Speaker - Courage and Not

The former Socred, now BC Liberal, MLA for Kamloops, Claude Richmond is Speaker of the BC Legislature. He could learn a lot from Gary Carr who is the Conservative MPP for Oakville and Speaker of Ontario's Legislative Assembly.

On May 8th the Speaker of the Ontario Legislature ruled that a prima facie case of contempt of the Legislature had been established when the government released its budget at an auto parts plant in March. That courageous ruling has resulted in a debate that has gone on for days and has even found one government member making a widely publicized obscene gesture at the New Democratic Party house leader in the legislature. CBC's "The Sunday Edition" introduced its May 18th program with an editorial on the courage of the Ontario Speaker. It compared his actions to historical rulings by speakers that preserved the rights of Parliament against the oppression of the King.

Compare the courage of Speaker Garry Carr with the weakness of Speaker Claude Richmond, who in one of his first rulings after being made Speaker of the BC Legislature, declared that no Official Opposition exists in BC. Richmond flouted Parliamentary tradition to rule in favor of the statement made by Gordon Campbell on the night of his overwhelming election win when the vindictive Premier announced that BC had no Official Opposition.

The same weak BC Speaker who supported "the king" and ruled against Parliamentary history found himself in front of the TV cameras again on May 14th. Dressed in his formal Speaker's garb, Richmond spoke to Global TV about the Coquihalla Highway. As MLA for Kamloops it appears that Richmond is taking considerable heat over the government's decision to privatize the highway and guarantee tolls for the next 55 years. Some argue that BC's weak kneed Speaker was simply defending the interests of his constituents when he said that government might reconsider its controversial decision. Others might argue that the Speaker was prepared to break tradition on two occasions: first, to deny the existence of an Official Opposition, and second, to defend the government when it was taking heat for hurting his constituents. However you count the number of times Richmond has broken with tradition, it is clear that he is made of different stuff than Ontario's Garry Carr.