When wearing a turtleneck was too controversial for the House of Commons

On Monday, MPs passed a motion "to hold both in-person and virtual meetings to question and debate the government's response to the COVID-19 crisis," according to CBC News.

Once the logistics are worked out, that could see MPs meeting online from their homes twice per week.

The 2017 edition of the House of Commons Procedure and Practice says: "Members desiring to be recognized … must be wearing contemporary business attire," which means "jackets, shirts and ties" for men. 

Whether that rule will hold for virtual meetings was apparently not specifically addressed. But it could conceivably be OK for MPs to show up in a turtleneck, as Liberal MP Warren Allmand did in 1979.

Allmand broke one of the rules of the House of Commons by taking his seat in a turtleneck, expecting, as an opposition critic, to be able to ask "a very important question."

But the spotlight was turned on him for the wrong reason, when he was forced to borrow a tie — from an NDP MP — so that he could stand up and be heard.

As Mike Duffy reported to The National on Oct. 19, 1979, Allmand had failed in his initial attempts to "get the floor" during Question Period because he was judged to be "improperly dressed."

An 'anachronistic' rule?

Allmand took the opportunity to challenge the rule.

"I think it's anachronistic in 1979-80 ... and I would further argue that my privilege to speak as an elected Member of Parliament ... is being interfered with," Allmand told the House.

He further explained that he had "wanted to ask a very important question on a very important issue."

'Shorts and an open shirt?'

But as Duffy reported, MP Stan Darling's reaction to the request was representative of the majority of the House. He was of the opinion that relaxing the dress code might result in an escalation to a casual dress attitude — even in the country's highest court.

"If the House of Commons starts wearing casual clothes then the Supreme Court of Canada, what are you going to end up with there?" Darling asked Duffy.

"What are you going to end up with there — the chief justice before the courts and making decisions in shorts and an open shirt?"

Women had the most latitude, Duffy said, adding that the person in the House with the "toughest dress rules" was the Speaker himself. 

The Speaker, said Duffy, "must wear heavy black robes and a stiff white collar," made all the more gruelling by the hot lights that had been installed two years earlier for the television cameras.