, the whip’s office prepares an “attendance sheet”
detailing the status of all members of the caucus for
that day.
USRARY OP PARUAMENT
BIRUOTNEQUE DU PARLEMENT
4.
.
After consulting the House Leader, the whip may direct
his staff to advise Members that they have been
instructed to return to Ottawa for a Parliamentary vote
or debate. Should a caucus member resist, the whip may
intervene directly.
3.
Parliamentary committees: It is the responsibility of
the whip’s office to assign Members to serve on parliameritary committees.
Members are canvassed by an
Official in the whip’s office to determine their
preferences, and considerable effort is made to place a
Member on at least one or two committees which interest
him. There will be occasions when it is impossible to
satisfy the requests of all Members, and the party whip
may be asked to intervene to consider a Member’s
request for a re-allocation of his committee assignments. Modifications to the Standing Orders of the
House of Coimnons which came into effect in January 1983
have eliminated the practice of permitting. an
“immediate” substitution for an absent Member. This
has placed more pressure on staff to ensure that
Members are present.
.
4.
Preparation of a duty roster:
One of the most
important continuing responsibilities of the Chief
Whips Is to ensure that there are sufficient Members
present in the House; to assist Members in organizing
their activities, it is the practice of all parties to
have the whip’s office prepare a duty roster indicating
when a Member’s presence in the House is required.
Within each caucus, Members are divided into groups and
assigned certain days of “House duty” per week.
5•• Report to’ caucus:
.
At each weekly caucus meeting, the
party whip will present his report to caucus. The
Whip~sRepo~.is an .impo~antevent because. it. is the
only occasion when the whip can speak to the entire
caucus. The whip will use the opportunity to advise
Members. of forthcoming votes and debates, and. to
encourage their attendance in the House. While it has
not been a practice to discuss the attentiveness of
particular Members. to their parliamentary duties, the
whip can use the occasion to build morale within the
caucus, and to encourage Members to participate more
effectively in committees or in debates within the
House itself.
URRARY OP PARUAMENT
RISUOTHEQUC DU PARLEMENT
5
6. Monitoring activities of Members: In recent years, the
whips of all three parties have maintained records
which monitor the attentiveness of caucus Members to
their parliamentary duties.
All three party whips
direct their staffs to document a Member’s voting
record and his attendance in the House and in
committees