Six MPs remain in the race for the prestigious job of Speaker of the House of Commons after the first round of voting Thursday afternoon.
Barry Devolin, Lee Richardson, Andrew Scheer, Denise Savoie, Ed Holder and Merv Tweed survived the first round of voting which eliminated two of the eight MPs vying for the job, which comes with a $233,000 salary, country estate, car and driver and special chamber on Parliament Hill.
Parliamentarians have to elect a new speaker before they can get down to business, and the race is wide open after Liberal MP Peter Milliken, who held the job for a decade, decided not to run in the 2011 election. Milliken earned a reputation for his fairness and willingness to make bold judgments.
The race now moves to a second round a voting by secret ballot and will end when one of the members receives the majority of support. At the end of each round, the candidate with the fewest number of votes and any that received less than five per cent of the votes are removed from the ballot.
The process can takes several hours and in 2008 it took parliament six hours to finish the job.
Eight MPs put their names forward for the plum job including Conservatives Dean Allison, Barry Devolin, Ed Holder, Lee Richardson, Andrew Scheer, Bruce Stanton and Mervin Tweed. The lone NDP MP on the list is Denise Savoie.
Scheer, Devolin and Savoie have all acted as back-up speakers in past sessions of Parliament.
Liberal MP Justin Trudeau was originally on the list, but withdrew his name early on Thursday. The MP explained he tried to withdraw his name earlier, but the note got lost in the mail.
All had five minutes to make a pitch to their colleagues about why they should get the job, but promises to restore decorum dominated the debate.
“I will make this institution an honourable place for the people’s representatives to debate,” said Lee Richardson, who represents Calgary-Centre.
Savoie, who hails from Victoria, B.C. said she would “focus on raising the tone of the debate in this House to a level that restores the confidence of Canadians in this institution and its politicians.”
Regina MP Scheer promised to cut floor time for MPs who chirp and heckle their colleagues who are addressing the House.
“We have experience a severe decline in the level of decorum,” said Merv Tweed, from Brandon-Souris in Manitoba. “This behavior has to stop and make no mistake if you elect me as your speaker I will do everything in my power to correct this decline.”
Maintaining decorum in the House is only one of the responsibilities that come with the job.
The candidate who wins the job will have to pledge to be impartial, enforce the rules of Parliament, make rulings on procedural question and officially put the votes before the House of Commons. The Speaker abstains from voting, unless there he or she is required to break a tie.
There have only been ten times in history that a Speaker has been the tie-breaker; five of those have been while Milliken was in the job.
The speaker is also responsible running the House of Commons including overseeing its staff, renovations and budget.
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