Canada's New Speaker is Afraid of Camels .... and Me!

Canada's new Speaker of the House is Andrew Scheer, headlined as the youngest in Canadian history. But he may also be the most partisan.

Scheer and I have a relationship of sorts, one shared with a dromedary from Oman.

During Harper's last self-serving prorogation, the Harperites were out in droves trying to suggest that there was nothing amiss. But Canadians knew otherwise, including Sarah MacDonald who was teaching in Oman, shown above with her friend in a two creature desert rally for democracy.

Scheer was heard on a radio program in Saskatchewan, where MacDonald was interviewed, stating emphatically that what Harper did was not unprecedented, and that he would gladly explain it to anyone who cared to contact him.

So I did.

I wrote, I phoned and I emailed, and am still waiting for my explanation.

For more than a week, I ran headlines on my blog, wondering if perhaps Scheer had been kidnapped (or just unable to defend the indefensible). Finally someone from his office (Stephen Hurst) emailed me, saying that they couldn't help me over the phone or by email, but if I would provide an address, they would be more than happy to oblige.

Not one to back down, I sent my address, but received only a formal request form, which I dutifully filled out and mailed back.

Still nothing.

The Speaker of the House is supposed to be impartial. At the time Scheer was deputy speaker, and yet clearly unwilling to engage with those not Conservative.

I have my doubts that he will be able to handle the job if confronted with investigating his party's crimes.

Would he have found them in contempt? Would he have made them hand over the Detainee documents?

I have my doubts.