Watch above: Take a rare look inside the office Speaker of the House of Commons Andrew Scheer.
When he ran for the Conservatives in Regina, he didn’t expect to find himself in this office, steeped as it is in tradition and non-partisanship.
The once rock-ribbed, hyper partisan Andrew Scheer found out in 2011 he would have to put away his Conservative leanings and work instead for all parties, taking the chair as Speaker of the House of Commons.
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“By accepting the job as Speaker you make a commitment to the House that that’s where you’ll focus, that’s what you’ll make a priority,” Scheer said in an interview on The West Block with Tom Clark. “That’s very important for members of all parties to have that trust that they recognize that I put away the partisan affiliations to ensure that the House is functioning because the institution will be here long after I’m here, long after the current players are here and it has to remain strong.
As Speaker, Scheer is tasked with keeping MPs of all stripes in line with the rules governing the Commons. And at 34 years old, he is the youngest MP to ever hold the position.
Throughout his years in the Speaker’s big, green chair, Scheer has handed down important rulings, watched the government stickhandle its way through scandals and, not least of all, developed a solid poker face.
“Developing a poker face was an important part of the job, really, because sometimes there are great zingers and sometimes from both sides someone will say something that it’s hard not to laugh at,” he said.
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