Roundup: It’s Speaker Election Day!

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Today is the day for the election of the new House of Commons Speaker, which begins with speeches at 10 AM, a thirty-minute pause so that the candidates can lobby MPs one last time and answer any questions they have, and then they begin voting. It’s a preferential ballot, so we don’t know how long it will take to count (which will depend if someone wins on the first ballot or not), and then they need to go through the protocol with the Senate before the Commons can return to business. Depending on how long this takes, we may or may not have Question Period today, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, here are some of the candidates for the position lamenting the current state of affairs in the Commons, but as I wrote in my weekend column, this is something that the Speaker alone cannot fix. He or she can help, particularly by applying the rules and not simply shrugging off when people break them (like Anthony Rota had a tendency to do), but real reform is going to require the cooperation of all MPs to change the Standing Orders to empower the Speaker to do more, and to give up the power of the party House Leaders to determine speaking lists (because they claim to need to have a “strategy,” which is both ridiculous and undermines the power of MPs). And more to the point, if a Speaker is too tough in enforcing the rules, then MPs may conspire to ensure they don’t win the Speaker election in the next Parliament (which is what happened to Geoff Regan, and why we wound up with the deeply unserious Rota).

This being said, it sounds like Chris d’Entrement may have soured his chances with the Liberals with his ruling last week in not admonishing Melissa Lantsman for her personal attack on Karina Gould during Question Period, and that may mean that Alexandra Mendès could win enough votes provided that enough Liberals rally around her as first choice, ensuring that we finally get our second female Speaker (finally), given that I really don’t think that Greg Fergus or Sean Casey are serious contenders for the job. Then again, ranked ballots are funny things, and sometimes crazy things happen as a result.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian forces shelled the southern city of Kherson, killing two and wounding ten. In the northern city of Kharkiv, officials are building a fully underground school so that children can learn safely as Russian attack continue. Meanwhile, as shenanigans are taking place in the US Congress around funding for Ukraine, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with EU ministers about continuing vital cooperation.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1708921746907111912

Good reads:

  • It’s been two months since the Cabinet shuffle, and ministers still haven’t received their new mandate letters (which is becoming typical for this government).
  • No, the CRTC’s requirement that podcast networks making over $10 million per year register does not mean that the government is trying to censor podcasts. FFS.
  • Here is a look at the new transport planes the military acquired that will soon replace the antiquated planes used to transport the PM and the GG.
  • Once again, there are demands the federal government step in for provinces’ lack of action, this time it’s around school breakfast and lunch programmes.
  • The government’s Special Interlocutor for unmarked graves is complaining that her mandate is too restrictive and that they need to look at more than just official sites.
  • The BC Civil Liberties Association has joined the lawsuit looking to remove the provisions of the NSICOP legislation that blunts parliamentary privilege.
  • It’s election day in Manitoba, and Heather Stefanson looks to be in real trouble.
  • Imperial Oil says the Alberta energy regulator knew that the Kearl oil sands tailing ponds were seeping into groundwater years before they ordered an investigation.
  • Stephen Saideman worries that the dismissal of charges against another Canadian general sends the wrong message about the abuse of power crisis in the military.

Odds and ends:

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