Notice of Commotion

In the early 1970s, as a parliamentary intern, I discovered a secret known to all. Selling liquor was banned, theoretically, in the buildings of the House of Commons, but a blind pig was used by many. It was operated, ostensibly undercover, for six decades by the Parliamentary Press Gallery. Thither were Hill staffers sent for refreshments, especially in those distant times when the Commons held nightly sittings, a practice subsequently abolished, in no small measure because of the arrival of more female members of Parliament.

Night sittings featured a gaggle of MPs who gave speeches or talked among themselves, read newspapers, handled correspondence, heckled those from other parties — behaviour that sometimes reflected the influence of libations from the unsanctioned bar. MPs on night duty knew that the media considered these sittings to be a sideshow to the main event of afternoon Question Period and debates. Very often just a single Canadian Press reporter looked...