MPs are voting again.
Here's the rules for the balloting: Any candidate who does not get at least 15 votes is out for any subsequent ballots. If everyone gets at least 15 votes, then they guy who finished last is out.
MPs will keep voting until someone gets a majority.
So, the second ballot is underway without Royal Galipeau or Rob Anders name on the ballot.
1103 – Andrew Scheer, Tory MP from Regina, will not turn 30 until next Ma
y but he believe he's ready to assume the Speaker's chair. He may be young but he's going all the way back to 1642 in his speech, when King Charles was getting ornery about the young British Parliament. “The speaker must be impartial, fair and non-partisan.” He was an assistant deputy speaker in the last Parliament and acknowleges that he learned the rules at the knee of master Milliken. “We all have the same goal. We all want Canada to be a better place. ” He says if MPs remembered that, committees and the House would work better. Scheer does a little bit of French at the end. His French isn't great but he's ready to learn.
1107 Merv Tweed is the last to speak. He starts out speaking French, reading off of a prepared text. Tweed is the Tory from Brandon-Souris and a former provincial cabinet minister. “Over the last several years, we've experienced a severe decline in decorum in this wonderful Chamber.” Tweed says that this is an important job for the pursuit of democracy in Canada. “I will commit every hour of my day to this position.”
That's it. They're now voting. See you in an hour.
1047 Barry Devolin from Ontario's beautiful Kawarthas is up next. This may be the first time many of us have heard Barry speak. Devolin was a former policy wonk for Preston Manning and — please don't take this the wrong way, Barry — but he looks the part. Devolin cites his resumé. He delivers the front part of his pitch in French. Mind you, unlike the others, he's reading from a prepared text as he speaks French. “I think we need a change in that Chair. I profoundly disagree with [Milliken's] House management style.” Devolin says he is embarrassed about the behaviour of MPs in the House and says he makes excuses for his colleagues when school groups from his riding visit. “There is no other place I can think of where people are routinely subjected to the kind of verbal abuse you see in this chamber.”
1052 – Royal Galipeau, Tory MP from Ottawa is up. He was on the deputy speaker squad in the last Parliament. Odd that he's running for, in the last Parliament, as a demonstration of of the kind decorum he stands for, I suppose, Galipeau physically threatened Liberal MP David McGuinty on the floor of the House of Commons! Here's my blog entry from the time:
I was sitting in the press gallery in the House of Commons at Question Period, quietly minding my own business, when, lo and behold, I saw Conservative MP Royal Galipeau (left) charge up out of his seat, dash across the floor, climb up into the Liberal backbenches, grab MP David McGuinty (right) by the shoulder and vigorously wag his finger in front of McGuinty’s face. I couldn’t hear what was said and so, after Question Period, I asked McGuinty what had happened:
McGuinty: I just rose on a point of privilege in the House of Commons to ask the speaker to formally investigate the conduct of his deputy speaker. The Member of Parliament from Ottawa Orleans, Mr. Galipeau, physically crossed the floor immediately after I finished my second question to the government and grabbed me by the shoulder and was screaming out of control, out of control using unparliamentary language, threatening me, telling me that I was a coward, that I was giving him no chance to defend himself.
In any event, Galipeau tries to flatter MPs by calling them the most “astute electors” in the country. I suspect McGuinty will not be voting for Galipeau.
1057 – Peter Milliken,the incumbent. Rare to see him in a suit-and-tie in the House. Normally, he is wearing the Speaker's robes in this Chamber. “There are certain circumstances that require expertise,” Milliken argues, saying that expertise is different from experience. “In this Parliament we will have a number of challenges.” Milliken acknowledges that decorum is a problem. “I agree that decorum has gone down somewhat but I don't believe that is not uncommon in a minority Parliament.” He, like some other candidates, says that, ultimately, it is up to each MP to conduct themselves with a bit more decorum.
