Peter Milliken The Partisan Liberal

How convenient of the Speaker of the House to hurry up both his contempt of parliament motions and squeeze them in before the pre-budget recess. The Liberal Party could not have hoped for better wording of the statement if they had written it themselves. Speakers are chosen by secret ballot in the House of Commons, but the Stephen Harper never made any major effort to elect a Tory to the post, which was clearly a mistake.  Seeing Harper and Dion humorously escorting Miliken back to the Speaker's chair in 2008, there may have been warm and fuzzy period of bipartisan delusions, but alas it was short lived. Minority government in Canada is chaotic at best, and a Liberal speaker will just default to his partisan feelings when it matters.

I am not surprised by either ruling. At this point it was just about what I expected. Milliken said exactly what his party wanted him to say and he said it when they wanted him to say it. The Liberals needed him to speed up his "investigation" before the budget vote. For the Liberals to fight an election on the budget would have been futile because the Conservatives are considered strongest on the economy. Their only chance is to parade some kind of cloak and dagger shenanigans trying to paint the Prime Minister as some sort of authoritarian dictator.

The only good news out of this whole sorted affair is that we are likely to have a non-confidence vote the day before the budget vote. Peter Milliken's days as Speaker are numbered. Good riddance. The question for Canadians will be what matters to you more, the economy or alleged government secrecy? Because if it is the economy, the Tories will win in a landslide. Our economy has been one of the best in the world during a substantial global recession. We were lucky to have had Stephen Harper with his hands on the steering wheel to drive us through the fog.

I look forward to an election. Should be great for my site traffic.