Organization of the Parliamentary Day – Setting the Agenda

This lesson highlights the many responsibilities parliamentarians are tasked with and requires students to consider how they would manage a Senator or MP’s schedule as a parliamentary assistant.

Objective

Students will identify and describe the main events of a parliamentary day in the Senate and in the House of Commons and learn how Parliamentarians manage their many responsibilities and commitments.

Time

50–70 minutes

Lesson

  1. Let students choose whether to be parliamentary assistants to a senator or to an MP, or assign the roles.
  2. Direct students to work through the Setting the Agenda online resource individually or in small groups, fitting the different activities mentioned into the parliamentarian's schedule and prioritizing when necessary.

Assessment

  • Class discussion or an activity should address one or both of the following questions:
    1. How did you categorize the requests and set priorities?
    2. How did your impressions of a parliamentarian's work change as a result of this exercise?