1036 – Mauril Bélanger leads off. Calls for a higher level of decorum. “Canadians are expecting to see a collective improvement in our behaviour.” Bélanger, speaking in French and English, quotes Ed Broadbent. Bélanger brings up 10 per centers — the taxpayer funded mailings widely used by Conservative MPs to bomb Liberal-held ridings with ant-Liberal propaganda. “I believe it is not an appropriate use of members' privileges and it is not an appropriate use of taxpayer money.” Using these 10-per-centers for partisan purposes was the brainchild of one Kory Teneycke, while he headed the Conservative Research Group, the job held before becoming the prime minister's director of communication. Former Liberal MP Garth Tuner, whose riding got bombed by these things, called them Tory “poop-o-grams”.
1041 – NDP MP Joe Comartin is up next. Comartin is widely seen as the most capable of candidates but is probably may be he's too talented and too valuable as a critic and NDP MP. Some of his own NDP colleagues are torn on this issue, wishing their colleague well but thinking their team will be lessened if Comartin has to take up the non-partisan role of Speaker. “I believe the role of the Speaker is quite clear and really quite simple. The responsibility of the speaker is to maintain order and decorum in this Chamber. Beyond that it's my belief that the speaker has the responsibility to protect the rights and responsibilities of every member in this House.”
1028 – Louis Plamondon is summoned to the Speaker's Chair. “It seems quite comfortable,” Plamondon says as he settles in Speaker's Chair for what could be an hour or two or several hours.
Plamondon thanks his constituents and his family.
Plamondon asks if there is anyone who does not want to stand for office to rise.
Dean Del Mastro, Christian Ouellet, James Lunney, Paul Callandra, Joy Smith, David Tilson, Rodney Weston.
Rob Anders failed to show up for today's vote and, as a result, he is on the ballot!
So here are your choices for the first ballot:
1036 And now the speeches begin!
Mauril Bélanger
1008 – Clerk Audrey O'Brien finally gets MPs to sit down and shut up. Th first order of business is that MPs will now get out of their seats to be summoned to the Senate where they will be told to go back to the lower house to elect a new Speaker. And so, at 1011, MPs are headed for the Senate.
While they're gone — a quick note on the lay of the land in the House.
First, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has not yet made an appearance and — who knows? — he may not. International Trade MInister Stockwell Day is on government business in Brazil this week. Foreign Affairs MInister Lawrence Cannon is in Peru for APEC Leaders Week.
Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff — rivals for the Liberal leadership — have been seated right next to each other, in the front row just to the left of the Speaker's Chair.
For this Parliament, all the opposition leaders are on the same side of the House, a result of far fewer Liberal bums to fill the opposition benches and many more Conservative bums filling the benches to the right. So that means Stéphane, Gilles, and Jack can all face Harper when they get up for Question Period. I suspect that's a big deal for the NDP as they have not been on the same side as the Official Opposition for — hmm — I don't know how long — probably not since the the end of the Jean Chrétien majorities.
The seating plan is not yet online but you should see it shortly at this page.
In any event here are your front rows, starting from the right of the speaker:
Jim Abbott, Greg Thompson, Rona Ambrose, Bev Oda, Peter Van Loan, Vic Toews, Stockwell Day, Rob Nicholson, Peter MacKay, Jim Prentice, Stephen Harper, Lawrence Cannon, Jim Flaherty, Tony Clement, Chuck Strahl, John Baird, Diane Finley, Gerry Ritz, Gail Shea, Jason Kenney, James Moore, Christian Paradis, Leona Aglukkaq, Steven Fletcher, John Duncan, Wayne Marston (NDP), Olivia Chow (NDP), Pat Martin (NDP)
And to the Speaker's left:
Bob Rae, Michael Ignatieff, Joe Volpe, Albina Guarnieri, Lawrence Macaulay, Maurizio Bevilacqua, Hedy Fry, Carolyn Bennett, Stéphane Dion, Ralph Goodale, Scott Brison, Ken Dryden, Martha Hall Findlay, Gerard Kennedy, (BQ): Francine Lalonde, Jean-Yves Laforest, Gilles Duceppe, Pierre Paquette, Paul Crète, Real Ménard, Claude Bachand, Mario Laframboise, Bernard Bigras, (NDP): Thomas Mulcair, Jack Layton, Libby Davies, Judy Wasylycia-Leis, Brian Masse, Jack Harris.
