Parliament reconvened at the end of January. Already it seems like old times, with the Liberals scoring political points over Stockwell Day’s defamation case against Lorne Goddard, which cost Alberta taxpayers nearly $800,000. Not to mention Deborah Grey’s decision to opt back into the MP Pension program. Meanwhile, the Alliance soon had Foreign Minister John Manley on the ropes over the case of the drunk driving Russian diplomat who struck and killed lawyer Christine McLaren. The diplomat was called back to Russia (one step ahead of being expelled from Canada), but that hasn’t stemmed debate over the thorny issue of just how far diplomatic immunity should extend, or if it should exist at all.
But before the mudslinging began, there was an event that brought a little dignity back into the lower chamber: the election of its chief presiding officer. On Monday, January 29th, Members of Parliament elected a new Speaker of the House of Commons. The event was steeped in tradition. Equipped with a sword, the Sergeant at Arms marched solemnly into the House and asked permission to admit a messenger. Then came the Usher of the Black Rod (formerly known as the Gentlemen Usher of the Black Rod until Mary McLaren became the first woman to hold the post) with a message from Governor General Adrienne Clarkson inviting the MP’s to attend her in the Senate chamber. Despite the fact that there isn’t room for 301 MP’s in the Senate, they all went down anyway, the majority hanging around in the hall (where no doubt candidates seized the opportunity to do a bit of last minute campaigning).
Meanwhile, inside the Senate the Governor General announced what everyone already knew – that the House needed to elect a Speaker. After being formally invited to return the following day to hear the speech from the throne, the MP’s returned to the House of Commons and the voting began.
There are a number of interesting rules and customs surrounding the voting process. MP’s must actually leave the House through a door on one side of the Speaker’s chair, and return through a door on the other side, where they receive their ballot and their name is checked off a list. With each ballot, both the last place finisher and anyone who didn’t receive at least five percent of the vote is dropped from the list. What sets this process apart from other elections is that the Clerk of the House does not reveal the number of votes that each candidate received. Instead, he/she merely announces the names of those who made it to the next ballot in alphabetical order. This makes it more difficult for individual candidates to decide whether to remain in the race, or concede defeat and ask to have their name removed from the ballot. The color of the ballots changes with each vote, to prevent a Member using the same one over and over.
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