My Globe and Mail colleague Bill Curry has been raising some eyebrows over the last couple of days with some stories about how Prime Minister Stephen Harper has decided to “nominate” the leaders of the House of Commons Standing Committees that the Conservatives will get to chair. These nominations, some say, amount to appointments of the chairman of each committee, a position which is supposed to be elected by committee members themselves through secret ballot. Here's Bill's lede from Tuesday's paper:
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper is choosing which Conservative MPs will become chairs of Commons committees, reversing a parliamentary reform that he championed while leader of the Official Opposition.
And here is his first two paragraphs from today's paper:
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper is facing public criticism from some of his own MPs over his decision to nominate the chairs of House of Commons committees. But several other Conservatives say the nods from the Prime Minister's Office should be viewed simply as helpful suggestions and that MPs are still free to elect someone else.
A committee chairmanship comes with some extra pay and (usually, but not always) some influence and respect. So who are the committee chairs? Well, as Bill reported, Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin), will chair the Aboroginal Affairs and Indian Development Committee and Gerald Keddy (South Shore-St. Margaret's) will chair Fisheries and Oceans. Here's a list of some others, provided to me by one of my sources on the Hill:
- John Williams (Edmonton-St. Albert) or Brian Pallister (Portage-Lisgar) to chair the Finance Committee
- Gerry Ritz (Battlefords-Lloydminster) will chair Agriculture
- James Rajotte (Edmonton-Leduc) will chair Industry
- Dean Allison (Niagara West-Glanbrook) will chair Human Resources
- Leon Benoit (Vegreville-Wainwright) will chair International Trade
One of the key committees is Public Accounts. This was chaired in the last Parliament by Williams and was the committee where a number of the Gomery-related issues as well as the Dingwall affair were discussed. By tradition, this is a committee where the leadership goes to the Official Opposition. Speculation on the Hill is that Liberal Mark Holland (Ajax-Pickering) will end up chairing that committee.