As the B.C. NDP prepares to form government, it will need to decide on an MLA to fill the role of Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in Victoria.
Usually, the elected position goes to the party in power, but B.C. NDP Leader David Eby has indicated he might be open to a Conservative or Green MLA filling the position instead.
Toward the end of October, Eby said he was extending “an open invitation to any MLA to work with us … one of those ways is certainly Speaker of the House.”
The NDP is in a bit of a tricky situation, with a slim majority that is still up in the air pending a recount. For now, it holds 47 seats, just enough for a majority.
The Speaker is expected to be neutral, facilitating a fair debate and voting only to break ties. So, choosing one of their own for the role reduces a party’s effective majority.
The B.C. Conservatives, who hold 44 seats, are reluctant to provide an MLA to fill the role and relieve the pressure on the governing party. The B.C. Green Party, with only two seats, is equally hesitant.
Like a referee
The Speaker presides over debates, including the contentious free-for-all known as question period, ensuring that the MLAs are following the rules. Claude Richmond, who was Speaker from 2001 to 2005, says it’s kind of like being a hockey referee.
“You got to let the players play, but you can’t take the game away from them,” Richmond told CBC’s The Early Edition.
“If the House gets unruly, which it sometimes does, maybe especially in question period, it can get a little hot, and that’s when the Speaker has to step in and straighten things out,” he said.
The Early Edition6:00What does the Speaker do in the B.C. Legislature?
We hear from former Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Claude Richmond about the role.
Speaker can break ties
Choosing a Speaker is the legislature’s first order of business following an election. MLAs vote on the role via secret ballot.
The Speaker is expected to maintain a degree of political neutrality. In practice, this means making sure all MLAs are treated fairly regardless of which party they belong to. The Speaker isn’t supposed to publicly take positions on controversial issues that are before the legislature.
“[The Speaker] has to be absolutely neutral to both sides, and that’s extremely important,” Richmond says.
Whoever fills the position will sit in the large black leather Speaker’s chair under a carved wood canopy at the front of the legislative chamber while it’s in session. They will continue to serve their constituents as MLA, listening to their concerns and privately relaying issues and recommendations to the government.
For the extra trouble and work, the Speaker draws an additional salary of $59,766 on top of their base MLA salary of $119,533.
In CBC’s On the Ledge, political reporters Les Leyne and Justine Hunter explain what’s next for the newly elected B.C. NDP government, including judicial recounts and the selection of a new Speaker.
Following Eby’s open invitation, a number of B.C. Conservative MLAs, including Teresa Wat, Ian Paton, and Peter Milobar, publicly turned down the role on X, saying they were not interested in the job.
When a party has a very slim majority, the legislature “can get pretty, pretty testy,” Richmond says, especially if someone from the ruling party is sick or out of the province.
“Eby likely wants a guard against that.”
Conservative Leader John Rustad has already said he isn’t keen on the idea.
“At this stage, I would not be offering one of our members to be Speaker to support the agenda that [Eby] ran on.”
Déjà vu at the legislature
In 2017, when B.C. elected an NDP minority government, a Liberal Opposition MLA stepped up to fill the role of Speaker.
Darryl Plecas, who was then in his second term, put his name forward and was elected. A day later, he was expelled from the B.C. Liberal Party.
The move strengthened the minority NDP government’s position, ensuring the party didn’t lose the voting power of one of its MLAs.
Plecas was also known for having spoken out against the leadership of his party’s former leader, Christy Clark.
The Liberals didn’t receive Plecas’s decision lightly. At the time, the party’s interim leader, MLA Rich Coleman, said everyone in his party had committed to not run for Speaker.
“I took him at his word. Obviously, that word didn’t mean a lot,” Coleman said in September of 2017.
Plecas became an Independent MLA and served as the 39th Speaker from 2017 until the next provincial election in 2020. He did not run in that election. B.C. NDP MLA Raj Chouhan succeeded him as Speaker that year when the NDP won a majority.