page_title: House of Commons of Canada
section_title: Chamber design
hierarchical_section_title: House of Commons of Canada / Chamber design
caption_attribution_description: English: Old desks from the Canadian House of Commons removed in December 2018, to move over to the interim Chamber in West Block. The remaining chairs and desks were added following the 2015 Canadian federal election, in which 30 more MPs were added to the House of Commons.
context_page_description: The House of Commons of Canada is the lower chamber of the bicameral Parliament of Canada, along with the sovereign and the Senate of Canada. The House of Commons currently meets in a temporary Commons chamber in the West Block of the parliament buildings on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, while the Centre Block, which houses the traditional Commons chamber, undergoes a ten-year renovation.
  The House of Commons is a democratically elected body whose members are known as members of Parliament. There have been 338 MPs since the most recent electoral district redistribution for the 2015 federal election, which saw the addition of 30 seats. Members are elected by simple plurality in each of the country's electoral districts, which are colloquially known as ridings. MPs may hold office until Parliament is dissolved and serve for constitutionally limited terms of up to five years after an election. Historically however, terms have ended before their expiry and the sitting government has typically dissolved parliament within four years of an election according to a long-standing convention. In any case, an Act of Parliament now limits each term to four years.
context_section_description: The current and original Canadian House of Commons chamber was influenced by the British House of Commons rectangular layout and that of the original St. Stephen's Chapel in the Palace of Westminster. The difference from the British layout is with the use of individual chairs and tables for members, absent in the British Commons' design.
  With the exception of the legislatures in Nunavut (circular seating), the Northwest Territories (circular seating), and Manitoba (U-shaped seating), all other Canadian provincial legislatures share the common design of the Canadian House of Commons.
  Public Works and Government Services Canada undertook work during the 41st Parliament to determine how the seating arrangement could be modified to accommodate the additional 30 seats added in the 2015 election. Ultimately, new "theatre" seats were designed, with five seats in a row at one desk, the seats pulling down for use. Such seat sets now comprise almost the entire length of the last two rows on each side of the chamber.
caption: House of Commons Chamber after desks were removed for renovations, December 2018.
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