Tim Naumetz, THE CANADIAN PRESS

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

OTTAWA - An array of lavish perks will be at stake as seven MPs contest election to the Speaker's chair when the House of Commons convenes Tuesday.

The half-dozen members challenging incumbent Peter Milliken have focused their campaigns on halting the rowdy behaviour that grew so offensive in the last Parliament it had teachers leading their students out of the public galleries to avoid the spectacle.

But beneath the surface, the cushy lifestyle that accompanies the coveted post is also up for grabs - and one of the candidates says it may be time to reform that along with House decorum.

"I intend to do a review of the whole hospitality budget of the Speaker to see if there's any savings there," New Democrat MP Joe Comartin told The Canadian Press.

The speaker's job comes with a cozy apartment in the rear of the Centre Block, a rustic mansion and grounds in the Gatineau Hills near Ottawa, a car and driver to shuttle the Speaker between the two, and a $1-million budget that includes up to $167,500 for hospitality.

The country residence at Kingsmere, Que., called The Farm, has its own wine cellar.

And when Parliament is adjourned, the Speaker has a foreign travel budget that allows flights to exotic destinations around the world.

Milliken has drawn on that extensively, spending several hundred thousand dollars over the last two years on visits abroad, always with a contingent of MPs from all parties along for the ride.

In Parliament, Milliken has established a practice of hosting informal weekly dinners, invariably a meal of lamb with wine, in his Centre Block apartment for up to two-dozen MPs.

Comartin said he's attended several of the dinners and finds them "cordial, with friendships that are formed across party lines." He nonetheless is making spending reform in the Speaker's office part of his platform.

"Maybe there is a better format to make sure it does cross over into conduct in the House," he said.

Comartin's main campaign plank, however, is the same as the others who are vying for the post - behaviour in Parliament.

"The kind of conduct that's gone on in there, it was at its worst in the spring, it was just getting worse and worse," he said.

Another challenger, Manitoba Conservative MP Merv Tweed, believes his experience as a provincial cabinet minister and chair of the Commons transport committee, supplemented by his time running an automobile dealership, can help him steer MPs toward civility in question period.

"If you talk to MPs I think you would get that comment, that things were just getting out of hand," he said. "I wouldn't say one side was more guilty or innocent than the other."

Until now, Milliken has generally responded to disorder in the House by telling MPs it's up to them, not him, to force a change. But Ottawa Liberal Mauril Belanger says that, even if the incumbent is re-elected, the common front among the other candidates on the need for more rigour in the chamber has made a point.

"I think it's healthy, it's sending a message," said Belanger, who like Comartin and Tweed confirms his past attendance at Milliken's weekly dinners.

The other MPs contesting the Speaker's chair are Saskatchewan Conservative Andrew Scheer, Ottawa Conservative Royal Galipeau and Ontario Conservative Barry Devolin.

The Speaker's race aside, both government and opposition MPs say the need for all parties to focus on the slumping economy may also help change the tone in the House.

"There seems to be a consensus that we want to be very serious in how we approach everything that flows from the economic instability facing our nation," said Conservative House Leader Jay Hill.

"On our team's part, we certainly do want to see a new tone, and we're going to do everything we can."

Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale hinted that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's recent private discussions with all three opposition leaders could lead to a Throne Speech that all parties - perhaps save the Bloc Quebecois - can accept.

"The economy is the big issue," Goodale said, adding that the government's first signal of parliamentary conciliation was to schedule the Throne Speech in the afternoon on Wednesday, rather than stealing prime time thunder from the opposition with an evening speech, as the Tories did in the last session.

Goodale suggested it's unlikely there will be any outright confrontations before the Dec. 12 Christmas recess - but he insisted that doesn't mean the opposition won't put pressure on the government.

"How is it that Canada is now so close to the line in terms of deficit?" he said.

"When these guys came into office they had (inherited) annual surpluses that were in the order of $12 billion. All of the shock absorbers seem to be gone."