Explaining the role of Speaker of the house

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/10/2022 (1419 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Speaker is the neutral, non-partisan, presiding officer of the Legislative Assembly. The Speaker is an MLA elected in a secret ballot by all members of the Legislative Assembly to preside over legislative proceedings and ensure that the assembly’s established rules of behaviour, practises, and procedures are followed. It is the Speaker’s duty to interpret these rules impartially, to maintain order, and to defend the rights and privileges of Members including the right to freedom of speech.

The duties of the Speaker fall into three categories:

1. Presiding officer — The key aspects of being Speaker are authority and impartiality. The Speaker does not take part in debates, ask or answer questions, and does not vote except to break a tie. All questions and statements during a formal sitting must be directed through the Speaker.

2. Administrator — The Speaker is the head of the Legislative Assembly and is responsible for its overall direction and management.

3. Official representative of the house — The Speaker acts as the official ambassador of the Legislative Assembly, meets with elected officials, ambassadors, consuls general and honorary consuls general from all over the world and represents the Manitoba Legislature at parliamentary gatherings in Canada and internationally.

Other roles and responsibilities:

The Speaker oversees the Manitoba Legislative Assembly’s education and outreach services, is the honorary chair of the Association of Former Manitoba MLAs and provides a supporting role to the Youth Parliament of Manitoba.

Members are entitled to expect the Speaker to remain neutral and treat all members fairly. At the same time, the Speaker is entitled to expect support from all members, regardless of their party.

The original job of the Speaker of the House in England was to communicate information to the King or Queen on behalf of the House of Commons — the commoners. If the King or Queen didn’t like what the Speaker had to say, the Speaker could literally lose his head. Today, the Speaker is taken to the speaker’s chair for the first time by the Premier and the leader of the Opposition, pretending to resist.

The Speaker, when elected, does not stop being an MLA. That means that while remaining neutral and avoiding taking public positions on politically controversial matters before the Legislative Assembly, the Speaker must continue to listen to the people of his or her constituency and to effectively represent their interests. The Speaker does this by making private recommendations to government and organizations on issues affecting their constituency. The Speaker, however, does not attend caucus meetings.

The Speaker is also responsible for security for the Legislative Assembly.