Manitoba Speech and Debate Association
 Rules of Parliamentary Debate
(Last modified June, 2004)

1) The debate will be presided over by Mr or Madam Speaker.

2) The government team (the side in favour) shall sit on the right hand side of the Speaker. The Opposition (the side against) shall sit on the left.

3) The speaking order will be as follows: the Prime Minister, followed by the Leader of the Opposition, then the Minister of the crown (second Government speaker) and finally the Critic (second opposition speaker). There will then be a break of 2 minutes. After the break the Leader of the Opposition will deliver his/her rebuttal. Finally the Prime Minister will deliver the Government rebuttal.

4) Speaking times will usually be 6 minutes for the major speeches, 3 minutes for rebuttals. These times may be altered for some events.

5) During the rebuttal speech, members (debaters) may not bring up any new arguments or new evidence except in direct refutation of material that has already been presented.

6) All remarks must be addressed to the Speaker of the House and not to anyone else, e.g. say "Mr Speaker" not " Mr. Speaker, honourable judges".The member must address Mr Speaker in his/her first sentence.

7) Other members (debaters and members of the audience) should be referred to by their constituency (e.g. the member for their last name or their city), office (e.g. the prime minister) or as "The Honourable Member" or "The Honourable Gentleman"  or "The Honourable Lady". They may be referred to as he or she but never you.

8) Members will speak only when called upon by the Speaker, except for points of order, privilege and heckles.

9) Points of order are raised when the person speaking has broken the rules of the house. Typical reasons for points of order are going significantly overtime, failure to address Mr Speaker, addressing someone other than Mr Speaker (e.g. referring to your opponents as you), using inappropriate language or introducing new arguments in the rebuttal.

10) Points of privilege are raised if a member has been misquoted, significantly  misrepresented or personally insulted.
 
11) Points of order or points of privilege are raised while another member has the floor (i.e. is speaking).

12) If a member wishes to raise a point of order or privilege, he/she should stand and say " Point of order, Mr Speaker" or "Point of Privilege, Mr Speaker". The person who was delivering his/her speech must stop talking and Mr Speaker will ask the member what the point is. The member raising the point should state it as briefly as possible. The Speaker will then rule it well taken or not well taken. The member who was delivering his/her speech will then continue it, taking appropriate action if the point was ruled well taken (e.g. if he/she had not addressed Mr. Speaker, he/she should do or if he/she was introducing new arguments in his/her rebuttal, he/she should stop doing so). The time taken to raise a point is not included as part of the member's speaking time.

13) Points should neither be too frequent nor trivial.

14) Points of Information are allowed in some tournaments. Normally if points of information are being used, heckling is banned. A point of information is a single question, no more than 15 seconds in length. It may be a fact presented in the form of a question (e.g. how can you maintain that when 80% of people …). To raise a point of information the debater stands during an opponent’s speech and says “Point of information” or “On that point”. The person who is speaking has the option of accepting that point by saying “Yes” , accepting it but not right away by saying “In a moment” or declining it by saying “No thank you”.  If they accept it, the person who raised the point can ask one question and then sit down. The person speaking then deals with it as they see fit. The time taken for the question is part of the speaker’s speaking time. If the speaker declines the point, the person offering it sits down. Mr/Mdm Speaker is not involved in the process.  Debaters should try to offer 1 or 2 points of information per speech. They should try to accept 1 or at most 2 points during their speeches. They do not have to accept any but should realize that this may make them look as if they are afraid of what their opponents might say. If they accept too many it will disrupt their speeches. Points of information may not be offered during the rebuttals or in the first or sixth minutes of the speech.

15) Heckles are brief comments from other members, usually but not necessarily witty. They should not be so frequent that the member does not have a fair chance to speak. They are not allowed in junior high debates.

16) The government must define the resolution. Prepared resolutions must be defined in a way that a reasonable person would interpret the resolution unless squirreling  (i.e. unusual definitions) is explicitly allowed in the invitation. The provision can be extended to impromptu resolutions by the tournament organizer. In case of doubt as to how reasonable it is, students or coaches should check with the organizer. Canned cases could lead to disqualification
Their definition must be accepted unless it is undebatable or unreasonable, given the above conditions. If the Opposition wishes to challenge the definition they must do so in the Leader of the Opposition's speech. The opposition must show that the government's definition is unacceptable and then substitute their own.

17) If the debate is a policy debate (i.e. one in which the government comes up with a plan or method of implementing the resolution), the opposition may choose to propose a counter-plan. A counter-plan is a significantly different way of carrying out the resolution. If the opposition does this, the debate becomes an argument about which is the better plan.

18) Props (e.g. drawings, models) may not be used.

19) In impromptu debates no coaching or research, including books, magazines, internet or computer research, is allowed during the preparation time.

20) Courtesy must be shown to all other members at all times.