Parliament has not convened yet but the Chief Government Whip will be hard at work getting everything prepared to help parliament run smoothly.
You will be seeing him walk into the House of Commons every day it is in session. He will put his own mark on this office, of that I am very sure. New parliamentarians will benefit from his experience.

His Riding has shown confidence in him by electing him into parliament since 2004, and he has kept them informed.

Follow him in pictures.
He and The Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Jay Hill, will be a formidable team gracing this House of Commons.

You can tune into CPAC and watch Question Period the day Parliament opens. That is where the action will be. Be there!

A very dated explanation of a “Whip” from the 1960’s is included for your information.

Source
James E. Walker, Chief Government Whip from
1963 to 1966. commented: “Once you get beyond the taxicab radius of
Ottawa, nobody seems to have heard of a Whip. For that matter. nobody in
Ottawa, three blocks from the Hill, has ever heard of the Whip either!”1
Whips work quietly behind the scenes and their activities are not widely
reported by the media, nor understood by the general public. Yet, their very
presence in the House of Commons facilitates communication within their
respective caucuses, thereby promoting the cohesiveness of their parliamentary parties.
To a more limited extent, the whips actively encourage a degree of
understanding and co-operation between the government and the opposition
parties which is essential if the House of Commons is to conduct the nation’s
business in an effective and efficient fashion.

In Canada, party whips are engaged in a wide
variety of administrative or management functions directly related to planning
and organizing the activities of the parliamentary caucus. Among the activities
are:

* the allocation of members’ offices
* the selection of members to serve on parliamentary committees
* monitoring attendance of members in the House of Commons, and the preparation
of a duty roster for members to ensure a parliamentary quorum
* organization of speakers in the House of Commons for parliamentary
debates
* arranging of “parliamentary pairs”
* communication of information to members regarding votes and
attendance in the House of Commons
* approving requests for members to travel from Ottawa when the House
of Commons is in session
* recommending members to serve on parliamentary delegations.

1. Members’ travels: All requests to travel outside of Ottawa when the House of Commons is in session must be approved by the Whip’s Office and, in the case of Cabinet Ministers, by officials in the Prime Minister’s office.

2. Preparation of attendance book: Each morning the Chief Government Whip meets with his staff to review the parliamentary agenda, to discuss parliamentary strategy and tactics, and to assess currents of opinion within both the government and opposition caucuses. Requests from members to travel are reviewed, and by 11:00 a.m. each day, the Whip s Office prepares an “attendance sheet” detailing the status of all members of the government caucus for that day. After consulting with the House leader, the Whip may direct his staff to contact government members to advise them that they have been instructed to return to Ottawa for a parliamentary vote or debate. Should a staff member encounter resistance from a caucus member, the Whip may intervene directly.

3. Parliamentary committees: It is the responsibility of the Whip’s Office to assign members of the caucus to serve on parliamentary committees. Members are canvassed by an official in the Whip’s office to determine their preferences, and considerable effort is made to place a member on at least one or two committees which interest him. There will be occasions when it is impossible to satisfy the requests of all members, and the party whip may be asked to intervene to consider a member’s request for a reallocation of his committee assignments. Once the committees are in operation, two staff members monitor the attendance of government members. Modifications to the Standing Orders of the House of Commons which came into effect in January 1983 have eliminated the practice of permitting an “immediate” substitution for an absent member. This has placed more pressure on staff to ensure that the positions allocated to government members are occupied at all times.

4. Preparation of a duty roster: One of the most important continuing responsibilities of the Chief Government Whip is to ensure that there are sufficient government members present in the House to maintain a quorum. For the past decade, it has been the practice of all parties to have the whip’s office prepare a duty roster indicating when a member’s presence in the House is required. Within the government caucus, members are divided into groups and assigned one day of “House duty” per week. To assist members in organizing their activities, the duty roster is prepared for a three month period, and members are assigned the same day each week.

5. Report to caucus: At each weekly caucus meeting, the party whip will present his report to caucus. The Whip’s Report is an important event because it is the only occasion when the whip can speak to the entire caucus. The whip will use the opportunity to advise members of forthcoming votes and debates, and to encourage their attendance in the House. While it has not been a practice to discuss the attentiveness of particular members to their parliamentary duties, the whip can use the occasion to build morale within the caucus, and to encourage members to participate more effectively in committees or in debates within the House itself.

6. Monitoring activities of members: In recent years, the whips of all three parties have retained records which monitor the attentiveness of caucus members to their parliamentary duties. While all three party whips direct their staffs to document a member’s voting record and his attendance in the House and in committees, the Liberals and NDP retain more complete records than do the Conservatives. In the case of the NDP, statistics documenting a caucus member’s voting and attendance records are circulated by the party whip to all caucus members. For the past year, the Chief Government Whip has prepared a similar report which is circulated to the Prime Minister and the regional Ministers each week.

A simple compilation of statistics without any explanation can often be misleading, and may not give an accurate assessment of a member’s performance. Yet, the three incumbent whips indicated that they have not encountered serious opposition from their parliamentary colleagues to the compilation of data by the whip’s office. Many caucus members see the practice as being to their potential benefit, as it provides the party leadership with more complete and reliable information regarding each member’s parliamentary performance than has been available in the past.

7. Communication with caucus members: In Great Britain, the party whip sends a weekly written communication advising all caucus members of parliamentary business and of impending votes for the forthcoming week. The “documentary” whip is utilized by the party whip to inform caucus members with regard to the importance of particular votes, and when a member’s attendance for a vote is required. Each statement in the documentary whip is marked with one, two or three lines. As Robert Jackson has noted: “One line whips usually mean that there will not be a division and are common on Fridays; two line whips oblige Members to attend the House but allow them to pair, and three line whips call for compulsory attendance at important divisions. 12

In Canada, the regular practice of issuing such “documentary whips” to caucus members has not been followed by party whips. On particular occasions, such as the Throne Speech Debate, and the Budget Debate, the party whip may write to each member advising when a vote will be held, and urging a member’s attendance. However, the method of communication that is employed most frequently is the regular weekly caucus meeting and telephone contact between the whip’s office and a member’s parliamentary staff. Within the government caucus, the whip’s office will contact every member to inform him of an impending vote. A staff member will be in contact with every member at the beginning of each week to verify his itinerary for the week. and to inform the member’s staff of important parliamentary votes.