MPs return to house to elect new Speaker
Posted Jun 2, 2011 7:49 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The break is over and MPs make their return to the House of Commons Thursday morning.
It’s been one month since the election that saw Canadians elect a majority Conservative government with the NDP as the official opposition.
The throne speech is scheduled for Friday with the budget to be delivered on Monday; but, before MPs can get to work on that, they have to take care of their first priority, electing a new Speaker of the House.
By law, the new Parliament isn’t allowed to do anything until it has chosen a new speaker.
There are eight MPs running for the position, including Calgary Centre MP Lee Richardson, who wants to clean up the bad behaviour in the House of Commons.
“The root problem, in my view, is a lack of respect,” he says. “A lack of respect for each other as Parliamentarians, a lack of respect for the institution and hence, a lack of respect of Parliament by Canadians.”
Conservative Andrew Scheer is also in the running. He also says he wants to stop all the rude behavior in the House.
“Like a referee calling a hockey game, once the Speaker sets the new tone for what’s allowed and what’s not allowed, the rest of the members will adapt,” says Scheer, who was Deputy Speaker in the last Parliament.
If elected, Scheer would be the youngest speaker ever at 32-years-old.
MPs will vote by a secret ballot and it’s expected to take up to five hours until someone has a majority of the vote.
Some of the perks for the Speaker’s position include a $230,000 annual salary and a country home in Quebec.
