OTTAWA — Quebec Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia is the new speaker of the House of Commons, promising to bring back order and respect to the House as he presides over a new minority Parliament.
The longtime backbench MP was elected by his peers on Monday morning as the 39th speaker of the House of Commons during a jovial first sitting of the House of Commons since December.
It is unclear if the joviality will last in this minority Parliament as the final months of the Justin Trudeau government were tainted by a raucous and bellicose House marked by expulsions of MPs, mostly Conservative.
During his pitch to MPs before they voted for the speaker, Scarpaleggia said there must be limits to the attacks by Parliamentary opponents. After his election, he jokingly implored his colleagues to give him time to settle in before testing him.
“There’s nothing wrong with a clean, even board-rattling, polemical body check in the corners. I’ve been at the receiving end of a few. Robust debate is fundamental to a robust democracy, and a robust democracy is what makes for resilience,” the longtime Liberal backbencher told MPs before his election.
“The problem is when sticks go high… Canadians want to see sticks on the ice, and it’s the responsibility of the speaker to make this so,” he continued. “I believe it possible to skillfully and convincingly dissect and refute an argument without recourse to personal invective or intimidation.”
After symbolically dragging the new speaker to his chair, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Opposition leader Andrew Scheer both wished Scarpaleggia well in his new role.
“I will make mistakes, and I have no doubt that you will call them out for good reason,” Carney said with a smile during his first ever address in the House of Commons.
“Mr. Speaker, we offer you our support,” said Scheer, noting that recent speakers have had to deal with a wide array of issues ranging from nudity to explicit language to
“flying elbows.”
“I did hear that CPAC was considering putting a warning on the daily broadcast may contain violence, coarse language and nudity,” he joked.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, interim NDP Leader Don Davies and Green Party head Elizabeth May also extended their best wishes to the new speaker.
Scarpaleggia defeated five of his Liberal colleagues to win the speakership: incumbent Greg Fergus, Sean Casey, Alexandra Mendès, Robert Oliphant and Sherry Romanado.
On Sunday evening, two Conservatives — Chris d’Entremont and John Nater — were also on the ballot. But the start of the election Monday morning, both Conservative candidates pulled out, paving the way for a Liberal MP to become speaker once again.
D’Entremont’s last-second retreat came as a surprise to many in the House, as late last week the veteran
Conservative MP pitched himself to National Post
as the voice of experience and reason for the job.
In many ways, the first day of a new Parliament looks and sounds like the first day back in school. Before the cameras turn on, MPs crowd the aisles to greet their colleagues of all political stripes, welcome neophytes, congratulate new cabinet members or even get in a quick chat with the prime minister.
Minutes before proceedings began, Carney and Opposition Leader in the House of Commons Andrew Scheer exchanged with a smile from their respective seats across the aisle.
The proceedings began with Bloc Québécois MP Louis Plamondon, a 41-year incumbent and the dean of the House, opening the new Parliament to preside over the speaker election.
But before, he shared a few words of wisdom acquired over four decades of federal politics.
“One piece of advice I’ve already given here in the House is, of course, to manage your frustrations,” he told new and veteran MP. “You may have questions like, ‘why wasn’t I appointed minister? Why wasn’t I appointed as a critic?’ But the feeling passes with time.”
His second piece of advice for newcomers was twofold: “speak up when you have something to say”, but also remember that when speaking to journalists, “one wrong word, and it changes your career.”
Peter Milliken, the longest-sitting Speaker in Commons history and
creator of the Speaker’s Scotch tradition
, overlooked the proceedings from the visitors’ gallery, even getting a shout out from Oliphant during his speech.
The six candidates were then given five minutes to pitch themselves to their colleagues. All promised to return decorum and respect in the House, though their methods differed.
Casey argued that there should have been “more expulsions” in the last Parliament over colleagues who defied the speaker or refused to withdraw unparliamentary language.
“What’s worse is that this lack of respect for Parliament has actually been used as ammunition to raise funds. Sadly, this demonstrates the current state of decline” of decorum, he said, adding that he aimed to “raise the bar” in how MPs treat each other.
Fergus, the incumbent speaker, pitched himself as the candidate of experience who knew how to manoeuvre in a minority Parliament. He admitted that he had made some faux pas during his tenure but compared himself to a “reliable car with experience” that now has a “couple of dents”.
“To be frank, it would have been a difficult time for anyone in that role,” he said of the last, raucous session where “tempers ran high, and cooperation ran low”.
Mendès, previously a deputy speaker who is currently undergoing treatments for cancer, said she would strive to bring more stability to the Commons and noted that a woman has never been elected speaker.
“This is the place where Canada’s most important conversations should be held, where we seriously debate and humorously disagree,” she said.
Oliphant promised to uphold Parliamentary dignity while having “zero tolerance” for unparliamentary behaviour, which he promised to crack down on “no matter where it comes from.”
Romanado promised to be “fair, firm and consistent” in upholding the rules of the House, while Scarpaleggia said he would be the defender of the backbenchers, which he has been all his political life.
After candidates finished their speeches, MPs lined up to fill out their vote in one of six booths in the centre aisle before dropping their ballot into an ornate wood box.
Carney cast his first ever speaker vote by putting his ballot into the box and then tapping twice on the slot as if to wish it safe travels.
National Post
cnardi@postmedia.com
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