Impartiality of the Chair: Politics versus Convention in New Brunswick's 55th Legislature

Abstract

This paper will examine the nature of Speaker impartiality within the British Parliamentary system by examining the political involvement and the casting vote of Speakers. This will attempt to historically contextualize the role of the Speaker in the province of New Brunswick and explain the institutional circumstances of the unusual conduct of Speakers Bev Harrison and Michael ‘Tanker’ Malley during the third session of the 55th Legislative Assembly. This paper argues that the source of this irregularity was the close seat count between opposition and government members. This issue illustrates the difficulties of smaller Legislative Assemblies reaching the convention established by the British Parliament respecting the impartiality of a Speaker where a Speaker is apolitical, thereby divorced from partisan politics. In the British convention, which serves as the fount of parliamentary practice, the Speaker refrains from any active political involvement, and in return the Speaker is uncontested in upcoming parliamentary elections.