Three more days and counting

Question Period has been pretty fun lately for those of us who revel in the theatrical absurdity of it all, but the Speaker seems to be getting pretty fed up with the heckling. There's just three more days to go before the house rises as planned Thursday and everyone is tired and punchy from the marathon filibuster last week. Today was one of those days that was stop-and-start, where no one (not even Doer) could get more than half a sentence out before drowning in heckles. As he always does, Tory MLA Ron Schuler wins the award for the most relentless jibes, most aimed at the Premier. And they're pretty personal, even though Schuler told a recent gathering of U of W students that he tries not to get personal in QP."Back to your tequila!" he shouted endlessly at Doer, a reference to the Premier's moderately pointless trip to Mexico for a trade route summit last week. "Is that a little Pepto-Bismol on your tie?"After one of those, we heard Speaker George Hickes mumble "Oh, man," before standing up to demand order for the 48th time."Let's have some respect for the dignity of this house and the guests that are with us today," said Hickes as a big class of Hutterite kids looked on.Good luck with that, Mr. Speaker.

Mary Agnes Welch, Winnipeg Free Press