41st Parliament of BC begins today!

At 10am today - the 41st Parliament of BC commences.  Firstly - Her Honour, the Lieutenant-Governor (LG) will take her place upon the Throne and will advise MLA's, through BC's Attorney-General (Hon. Andrew Wilkinson), that she can't advise her reasons for calling MLA's together until a Speaker is elected

After the L-G retires, the Clerk of the House (Craig James) will then took over, as per Standing Order 11.  After some brief remarks - the Clerk will advise as to the candidates as per Standing Order 11(c)(i) which requires MLA's not wishing to be candidates to advise the Office of the Clerk no later than 6pm the night before.  Should an election be required, the Clerk and his assistants will conduct the election, as per Standing Order 11, until a MLA receives a majority of the votes or in the case of acclamation, the Clerk will make such a declaration and that MLA will then take the Speaker's Chair, thank the members for the high honour of being elected Speaker, declare a brief recess to change into the appropriate clothing, return to the House, recognize the Premier, the Leader of the Opposition and the MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head (Andrew Weaver - BC Green Party Leader) who traditionally congratulate the Speaker on their election win and then the House will adjourn until the afternoon where the Speech from the Throne is read by the L-G, some routine business is conducted and then the House will adjourn until the following Monday at 10am

Will be interesting to see how many MLA's (other than the Premier/Cabinet Ministers' who are not allowed to be Speaker, as per Standing Order 11(b)(iii)) file notice withdrawing their candidacy for the Office of Speaker, in addition to the actual contents of the Speech from the Throne.  It has been already reported by media that the Speech from the Throne will include references to increase welfare payments by $100 and to introduce legislation to "Ban Big Money" from our political system

I believe it will be an interesting Day 1 of the 41st Parliament of BC, from start to finish, for sure!

~SF