By Paige Robert – Contributor

On Thursday, March 21, the House of Commons was brought to life in St. Mark’s Chapel, where Prof. Jacob Robbins-Kanter led his Introduction to Canadian Politics class in a mock parliament. The chapel, which is commonly a place for peace and prayer, was transformed into a scene where the Speaker of the House demanded order numerous times, played by Prof. Robbins-Kanter himself. 

Students’ seats were arranged by their party affiliation, which consisted of the Liberals, Conservatives, NDP, Bloc Québécois and the Green Party. Many students chose to wear professional attire or a colour affiliated with their party. They played roles including members of parliament (MPs), cabinet ministers, committee chairs, rapporteurs and the current prime minister.

Opposition MPs took advantage of 45 seconds to ask the prime minister and fellow cabinet ministers questions about pressing subjects in Canada: inflation, climate change, healthcare, housing, Indigenous relations, gender equality and more. The honourable ministers had an equal amount of time to defend and explain the policies and actions for which they were responsible. Opposition members could then take an additional 15 seconds to raise a follow-up question in response. 

When asked about his experience, Antoine Tremblay, a third-year education student, mentioned he watched YouTube videos of question periods beforehand. He said: “It wasn’t what I expected. I had to actively put myself in the question period mindset to come up with an appropriate question.” He was compelled to rewrite his question to emulate the competitive, heckling environment that is shown on social media platforms. This was certainly captured during the simulation as many students shouted phrases like “shame” and “answer the question” during opposition statements. 

The line of questioning was followed by a roll call vote on the motion to “resolve that the federal carbon tax be repealed immediately and in all provinces”. The motion passed with a 20-19 vote.

History professor Jean Manore and Prof. Trygve Ugland, the department chairperson of politics and international studies, posed challenging media questions to each political party to close the mock parliament. “How embarrassed are you for losing the vote today?” Prof. Ugland unmercifully asked the Liberal Party during media questions. Other honorary guests included SRC President Sophia Stacey and experiential learning coordinator Bassam Chiblak. 

When asked about the purpose of implementing an experiential learning component into the 100-level course, Prof. Robbins-Kanter said that in politics courses, there was a lot of value in “putting yourselves in the shoes of different political actors, trying to understand the different political interests and ideas that are at stake.” 

Tremblay said that “to think of the question and consider the response. . .puts you in the mind of an MP, [which] is something you can’t teach in a lecture or a PowerPoint.” Tremblay mentioned that he could see himself pursuing a career in law in the future, as he “enjoys public speaking” but had difficulty envisioning himself in the realm of politics. He stated, however, that “the experience has made [him] more inclined to go into politics.”

Prof. Robbins-Kanter also added, “I think it is especially interesting to put yourself in the position of political actors that you don’t necessarily naturally agree or align with or even know a lot about.” This was the case for Tremblay and probably many other students.