Welcome to this special episode of Political Debrief. Today, I am very excited to welcome to the show the Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Rota. We had a great chat about why young people should care about his role and the business of the house and how we can make question period more civil (or can we)? In the audio only episode, we learned more about Speaker Rota’s riding (Nipissing—Timiskaming) and the inside story on how hybrid parliament was born.
Quick Note: This interview was recorded on September 19, 2023. Which was prior to the events that unfolded after the Ukrainan President’s address to Parliament on Friday, September 22nd, where Mr. Rota unintentionally reconzied a man in the gallery who fought for a Nazi unit in WWII. Mr. Rota resigned a few days later. I did a full episode talking about this controversy with former speaker Geoff Regan, which I would encourage you to watch.
Here are some links with additional information if you are interested:
- Learn More about the House of Commons (Schedule and Livestream Information)
- John Ivison: Parliament is not dead, but respect for it appears to be (National Post)
- ‘You’re lying’: Conservative MP Raquel Dancho kicked out of House of Commons (iPolitics)
- Anthony Rota resigns as Speaker after honouring Ukrainian veteran who fought with Nazi unit (CBC News)
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