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By Curtis Galbraith

Federal Politics

Warkentin calls on House of Commons Speaker to resign

May 28, 2024 | 6:00 AM

The MP for Grande Prairie-Mackenzie has written a letter to House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus, calling on him to resign.

Chris Warkentin sent the letter as part of his role as deputy whip of the Conservative caucus.

Warkentin says the Speaker acts as a referee in the House of Commons and is not to be involved in partisan debate, a convention Warkentin says Fergus has repeatedly broken.

“There’s been example after example. There’s been complaints brought forward and, actually, the Speaker has been found to be in contravention of the rules of the House of Commons a couple of times.”

“This is now the third example of really extreme partisan activity on behalf of the Speaker.”

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Warkentin is referring to a planned Liberal party event called “A Summer Evening with Greg Fergus” which he says uses language critical of Conservative leader Pierre Pollievre. This has since been deleted. His letter also cites several other examples of perceived bias on the part of Fergus.

The first line of Warkentin’s letter reads “You have proven, yet again, that you are not suited to be Speaker of the House of Commons.”

“This is after nearly half of the House of Commons actually voted for him to be removed. It wasn’t quite the majority of the House of Commons. The NDP supported the Liberals last time this went to a vote. This Speaker has already lost the confidence of two of the major parties in the House of Commons,” adds Warkentin.

He says the Bloc also wants Fergus to resign.

Fergus’s team claimed that he did not know about the post that contained the criticism Pollievre.

“What makes that unbelievable is at the bottom of the events page, it clearly articulates and clearly states that events are posted by volunteers of local associations, not by the party itself,” says Warkentin, adding, “The Speaker now claiming that the party did this to him, that it was without his knowledge, is a complete contravention of even what the party website says.”

CBC and CTV report Warkentin put forward a motion Monday afternoon (May 27) to have a vote in the House of Commons to remove Fergus from the Speaker role.

The reports say the Deputy Speaker has ruled that some of Fergus’s actions in relation to that event posting bring up some concerns over not being impartial.