Question Period

I'd make a rule that says there must be at least 48 question periods in a calendar year.
I'd make a further rule that says the prime minister must attend at least 36 of these. Deviations from this are subject to penalty.

For every week Parliament sits (defined as "at least 3 consecutive days", but "not more than 7 consecutive days starting on a sunday and ending on a saturday") there will be at least one question period. There can also not be more than 3 question periods in any given week. Deviations from this are subject to penalty.

The number of Question Periods in a week should be fairly consistent throughout the calendar year. If Parliament sits for 24 weeks, each week should have 2 periods. If Parliament sits for 36 weeks, each week should alternate between 1 and 2 periods.
Only two complimentary breaks of this are permitted. That means in a 24 week parliament only one week may have 3 Question Periods and only one week may have 1 Question Period. Deviations from this are subject to penalty.

(TL;DR = Must be regular but [more] rare [than it is now])




Each question period will last for exactly 1 hour. At the end of question period, any question or answer currently in progress will be allowed to finish. Question period begins when the speaker calls on the leader of the opposition, or their surrogate, to ask the first question. Statements by members are not counted in the 1 hour long question period.

Quorum for Question Period shall be
At least 2/5ths of all sitting members of the Governing Caucus
At least 2/5ths of all "Governing Members"
At least 2/5ths of all members of each Opposition Caucus, with one exception, so long as 2/5ths of all opposition members are in attendance.
And 2/5ths of all members combined, including the Governing Caucus, the Opposition Caucus, and Independent Members.
One opposition caucus, in part or full, may decline to attend without penalty
Deviations from this are subject to penalty.
Failure to obtain and maintain quorum shall result in Question Period being cancelled for the day. Should Quorum not be met, even after 55 minutes where it has been met, the Question Period shall be judged to have not taken place for the purposes of applying penalty.

(TL;DR = 60 minutes for questions alone, no statements; and 2/5ths of members must attend.)



Governing Members includes Cabinet, Parliamentary Secretaries, Government House Leaders, and other such officially sanctioned positions. (IE, anyone qualified to answer question)

Governing Caucus is defined as any group of members of any party, alliance of parties, or alliance of members, that make up the official Cabinet.

Opposition Caucus is defined as any group of members of any party, alliance of parties, or alliance of members, that make up the Official Opposition caucus, the 3rd party caucus, and any Additional Opposition caucuses.

Independent Members is defined as  any group of members of any party, alliance of parties, or alliance of members, or individual member without a party, alliance of parties, or any alliance with other members, who is not in an official caucus.

Official Opposition caucus is defined as any group of members of any party, alliance of parties, or alliance of members, who are not part of the Governing Caucus, but who hold the largest number of seats in Parliament, if greater than 2 seats, excepting the Governing Caucus, which can not also hold the title of another caucus, and who consent to the role of Official Opposition. In the event of a numerical tie for this position, Parliament as a whole may break the tie through a simple majority vote.

3rd party caucus is defined as any group of members of any party, alliance of parties, or alliance of members, who are not part of the Governing Caucus, and Official Opposition caucus but who hold the largest number of seats in Parliament, if greater than 2 seats, excepting the Governing Caucus, and Official Opposition caucus, which can not also hold the title of another caucus. In the event of a numerical tie for this position, Parliament as a whole may break the tie through a simple majority vote.

Additional Opposition caucuses are possible separate and additional groupings, defined as any group of members of any party, alliance of parties, or alliance of members, who are not part of the Governing Caucus, Official Opposition caucus, and 3rd party caucus, but who hold the largest number of seats in Parliament, if fewer than 10% of seats but with the consent of 2/3rds of Parliament, or if greater than 10% of all available seats in the House of Commons, excepting the Governing Caucus, Official Opposition caucus, and 3rd party caucus, which can not also hold the title of another caucus.

(TL;DR = This means there will always be at least 3 official parties, and that for there to be a 4th official party, it needs to have at least 34 seats IE 10%)






Penalties for breaking these rules would be progressively less funding for parliamentary activities of the offending party.

IE if the PM only makes 35, their party would have their funding slashed by .5%, if the PM misses 2 it would be an additional cut of 1% on top of the .5, if the PM misses 3 it would be an additional cut of 1.5% on top of the existing 1.5%. These are just examples, the actual numbers would be worked out so that if the government missed half or more, their funding would be slashed by 90%. They could only get around this if the opposition agrees; in the event of, for example, a crisis.

Question Period also relies on enough opposition members showing up and asking questions; as such, if two or more parties boycott, it is they who suffer the penalty.

(TL;DR = Skip QP and face financial penalties from reduced commons funding)