Simply because I thought a minister couldn’t possibly have time to sit in parliament, even only for votes (I’d be curious to know how many votes there might be in a year, for instance).
I had no clue there was such a thing as a deputy minister actually doing the minister’s day to day job.
I also had no clue about the pairing system.
Thanks all for your answers.
While the House is in session, votes are a near daily event. Each bill goes through 1st reading (pro forma introduction), second reading (discussion in principle); referral to committee and then the consideration of the committee’s report; and then third reading.
The practice in each chamber will vary, but there can be procedural motions (eg a motion to delay consideration of the bill) and motions of a substantial nature, usually in committee, to amend the bill.
As a practical matter, if the government has a majority, most of those votes will be voice votes: the Speaket calls the vote for the “yeas” and then the “nays” and will then say , “in my opinion, the [yeas or nays, whichever the Gov’t members are voting] have it” and they move on.
If the government doesn’t have a clear majority, or if the Opposition wants to make a point about a particular vote, they can then call for a recorded division, where the members must vote individually.
In the Canadian House of Commons, that is done by the Speaker first calling for the “yeas”. Every MP who is present and supports the motion stands up, and the Clerk of the House then calls each one out in seniority, starting with the PM or Leader of the Opposition, depending on which side is voting “yea.” As soon ad a member’s vote is recorded, they sit down.
By custom, members are never addressed by name, but by their constituency, so the Clerk would say e.g., “The Honourable Member for Calgary-Centre”, and the Prime Minister, whose vote has just been recorded, sits down and the Clerk calls the next senior Cabinet Minister. Once all the “yeas” have been recorded, the Speaker calls the “nays” and the process is repeated. The Clerk then tallies the votes, and hands them to the Speaker, who announces the outcome. That recorded vote is published in the Commons’ Journal.
In Britain, a recorded division is even more cumbersome. The members vote physically, with those supporting going to one end of the chamber and those opposing going to the other end.
Those type of formal divisions are good theatre, but they don’t happen that often, particularly with a majority government.
As mentioned, a cabinet minister could be a member of the House of Lords (Britain) or the Senate (called the chamber of “sober” second thought) in Canada. This is awkward but legal, since a Lord/Senator cannot normally be present in the House, and cannot certainly take the floor and answer questions. Either the opposition party has their lordly members ask the questions (not as fun) or IIRC there is a stand-in for the minister who can answer his questions and is a member of the House.
The tradition goes back to when the King would choose members from his assemblies (Commons and Lords) to help him run the parts of his government, and these ministers would then answer questions of the rest of their House.
Notably, the Commons has dissolved into a sideshow, especially in Canada; the ministers, going back to Trudeau’s days, used to delight in being clever and avoiding direct answers. Meanwhile, most of the decisions were made by the Prime Minister and his inner circle of ministers, aided and abetted by the highest level of the civil service. In some cases, ministers were appointed for show (gotta have one minister at least from each province) despite singular lack of competence, and the PM Office and the civil service made sure things were done.
Often, in a majority parliament with Canada’s winner take all ridings, the winning party has a comfortable majority and ministers can afford to skip votes secure in the knowledge there are enough votes without them. When it’s a minority or things get tight, the Whip earns his pay. (Many years ago the opposition pulled the trick where members on the opposition were hiding behind the drapes on the opposition side. the leader called for a quick vote and won because nobody could find enough government MP’s. The government was embarrassed but a subsequent formal confidence vote they easily won.)
“While the House is in session”, yeah, but you forgot to mention that the sessions make up just 26 weeks of the year – a kind of fantasy job, if only the rest of us could have it so good! 