OTTAWA — It may be the best job in Canadian politics.
On Thursday, eight members of the new, 41st Parliament of Canada will be vying for the job of Commons Speaker.
The winner has large shoes to fill — Peter Milliken, the last Speaker, held the job for 10 years, through four Parliaments (majority and minorities) and three prime ministers.
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An annual salary of $233,847 — that’s $75,000 more than the average MP makes.
A country estate, known as The Farm, sitting on 1.74 hectares of rural splendour in the Gatineau Hills. It’s Mackenzie King’s former home of Kingsmere, and has been the official residence for the Speaker since 1955. It comes with a housekeeper, gardeners and other staff, and is the site of a huge, annual party for denizens of Parliament Hill.
A private apartment within Centre Block, just behind the House of Commons, and two private dining rooms, one of which is large enough to manage a sit-down dinner for roughly 50 people.
An office budget of $1,062,801, which includes hospitality expenses of $170,048.
Lots of foreign travel, visiting other parliaments and counterparts abroad, as well as hosting duties at home for all kinds of dignitaries and celebrities who visit Canada.
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Democracy Gone Astray
Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.
All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.
[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]
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