Roundup: Exit Rota, and the curious process for his replacement

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House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota announced his intention to resign yesterday, the effective date to be the end of sitting today, with the added caveat that he won’t preside over any further debates in the meantime (which is just as well considering how much of a hash that was on Monday). The timing of what comes next was somewhat up in the air—it would have sounded like the initial plan was for the election for Rota’s replacement would be on Thursday, but because that voting needs to be done in-person (it’s a secret ranked ballot—MPs can’t use their voting app for that), there were concerns about MPs who weren’t in town this week, and so on. That meant that the vote would have to be on Tuesday (because the Commons isn’t sitting on Monday), leaving two more days with no Speaker, and under the Constitution, they could not sit until they had a new one.

It was at this point that the House Leaders came up with a creative solution, that may be dubiously constitutional—they passed a motion by unanimous consent that declared that the Dean of the House, Bloc MP Louis Plamondon, is to be “deemed elected” and will act as interim Speaker until the election on Tuesday. Which is…interesting. I’m not sure why they wouldn’t just swallow the loss of two sitting days (which could be a blessed relief considering how overheated things are right now over this whole debacle). There is also the question of Rota’s status once he has given up the office, and whether the Liberal caucus will want him back in their ranks considering what has happened, and the fact that the Conservatives would love nothing more than to call them all “Nazi sympathizers” or some other such epithet as a result. I’ve heard that Rota told a local radio station that he didn’t plan to run again in the next election, so perhaps he may need to consider getting an earlier start to those retirement plans.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives are now pushing for some kind of committee study to “get to the bottom of what happened,” which is ridiculous because we know what happened—Rota didn’t do his job to politically vet his guest in the gallery. The notion that PMO should have vetted him is outrageous because it’s an assault on parliamentary sovereignty and the independence of the Speaker. It’s also little more than an attempt to set up yet another partisan circus where they can perform for the cameras, and gather a bunch more clips for future shitposts, because that’s what this parliament has become—little more than a clip factory. There’s nothing to study. We know what happened, and the fact that the Conservatives are deliberately conflating security screenings and political vetting is being done solely to score points, and they all know it. Hopefully the other opposition parties are smart enough not to fall for this (but I suspect they won’t be, because he have no serious MPs left).

https://twitter.com/dgardner/status/1706822083127234564

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian drone strikes against Odessa have not only damaged warehouses, but also have suspended service of a ferry that runs between Ukraine and Romania. Ukrainian forces are claiming success around villages near Bakhmut. Russian state television claimed to show a video conference attended by that the Black Sea fleet commander that the Ukrainians say they killed.

https://twitter.com/kyivindependent/status/1706716260627616064

Good reads:

  • Chrystia Freeland is increasing the annual limit of the Canada Mortgage Bonds programme, which she says will unlock another $20 billion in low-cost financing.
  • François-Philippe Champagne is expected to announce new government measures related to AI regulation later today.
  • The government is busy patting itself on the back after a Toronto developer says he’s going to build 5000 units after the GST cut on rental units is passed.
  • The Competition Bureau plans to review a proposed foreign takeover of agricultural giant Viterra.
  • Poland’s education minister says he is taking steps to have that Ukrainian veteran who fought in that Nazi-led unit extradited to Poland.
  • Jagmeet Singh has seen the evidence around the Nijjar murder thanks to his new security clearance, and he says the government is on the right track.
  • David Eby says he has federal assurances of better information sharing from intelligence as a result of the Nijjar murder.
  • Daniel Brown, president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, points to the ways in which provinces like Ontario starve their justice systems into dysfunction.
  • Trevor Tombe points out the giant holes in Danielle Smith’s sales job of a potential Alberta Pension Plan, and how her math is based on fantasy.
  • Justin Ling has a nuanced look at the murky history of Ukraine in World War II, the delicate balance achieved in Canada with those Ukrainians, and how Rota upset it.
  • Paul Wells has a look at Trudeau’s performance on the India file and a reminder about his September from hell.
  • My column outlines the reasons why it was untenable for Rota to remain as Speaker after everything that happened, and with the weight of his job.

Odds and ends:

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: Exit Rota, and the curious process for his replacement”

  1. Wonder if Chrystia Freeland’s office was responsible for bringing this 98 year-old relic to the house, handing Rita the script for him to read and setting the whole stage for what happened. As a hereditary Banderite, Frau Freeland has a family tree filled 14th SS Galacian ties.

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