1025 – The prime minister is here and in his seat.
Lordy, lordy look who's 40! I tried that line as the lede on my piece in our papers today about the opening of the 40th Parliament of Canada but my editors sensibly decided it was a bit too cheezy.
In any event, here we are, perched in the press gallery in the House of Commons, just over the left the shoulder of the Dean of the House, Louis Plamondon. Plamondon is sitting in the Speaker's Chair this morning because he, as the aforementioned Dean of the House, gets to run the election for the Speaker. Plamondon, a Bloc Quebecois MP who was first elected as a Progressive Conservative in 1984 when support for les bleus like Plamondon swept Brian Mulroney to his first monster majority. Plamondon would cross the floor six years later to join Lucien Bouchard and the Bloc Quebecois and he's been there ever since.
But back to election of the speaker which I will be live-blogging.
MPs were required to tell the Clerk of the House by 6 pm last night that they did NOT want to be Speaker. Those that failed to inform the Clerk that they did NOT want to be on the ballot are, as a result, able to stand for election.
That list includes:
The Clerk, Audrey O'Brien, is, right now summoning MPs to their seats and we're just about to get underway …
More in a minute . . .
Like you, dear reader, I've long wished for a handy Web site or two that would settle arguments, once and for all, about which of the six days of debate on a throne speech is set aside for votes on sub-amendments to the main amendments to the government's motion to accept the throne speech. (Answer: Days Two and Four)
Well, wait no longer. Here are the sites you will immediately want to place at the top of your bookmark list:
House of Commons Procedure and Practice (the famed Marleau and Montpetit)
Compendium of House of Commons Procedure
Annotated Standing Orders of the House of Commons, 2005 edition
house of commons, parliament
The key highlights so far in this week's Parliamentary calendar: 10 a.m. (Ottawa time) on Tuesday – Election of the Speaker and 2 p.m. on Wednesday – Speech from the Throne:
Once it began to appear in early October that Stephen Harper was going to be re-elected as prime minister, his aides were asked if he would quickly recall MPs for a fall session of the House of Commons.
Some thought he need not be in any rush. For one thing, he and his senior ministers have had a busy fall filled with international summits. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has been at global summits in Washington, Brazil, and Peru. Mr. Harper was at the G20 last weekend in Washington and will travel to Peru at the end of this week for the annual leaders summit at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum. He also hosted a meeting of the country's premiers.
Second, by recalling Parliament, he would give his political opponents a forum to attack what they call his laissez-faire approach to the problems of the Canadian economy. He might have concluded that the last thing a government managing a rapidly deteriorating economy needed was a political circus in Ottawa.
But one of Mr. Harper's senior advisers, speaking on condition that he not be identified, quickly shot down any idea that Mr. Harper would be inclined to wait.
“He truly believes that the House of Commons is the place to conduct the nation's business,” the aide said a few days before election day.
And so, on Wednesday, barely a month after winning a strengthened minority government, Mr. Harper will take his seat in the Senate and listen to Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean read the speech from the throne, officially opening the 40th Parliament of Canada.
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As the G20 summit wrapped up this weekend in Washington, international summit watchers now turn their attention to Lima, Peru where Leaders Weeks begins tomorrow for APEC, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Prime Minister Stephen Harper will travel to Lima on Friday for meetings there next Saturday and Sunday.
As the host country, Peru is ramping it up from a security standpoint as it prepares to host the heads of state from 21 national economies including Canada, the U.S., Japan, China, Australia, Indonesia, and all the rest which have, as their common heritage, some shoreline on the Pacific Ocean. More than 10,000 Peruvian soldiers, sailors and air force personnel have been deployed to secure the meeting site, all under the command of Colonel Alberto Castillo.
The delegations (which, in Canada's case, includes travelling media) will be staying in Miraflores, San Isidro, Lima and San Borja — all of which you'd say would be part of Greater Lima, which has a population of 9.2 million.