Speaker Milliken’s House Party Crashed

Few people, even within political circles, understand the job of Speaker Peter Milliken. Milliken is the guy who sits at the centre of the shot that is commonly shown during Question Period footage on what could be mistaken for a throne at the head of the chamber. He is also the Liberal Member of Parliament for Kingston and the Islands, a riding so safe that when I tinkered with seat projection models a few years back and plugged in numbers to the tune of the Tories getting 90% of the vote nationally (I can dream, right?), there was one Liberal seat left in the country and it was Milliken’s! I’m not sure if this factors into the equation or not, but Milliken has actually done a stellar job as speaker during two turbulent minority and one majority Parliament where behaviour was not the issue (he was first elected Speaker after the 2000 election and has been reelected twice since — something that is quite uncommon in Canadian legislatures).

Having served as a legislative page in Queen’s Park during earlier times, I’m probably too aware for my own good of the speaker’s job gotten to know and watch Chris Stockwell when he held the job in the late 90s for Ontario’s chamber. Because of this, I’ve watched the various provincial and federal gents who have held the role since my time in the legislature and agree for the most part that Speaker Milliken has done a fantastic job at being a fair broker in Parliamentary proceedings; despite being a Liberal, he has sided with all four parties at various times in accordance with parliamentary procedures.

However, aside from his superb diplomacy skills, his reported concerns that are coming out tonight have been ringing a little hollow to me personally. Even though Milliken was addressing parliamentary committees in his comments, he has shown little inclination to get his own circus under control. And to be honest, it’s almost as if he’s too nice and that’s why our Question Periods are now the shameful spectacle that they are. Back in my page days, it wasn’t uncommon for Peter Kormos, NDP MPP for Welland and a personal favourite, to get himself ejected from the legislature for unparliamentary language — language he used during his questions! As far as I have seen, and please correct me if I’m wrong here, Milliken has not ejected any MPs in Ottawa for making a mockery of the chamber. In the interest of fairness, there are numberous MPs from all four parties who I personally feel should’ve been made examples in this last parliament: Peter Mackay (for the Belinda dog comment), Thomas Mulcair for his rage incident the other day, and Denis Coderre for calling Rona Ambrose a “potted plant” in 2006. All should’ve been kicked out of the chamber, forced to make an apology if they wanted to return and as a result of procedure, bared from returning to the chamber until the next day.

Just imagine for a minute what that would’ve done to the minority government or the opposition parties had they not controlled the numbers that they needed to get bills passed, motions carried or even survive a confidence vote. If Milliken were serious about improving the work environment for our elected officials, he would be throwing the book at the various MPs (of all parties!) who heckle so loudly that the members who have the floor during QP cannot be heard even when assisted by a microphone. Sure, Milliken gets up when that member sits down out of futility and politely asks the chamber to let the statement become audible but that only lasts for five seconds (I’ve timed it) before the whole show starts again.

Of course, this is not to say that the party whips and leaders don’t have some responsibility on this front either, however it’s actually the speaker’s job (aka we’re paying him for this!) to keep order in the House. He has many parliamentary procedures and tricks that he can use to make life pretty miserable for any member/party that bucks his authority and I think that he’s proven his trustworthiness to flex a little muscle to get the chamber under control. If he cannot do that, despite the goodwill that he has brought over the past seven and a half years, I seriously have to question if Peter Milliken is the man that we want to be chief babysitter up in Ottawa.