The Race for Kingsmere
A new-look Parliament resumes today, with the first order of business the naming of a new speaker to replace Peter Milliken.
A slew of Conservatives who realize they will never be in Cabinet have put their names forward, including Barry Devolin, Lee Richardson, Bruce Stanton, Merv Tweed, Dean Allison, Ed Hold, and Andrew Scheer, along with NDPer Denise Savoie. While Denise would be great, I would be shocked to see Conservative MPs vote for a speaker from the opposition benches when they enjoy a comfortable majority.
My money is on Scheer, who was the runner-up to Milliken in 2008, but I'm certainly not apprised of all the backroom chatter and horse trading, so we might get a surprise. Either way, I'll be sure to post an update here as soon as the new speaker is dragged to his, or her, chair.
UPDATE: Off to the 5th ballot we go. Scheer (the favourite), Savoie (the Dipper), and Richardson (the rumoured anti-PMO candidate) left standing.
UPDATE: The final ballots are being counter, but Wikipedia has already crowned Scheer the winner. That, and the Tory voting bloc majority, are good enough for me. Speaker Scheer it is! At the age of 32, the youngest ever.
Labels: Andrew Scheer, Denise Savoie, Peter Milliken
posted by calgarygrit at
9:00 a.m.
10 Comments:
I know Lee personally, and I think he'd be a good speaker. If it is to be a Conservative, then a Progressive one like him would do best.
By
WesternGrit, at 12:00 p.m.
Reading the article about this race yesterday made me feel disgusted. All these candidates are hosting hospitality suites and shit. This is the speaker of the house and they all seem to think theyre hosting clients in a box at the leafs game. Having known speaker milliken, I am not inspired by these future choices.
p.s. What pissed me off most was all of the CON candidates not saying whether they would rule the same as Milliken on Afghan docs/contempt charges. These guys were born without a spine.
By
Anonymous, at 12:25 p.m.
Really, though. The hospitality suites are not in keeping with the office.
By
Anonymous, at 1:14 p.m.
I too see this as a somewhat distasteful development. These guys are running for an important Parliamentary Office, not a university student union. That being said, for a $225,000/year gig (about $50,000 more than a regular MP earns) that comes with a ton of other perks, I suppose I can understand why they would be pulling out all the stops.
Does anyone know if all of the candidates had hospitality suites? I know Devolin, Tweed, Scheer and Holder did for sure - what about the others?
By
Anonymous, at 3:08 a.m.
NDP blew it.
Why on earth would they let the final ballot come down to Harper's hand picked choice for speaker and one of their MP's? Clearly a dipper wasn't going to get chosen based on the CON majority. The best choice for a balanced house was to deny Harper his choice.
By
Rick, at 1:31 p.m.
What's going on in this photo, Dan? Are Dion and Harper literally removing Milliken from office??
By
farwestie, at 3:15 a.m.
@farwestie: it is tradition, and one which Milliken upheld, for the newly-elected Speaker to be dragged to the Speaker's chair under protest by the Prime Minister and the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition.
The Speaker, after all, represents Parliament and there was a time at Westminster when more than a couple Speakers bore the wrath of the King to their personal demise.
By
Anonymous, at 8:06 a.m.
So they had to drag the former speaker (Milliken) out before dragging the newly-elected speaker (Scheer) in...?
By
farwestie, at 12:12 p.m.
No... This is an image displaying the 2 party leaders installing the "new" Speaker (Milliken) back when he was re-selected (in 08). The tradition is to have the new Speaker reluctantly dragged to the chair.
This is not a picture of anything which occurred this past week.
By
WesternGrit, at 2:37 p.m.
Easy to see why you used this photo--it's a good one. And thanks to you and Anonymous for sorting me out on this.
By
farwestie, at 6:15 p.m.
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