But ITQ cannot join with Aaron Wherry in endorsing Joe Comartin for Speaker of the House, for the very reasons that Aaron reiterates in his post — in a nutshell, he’s just too valuable a critic, committee member and cable news talking head to be silenced by the strict impartiality requirements of Chair.
Instead, we will be throwing our support behind the current associate deputy speaker, Conservative Andrew Scheer, who impressed us on the (admittedly, too few and far between) occasion that we actually paid attention to his performance of his speakertorial duties in the House, most noteably during our liveblogging of Committee of the Whole last May.
More importantly, he is, as yet, the only challenger to the current inhabitant who seems to be motivated not by a grim and joyless sense of duty (rather like the anti-”perk” Cromwellian Reformers of old), but by his unmistakable passion for parliamentary ritual and tradition, and for the Commons itself, in all its anachronistic and anarchic glory.
For that, and because we have a soft spot for anyone who dresses his toddler in miniature Speaker’s robes for Hill’o'ween, we’re backing Scheer.
You?
