An attempt by Canada’s Official Opposition NDP party to increase the power of the Speaker of the House of Commons so he could rule on the relevancy of answers given during Question Period was defeated in the House Tuesday night (September 30) with all government MPs except three voting against the motion.
In a letter earlier in the day to government MPs the NDP’s House Leader Peter Julian called on them to support his motion: “This motion is a non-partisan, modest step that would allow the Speaker to put an end to the type of embarrassing – and totally irrelevant – replies that we all had the misfortune of witnessing last week,”
The motion came following an incident last Tuesday (September 23) when Official Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair asked the government to clarify its military intentions in Iraq three times in Question Period, while Paul Calandra, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, answered with attacks on the NDP on another matter.
A frustrated Mulcair called on Speaker Andrew Scheer to react, then questioned the Speaker’s neutrality, and was then cut off from asking questions by the Speaker. The next day the Speaker ruled it was not his role, unless the Commons decided it, to force answers, suggesting “As we have heard many times, that is why it is called ‘Question Period’ not ‘Answer Period’.”
The incident was widely covered by the Canadian media. Calandra apologized in the House on Friday.
More information:
CBC News – NDP make bid to boost Speaker’s power to intervene during QP – here
Ottawa Citizen – Proposal to give Commons speaker more power quickly quashed – here
RCI – Challenged on neutrality, Commons Speaker rules Question Period is not ‘answer’ period – here
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.