If anyone dares to tell you that federal MPs accomplished a great deal in the fall sitting of the House of Commons, you may want to ask them how long they've been a member in the flat earth society.

Since the Speech from Throne in mid-October, the Government has worked very hard - day in and day out - to pass three, that's right, count 'em, three Bills into law. While many Canadians know that Bill C-9, more commonly referred to as Nisga'a Treaty Act, was passed, we shouldn't forget two other pieces of legislation which also became law.

Bill C-4, which deals with agreement among several nations for use of the International Space Station was also passed. Gee, I'm sure glad they've taken care of that. If Y2K panic and terror does strike, a few of us can at least go stateside (provided we make it past the multi-hour border lineups), hop a space shuttle and hide out in the space station until things on Earth straighten themselves around.

On a more serious note, Bill C-6 which dealt with the protection of personal information that is collected, used or disclosed in various electronic commerce and Internet related transactions, was passed. For this the government is to be commended.

However, after nine weeks of sitting, this is all that the government has to show for its effort. Of course, Liberal MPs have already complained that Reform's procedural stalling (over 471 separate voteable amendments to the Nisga'a Treaty Act) derailed their agenda.

The more appropriate explanation for the lack of progress on some 21 government Bills (not to mention opposition or Senate initiated Bills) is that Parliament started three weeks later than anticipated. But this may be a Christmas blessing in disguise. Stalling on Nisga'a did delay some other pieces of contentious legislation, most notably, Bill C-2, the new Elections Act. C-2 proposes sweeping changes to the Elections Act including a gag law on so-called "third party" spending which is fundamentally anti-democratic.

With the budget slated to occupy most of Parliament's time when it reconvenes in February, this delay gives a variety of C-2 opponents a chance to regroup and plot strategy for hearings in the Senate.

Furthermore, the government's snail-like pace with legislation ensured that many of the grandiose spending initiatives outlined in the Throne Speech have remained as mere words on paper as opposed to becoming Bills before Parliament.

On the other side of the House, opposition members (and some Liberal backbenchers) brought in the usual slew of private member's Bills dealing with everything from deficit prevention to protection of Social Insurance Numbers.

While most of these initiatives are doomed to die on the order paper, one of them is most deserving of criticism. Bill C-337, introduced by Saskatchewan Reform MP Jim Pankiw, would raise the bar for political parties to qualify for "official party status" in the House of Commons. Instead of the current 12 seats, Mr. Pankiw believes that "parties" should only be recognized as such if they have at least 10% of the seats in the Commons and have members from a minimum of three provinces.

Such requirements would only leave the Liberals and Reform as officially recognized parties. The Bloc, the NDP and the PCs would all be out of luck. A spokesman for Mr. Pankiw's office told the CTF that the bill was designed to reduce research costs now allocated to five parties.

While we're all for reducing wasteful government spending, it should not be done at the expense (pardon the pun) of democratic expression. Thankfully Pankiw's Bill is probably destined to become nothing more than a footnote in Hansard. If only we could do the same with Bill C-2.