Parliamentary Decorum Quotes

… the scene of noise and uproar which the House of Commons now exhibits is perfectly disgusting. This used not to be the case in better, or at lease more gentlemanlike, times; no noises were permissible but the cheer and the cough, the former admitting every variety of intonation expressive of admiration, approbation, assent, denial, surprise, indignation, menace, sarcasm. Now all the musical skill of this instrument is lost and drowned in shouts, hootings, groans, noises of the most discordant that the human throat can emit, sticks and feet beating against the floor.

I want us to war over principles, policies, programs and alternative visions of the future ... but I want us to be able to do that without turning the place [the House of Representatives] into a political Beirut.

Parliament is supposed to be serious. It's not a place for jingoistic cheering.

Anyone who has ever spent time listening to a legislature knows the astonishing speed at which all presiding officers and reading clerks can spit out the formulaic incantations of parliamentary procedure.

When they are 50 yards from Parliament Hill, they are no longer honourable members, they are just nobodies.

People do not use foul language in the House of Commons chamber. They just don't do it, and I don't, either.

The essence of debate in Parliament is spontaneous.

As leader of the House, I seek to do exactly that, treating all members of Parliament with courtesy and respect.

When it comes to legislative inquiry there are no rules and actually the sky is the limit. I can ask a witness almost any question under the canopy of heaven and if one of my colleagues should intrude, I can say "you mind your own business and I'll mind mine.

Senator, we just don't use that kind of language on the floor of the Senate.

It is important that the decorum and dignity of the House is upheld at all times. The image of Parliament in the public mind should be one where proceedings, debates and discussions take place with a view to resolve issues through a constructive and co-operative approach.

I entered the House of Commons in 1832. The moral standard of legislation has been raised; that of personal conduct lowered...

You can hardly say boo to a goose in the House of Commons now without cries of "Ungentlemanly," "Not fair" and all the rest.