Jun 5, 2026 · 49 min · 11 segments
Has this been a shorter-than-usual legislative session at Queen's Park? Does it even matter? Hosts Steve Paikin and John Michael McGrath find out, discuss whether they're convinced by the reasons of…
Steve PaikinHost
MPPs have a winter and then spring sitting, then they break for the summer, then they come back in the fall and do it all over again.
But this year's version of the Ontario government is doing things a little differently.
Their spring sitting was unusually short, and now their summer break is going to be a marathon.
So as you said, the spring sitting was already shorter than usual, and, and when we say shorter than usual, I, I am using the, the baseline here of, uh, the calendar that is set out in the legislature's standing orders, right? The, the document that is supposed to spell out the, the normal rules, uh, of, of how the legislative session is supposed to be organized, and it includes basically a, a default setting for the legislative calendar.
So normally, MPPs would have, uh, returned to Queen's Park after Family Day in February.
Uh, the, the PC majority voted on Tuesday to adjourn the House and not return until October 27th, the day after municipal elections.
The legislature sat for just 30 days in the spring, and even if they sit for all of the remaining days in the calendar, uh, as set out in the standing orders, uh, that will be just 23 more days for a combined total of 53 sitting days in all of 2026.
Uh, that makes it by far the shortest legislative year outside of an election year since 1974, and, uh, it may in fact be longer than that, but that's how far the legislature's easily accessible, uh, records go back.
The average for all years since 1974 is 85 sitting days, and if you exclude election years, it is 92.
So this year, the legislature will sit for just a bit more than half of the average length from the last 50 years.
Uh, and I, I, I have lots of well-informed and, and, and, uh, gracious, uh, followers on social media, but like any good journalist, I had to check it out, and I went back to the legislature's, uh, numbers, and yes.
MPPs have a winter and then spring sitting, then they break for the summer, then they come back in the fall and do it all over again.
But this year's version of the Ontario government is doing things a little differently.
Their spring sitting was unusually short, and now their summer break is going to be a marathon.
So as you said, the spring sitting was already shorter than usual, and, and when we say shorter than usual, I, I am using the, the baseline here of, uh, the calendar that is set out in the legislature's standing orders, right? The, the document that is supposed to spell out the, the normal rules, uh, of, of how the legislative session is supposed to be organized, and it includes basically a, a default setting for the legislative calendar.
So normally, MPPs would have, uh, returned to Queen's Park after Family Day in February.
Uh, the, the PC majority voted on Tuesday to adjourn the House and not return until October 27th, the day after municipal elections.
The legislature sat for just 30 days in the spring, and even if they sit for all of the remaining days in the calendar, uh, as set out in the standing orders, uh, that will be just 23 more days for a combined total of 53 sitting days in all of 2026.
Uh, that makes it by far the shortest legislative year outside of an election year since 1974, and, uh, it may in fact be longer than that, but that's how far the legislature's easily accessible, uh, records go back.
The average for all years since 1974 is 85 sitting days, and if you exclude election years, it is 92.
So this year, the legislature will sit for just a bit more than half of the average length from the last 50 years.
Uh, and I, I, I have lots of well-informed and, and, and, uh, gracious, uh, followers on social media, but like any good journalist, I had to check it out, and I went back to the legislature's, uh, numbers, and yes.
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