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This was not an isolated or rogue statement. It encapsulates the current view of the vast majority of members of all parties and, unfortunately of the Speakers themselves. And it is utter nonsense.

This interpretation is an affront to the traditional and necessary role of a Speaker to occasionally exercise discretion in the best interest of the House. Sir John George Bourinot, a former Clerk and authority on the subject, called the Speaker’s discretion the first principle of parliamentary government – to protect the minority and restrain the improvidence and tyranny of the majority, to secure the transaction of public business in a decent and orderly manner.

During a famous filibuster over the flag bill in the 1960s Speaker Alan Macnaughton used his discretion to split a motion into two parts and have two votes, thereby ending the filibuster. At the time, the Speaker did not have any authority under the rules to split motions but he did so under his general discretionary authority. What seems to be lacking among recent Speakers is not authority under the Standing Orders but the wisdom to understand their role and the courage to act.

A third reason for the weakness of our Presiding Officers, at least in regards to Question Period, is the failure to correctly diagnose the problem. This failure is shared by all the media and even by the NDP motion to strengthen the Speakership.

The problem is not that ministers sometimes obfuscate or are unwilling to answer certain questions. The real problem is the growing trend whereby ministers and parliamentary secretaries (who should not be answering at all but that is another issue) are answering questions by posing their own questions back on the Opposition. Ask Stephen Harper a question about electoral fraud and if you are an NDP member you get back a question about NDP constituency office spending. Ask him about the Senate Scandal and if you are a Liberal you get back a question about sponsorship. House Leader Peter Van Loan and many other ministers do the same thing over and over. Calandra was simply less skilled at this when he asked, in reply to a question about Iraq, if Mulcair agreed with a particularly obscene tweet about Israel from a supposedly NDP supporter.