At least she didn't have to put up her dukes.
Responding to her call to put a lid on all the applause and desk thumping MLAs partake in during question period in the provincial legislature, Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington was met with prolonged desk thumping and cheering from Liberal and New Democrat politicians in the chamber last week.
The independent MLA had put forward a motion for the premier and opposition leaders to ban applause during question period, saying it would have been a small step toward improving decorum and would allow more time for questions and answers.
She noted this spring the legislature will have spent close to three-anda-half hours on applause, wasting close to 20 minutes a week. The constant applause feeds a hyperpartisan tone and drowns out any meaningful exchange, she said.
This spring, the speaker has reprimanded MLAs several times for their poor behaviour, Huntington added.
"It is just an easy, quick way to restoring a bit of dignity and civility to the house. Students watch from the gallery and are so disturbed by the adolescent behaviour. One told me that they would get sent to the principal's office for acting like members do," she told the Optimist last week.
Huntington said 323 years ago the House of Commons of the United Kingdom banned hissing and applause from its proceedings, eliminating disturbances when members were speaking. She also told the legislature the national assembly in Quebec banned applause from question period last year.
Delta North Liberal MLA Scott Hamilton said it's been a tradition to support your ministers, while the opposition supports its critics.
"Little appreciation has been given to back in 2005 when the premier of the day, Gordon Campbell, actually increased the length of question period from 15 minutes to 30. It was all part of an open government strategy. She (Huntington) says she has been timing it, but while we may spend 20 minutes a week clapping, there's an additional hour of question period that never existed prior to 2005," Hamilton said.
Things in the legislature may seem raucous to Huntington, but they haven't gone as far as what happened in the Nova Scotia legislature three years ago when a cabinet minister was charged with assaulting another member. Politicians there said the scuffle between two men inside a washroom near the chamber was an embarrassing example of a lack of decorum.
