Speaker Greg Fergus is facing criticism for anti-Conservative language used in an ad for an upcoming partisan event in his riding — and there are renewed calls for him to resign from his position as a neutral arbiter of House of Commons proceedings.
In a lengthy letter sent to Fergus on Tuesday, Conservative MP Chris Warkentin says an online posting for “A Summer Evening with the Honourable Greg Fergus” includes a line that takes aim at leader Pierre Poilievre and attacks him for Conservative policies “that would risk our health, safety and pocketbooks” while promoting a Liberal plan to “grow an economy that works for everyone.”
The ad for the planned June event uses “very partisan, inflammatory language,” the Alberta MP said.
“Your event is being promoted by attacking the very same leader whom you recently used your authority to kick out of the House of Commons, allegedly for his choice of wording,” Warkentin said.
That’s a reference to Fergus’s decision to remove Poilievre from the Commons last month after he refused to retract a comment calling the prime minister and his policies “wacko.” Warkentin said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also used tough language to describe Poilievre but faced no sanction.
‘I regret to say you must go’
The ad for the event has been pulled from the Liberal Party website, but the Conservatives took a screenshot before its removal and disseminated it to the press on Tuesday morning.
Warkentin said the Speaker, as referee of the Commons, should be impartial at all times to sustain the confidence of MPs.
“You have failed at showing, and being seen to show, the impartially required of a Speaker; in turn you can no longer count on the trust and goodwill of members from all corners of this House,” he wrote in his letter.
“I regret to say you must go,” Warkentin wrote, saying anything Fergus does in the Commons going forward will have a “red tint.”
If Fergus does not do the “honourable thing” and immediately resign the Conservatives will press for his removal, the letter said.
Speaking later in the Commons, Warkentin stood on a question of privilege and laid out his case for why Fergus should either resign or be forced out in a 30-minute address.
Bloc MP Alain Therrien, the party’s House leader, agreed that Fergus should go.
“Neutrality and good judgment — those are the basis of a good Speaker,” Therrien said in French.
“The actor chosen for the role is the wrong one. We feel he does not belong in that position. We asked him to remain neutral, he said he would and now he’s back at it,” Therrien said.
“He should resign. What more would it take for the Liberals and the NDP to finally say, ‘Enough is enough.'”
Language ‘being corrected’
A Liberal Party spokesperson said the event in question was a “free event put on by Mr. Fergus’s riding association.”
“The language that was on the event page is the auto-populated, standard language for events on our website,” Parker Lund told CBC News.
“There was a miscommunication between the party and Mr. Fergus’s riding association, which led to the wrong text being put on the website. That is now being corrected.”
Lund said it was “very common” for MPs to hold summer events to “thank and show their appreciation to local supporters and volunteers.”
A spokesperson for Fergus also did not respond to questions about the planned partisan event in Hull, Que.
Fergus’s past has raised questions
Fergus had already lost the support of Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs after he taped a video tribute to an outgoing Ontario Liberal leader while wearing the Speaker’s robes.
He also participated in a fundraising event in his riding last fall, something billed as a “cocktail militant” for Liberal supporters.
Fergus held onto his job after the NDP backed him during the fracas over the video. He apologized and paid a fine for breaking Commons rules that forbid using parliamentary resources for partisan purposes.
House Speaker Greg Fergus apologized to the House of Commons Friday, one day after a report examining his partisan video was issued, and he pledged to “spare no expense” to regain the trust of those who wanted him replaced.
Some MPs have questioned Fergus’s fitness to serve in this sort of role from the beginning of his tenure last year given much of his past career was very partisan in nature.
He served as president of the Young Liberals of Canada in the 1990s.
In 2007, former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion named him national director — the most senior role in the party’s organizational hierarchy.
In that position, he helped prepare the party for an election through fundraising and get-out-the-vote mobilization.
Fergus, first elected in 2015, served as Trudeau’s parliamentary secretary — a testament to the close relationship he enjoys with the head of government.
Like some other Liberal MPs, Fergus has been known to filibuster Commons committee hearings on various government mishaps — such as the hearings on the WE Charity scandal.
