Roundup: Speaker Fergus is in trouble

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The incident over the weekend where Speaker Greg Fergus appeared in a video at the Ontario Liberal leadership convention, in his robes, in his official office, blew up in the House of Commons today, and it wasn’t wholly unexpected. Fergus led off the day with an apology and a promise to be more careful in the future, but also an insistence that this was a personal message to outgoing interim provincial Liberal leader John Fraser, for whom he las a long-standing friendship, and non-partisan.

This didn’t mollify the Conservatives, who immediately launched into a point of privilege, led by Andrew Scheer, while the Bloc immediately decided that Fergus needs to resign over this, while the Conservatives also came around to this demand. The NDP, for their part, said that this needs to go to a committee for study, but all the while, Fergus recused himself from this discussion (as well he should have, which as something that Anthony Rota didn’t do after his particular incident), but the Deputy Speaker, Chris d’Entrement, indulged. It was quite clear that this was really more of a dilatory tactic from the Conservatives, who put up speaker after speaker to this point, for hours on end, which again, d’Entrement indulged when he shouldn’t have. But this is what they’re doing at this time of year, to run out the clock, like they do at the end of every sitting, and this was just today’s excuse rather than insisting that they really, really needed to debate a three-line committee report from eighteen months ago.

A couple of observations here:

  1. This wasn’t necessarily a breach of non-partisanship because this was at a provincial and not a federal event. Scheer tried to use the analogy of an NHL referee giving a pep talk in on team’s dressing room while in uniform, but that doesn’t hold—this would be an NHL referee giving a note of congratulations to someone in the OHL. But Scheer is a serial liar, so of course he’s going to turn out a work of fiction on this.
  2. Fergus should have known better, and while Fraser is trying to take the blame for this, Fergus should have had better judgment than to appear in his robes, in his official office, regardless of the circumstances. As a friend of mine noted, the Liberals can’t seem to help themselves with this kind of thing, and Fergus has been a little too proud of his new post and to be showing off his robes at every opportunity, and that’s going to get him in trouble. Well, more than he already is. Did he learn nothing from the fact that Rota was a genial idiot using his position to pose for photos in his uniform at every opportunity, and it led to his downfall? Seriously.
  3. If people want to get precious about what is and isn’t non-partisan for a Speaker, Rota would be making government funding announcement in his riding all the time, which he shouldn’t have done because he’s not a minister, and he’s the Speaker and shouldn’t have been there for them. And yet, nobody said boo about this practice, which they really should have.

Bottom line is I don’t think Fergus should have to resign over this, but man oh man, what terrible judgment so early in his time in that office.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Ukrainian forces say they have successfully attacked oil depots in Russian-occupied Luhansk, while the deputy commander of Russia’s 14th Army Corps was killed in fighting in Ukraine. The death toll from the strike on the eastern town of Novohrodivka has risen after more bodies were found in the rubble of a residential building.

Good reads:

  • New, stricter methane emission reductions were announced at COP28, and of course Danielle Smith is theatrically angry about it. The emissions cap is on the way.
  • There was a massive rally of Jewish organisations on Parliament Hill, that was attended by several MPs from some but not all parties.
  • Former fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan has been named the new consul general in Boston after Rodger Cuzner was appointed to the Senate.
  • Justice Marie-Josée Hogue released her list of who will have standing at the foreign interference public inquiry, and who won’t.
  • FINTRAC is expecting the criminal use of cryptocurrencies to grow.
  • CBC is proposing hundreds of layoffs and cutting back on original programming because they can’t keep up with funding challenges.
  • The Assembly of First Nations is holding a three-day meeting in Ottawa this week to choose a new National Chief.
  • The CEO of Sobeys appeared at the agriculture committee (by video) to defend his company’s plans to stabilise food prices.
  • A Saskatchewan MLA is defending his motel raising rates for Social Services rentals, claiming it actually saves money in the long run.

Odds and ends:

For National Magazine, I look at the Canadian Bar Association’s recently updated guide to collateral consequences for criminal convictions.

My Loonie Politics Quick Take looks at the choice senators are facing when it comes to Bill C-234, which aims to provide another carve-out to the federal carbon price.

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One thought on “Roundup: Speaker Fergus is in trouble”

  1. So sad that again another Speaker who lacks judgement. What is the matter with these MPs, it seems that EGO is everything and they forget logic and common sense.

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