Speaker of the House of Commons Greg Fergus takes part in the Speakers Parade prior to question period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 1.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Accidents happen. Last December, when Greg Fergus, the Speaker of the House of Commons, wanted to record a tribute for his old buddy, John Fraser, who was leaving his post as the interim leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, he accidentally featured at a partisan political event.
It’s just one of those things. I mean, how was Mr. Fergus supposed to know the video was going to be played at a big, public meeting of the Ontario Liberals?
Apart from asking, that is. Yes, asking would have been a good idea – when the Speaker records a video, he might want to inquire about how it will be used. Or have his staff ask. The Speaker has some special expectations, after all.
Although Speakers are MPs elected under a partisan banner – the Liberal Party of Canada’s, in Mr. Fergus’s case – they are supposed to keep the partisanship out of the frame.
So the video was a big oops. The Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois started calling for him to be fired, but he survived with the support of the Liberals and NDP. Phew! Close one. Can’t let that happen again. Everybody around him, especially every Liberal, absolutely knows exactly what not to do.
Except, you know, accidents happen. Apparently the same ones, over and over.
When the ad went up for an event next month called “A Summer Evening with the Honourable Greg Fergus,” it included partisan statements that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and his party propose policies that will harm you and your fellow Canadians. Or, to quote verbatim, “propose reckless policies that would risk our health, safety and pocketbooks.”
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At this point, it started to seem like a cry for help. Luckily, the Liberal Party stepped in to say it was all an accident – but theirs this time. It was party operatives, not Mr. Fergus, who passed the partisan blast onto the announcement for the Speaker’s event.
But as easy as it is to believe that employees at Liberal Party HQ automatically stamp partisan messages onto every document that goes through the office, it is still a spectacular level of screw-up. It was already famously the case that there is one single member of the Liberal Party who should not be associated with partisan messages. Put a sticker on his file or something. Maybe a series of bells and whistles.
Of course, the Conservatives were watching for something like this. They immediately called for him to be fired, again. Mr. Fergus has survived the accident, again. But he’s still limping.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called it an “unfortunate mistake,” but Mr. Fergus’s tenure has been a series of unfortunate events.
He has never really been able to assert control over the Commons. He’s been the picked-on kid, taunted by Tories and lamely defended by the bigger kids on the Liberal front benches and New Democrats who seem to feel a little sorry for him.
He followed a speaker fired last September for his own gaffe, Anthony Rota, who invited MPs to applaud a Ukrainian Canadian veteran at an address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, without realizing the 98-year-old man had served in an SS unit. But Mr. Rota had Conservative support. Mr. Poilievre’s Tories opposed Mr. Fergus as too partisan from the get-go.
Early in his tenure, when Mr. Fergus tried to give a speech about decorum before Question Period, Conservatives interrupted and heckled. Three weeks ago, Mr. Poilievre was kicked out of the chamber for unparliamentary language where Tories felt Mr. Fergus was a one-sided arbiter.
It’s not a crisis, but the House is divided over the Speaker. The Tories are targeting him. The Bloc also opposes Mr. Fergus. The Liberals and NDP argue the Conservatives are deliberately undermining the Speaker. But the partisan episodes, the dumb mistakes shrugged off as accidents by Mr. Fergus or the Liberal Party, have helped to undermine him, too.
The one thing Mr. Fergus had to do was avoid displays of partisanship, but somehow, he has managed to slip on a banana peel and fall into a steaming heap of partisanship. Twice.
At some point, the injuries from these pratfalls take their toll – even if he has only been in the role for eight months. Already, Mr. Fergus is like a hockey referee who has taken a lot of knocks. You have to wonder if he can keep up with the game.