Abstention

Refusal to vote for or against a motion. Members are not obliged to vote and the records of the House take no official notice of such a refusal.; a list of paired members is appended if necessary to every division list in the Journals and Debates.

AcclamationAbstention

Refusal to vote for or against a motion. Members are not obliged to vote and the records of the House take no official notice of such a refusal.; a list of paired members is appended if necessary to every division list in the Journals and Debates.A member is said to be elected or returned by acclamation when no other candidate has come forward at an election and no vote is held.

Act of Parliament

A bill which has been passed by the Provincial Legislature has received the Premier's assent and has been proclaimed in the Government Gazette. Unless a provision of the Act specifies otherwise, the Act comes into force on the date of the Premier's assent.

Adjournment of debate

Often a dilatory tactic which may be employed to delay progress on a question. If a motion to adjourn a debate is adopted, the item is not dropped from the Order Paper but may be taken up again on a later day.
Compare: sine die adjournment motion
Distinguish: adjournment proceedings

Adjournment of the House

The termination by the House of its own sitting (either by motion or pursuant to a Standing or Special Order) for any period of time within a session. The House may adjourn for a few minutes or for several months.

Agenda

A list of the items of business to be dealt with during a sitting of the House or of one of its committees.

Amending Act

An Act of Parliament whose sole purpose is to modify another Act or Acts which have already been adopted. Restrictions exist on the type of amendments which may be proposed to the bills leading to amending Acts.

Amendment

An alteration proposed to a motion, a stage or clause of a bill, or to a committee report. It may attempt to present an improved formulation of the proposition under consideration or to provide an alternative to it.

Ancillary motion

A subsidiary motion, such as a motion for the second reading of a bill or for concurrence in a committee report, dependent on an order already made by the House.