I don’t know if many non-Canadian Dopers were following the story, but the Speaker of our House of Commons had a major faux-pas two weeks ago, when President Zelenskyy was addressing a joint session. After the President’s speech, the Speaker rose to introduce a Ukrainian vet in his 90s from the Speaker’s riding who had fought against the Soviets in WWII. Quick quiz: what units were fighting against the Soviets? Nazi units. Huge mistake by the Speaker, feeding into the Russian line that Ukrainians are Nazis.
Speaker Rota resigned a week ago. The Commons has been operating with an interim Speaker (a senior MP from the Bloc québécois), but today elected a new Speaker, in an hour of secret ballots, with seven candidates. It’s not revealed how many ballots it took, nor what the margin of victory was, because in our system, the Speaker assumes a non-partisan role.
The new Speaker is Greg Fergus, a Liberal from Gatineau, Quebec, across the Ottawa River from Ottawa.
As is the custom, he was escorted to the Speaker’s chair by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, to show that he was the choice of the House as a whole.
Wow, I had missed that whole story. What a moron! He needed to resign.
Needless to say, the real issue that Putin has with Ukraine is that Ukraine is aligned with western democratic values and not with the tsarist imperialism of Mother Russia.
I guess too much time spent on the Dope, not enough on CBC News. I get a surprising amount of news from CBC Radio, but that’s only when I’m out driving around, which I haven’t been doing much lately.
Dates back to the English House of Commons, when the position of Speaker, carrying messages from the Commons to the King, potentially posed some hazards. Not all Speakers-elect were keen on taking the chair, and legend is that some had to be dragged to the chair.
Nowadays, it’s meant as a symbol that the Speaker is the choice of all the House, and is not the voice of either the Government or the Opposition.
The Speaker is trusted by all members to rule impartially on points of order and keeping the House business moving, without any role in the introduction of legislation
And the Westminster Speaker has a general role promoting/representational/ceremonial role, and also acts as impartial chair of committees/conferences on the operations of Parliament and elections.
Not as serious as the last guy, strikes me, but still an issue.
Speaker Rota had to resign because of inviting a Nazi to be honoured in the chamber.
Speaker Fergus is in trouble because he prepared a video to congratulate a retiring Ontario Liberal. Problem is, he did the video in his Speaker’s office, wearing his Speaker’s robes.
Since the Speaker is intended to be non-partisan, this has raised some eyebrows. Speaker Fergus said he had been asked to do it by a member of his friend’s family, and thought it would only be used privately.
Instead, it was played at a public retirement event, hosted by the provincial Liberal party (I think).
Speaker Fergus has apologised profusely, and said he will resign if that is the will of the Commons.
The Commons referred the matter to its internal committee on Procedure and House Affairs. The referral was with all-party support.
After an expedited review, the Committee reported yesterday. Did not call for Speaker Fergus to resign for his clear mistep, Instead, the Committee recommends:
