UPDATED: Orders of the Day (01/05/09) - Memories of Order Papers Past

First, the numbers: Out of 62 bills introduced in the Commons, 30 received Royal Assent. (I didn't count the CN back to work legislation, since was mooted when the strike ended without intervention.) The tally for government bills in the Senate is similar, with three out of seven bills getting the nod from the Crown, for a final total of 33 out of 69, or just 48 percent -- which, if it were a grade, would be a failing one.

Curse that unelected, unaccountable Upper House? Sure, go ahead, if it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside, but it would seem that very few of the 35 now-at-least-temporarily defunct bills were actually victims of a stubbornly obstructionist Other Place. Three, to be precise: the oft-cited  consumer safety bill (C-6), and the drug sentencing bill (C-15), both of which did manage to make it to third reading in the Senate, but which were saddled with amendments that the government has preemptively - and forcefully - rejected, and C-26 (auto theft), which was sent to Legal and Constitutional Affairs at the end of October, where it remains -- or remained until prorogation -- under consideration.

(There's also the anti-spam bill -- C-27 -- which was referred to Transport and Communications on December 15th, but since the Senate adjourned the following day, it seems a little unfair to categorize its failure to make it through committee in less than 24 hours as evidence of widespread dysfunction, particularly since it took nearly six months to get from first to third reading in the House.)

As for the three government bills that were introduced in the Red Chamber,  S-8, which would establish tax conventions with Colombia, Greece and Turkey --  made it through third reading and was sent to the Commons on December 15;  S-6, which deals with how the Canada Elections Act treat loans to political parties and leadership candidates, and S-7, which would impose term limits on senators are still at second reading, and  S-5, which would repeal the gun registry had its first reading last spring but hasn't been seen since, although that could be the result of a strategic decision by the government to focus its efforts on the private members' bill instead.

Meanwhile, over in the Commons, a whopping seventeen bills have yet to make it through second reading, eight had been referred to committee, and an additional two were reported back just before the House rose for the holidays. (What's the hold up at committee, you ask? Turns out that's what happens when you send nearly every bill -- all but two of those still outstanding, to be precise -- to one of two committees; as a result, both Justice and Public Safety have ended up with a bit of a backlog.)  The rest are -- or were -- in limbo, awaiting report stage debate or third reading, the timing of which was entirely within the government's power. After all, with the exception of opposition days, it's the Government House Leader who sets the legislative agenda.