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.”
Re: “Former Liberal MP Garth Tuner, whose riding got bombed by these things, called them Tory “poop-o-grams”.”
As I recall Steve Janke posting, Mr. Turner did some poop-o-gramming of his own.