Yukon Party calls for code of conduct for Speaker of Legislative Assembly

The Yukon Party wants to establish a formal code of conduct for the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. 

Patti McLeod, MLA for Watson Lake, announced the motion in the legislature Tuesday. 

She said the code would cover matters including "abstaining from partisan activities."

This comes after Speaker Nils Clarke rebuked Yukon Party Interim Leader Stacey Hassard for comments he made questioning Clarke's impartiality. 

Hassard made the remarks while criticizing the government's handling of the electoral reform debate. Hassard also criticized Clarke for attending Liberal caucus events. 

Impartiality when the House sits

Clarke didn't directly react to the Yukon Party's motion other than to call it a "live issue."

"I'm certainly open to hearing from the Opposition leadership," he said, adding that he thought concerns were related to caucus events he attended.

Clarke said the Speaker's role is different in the Yukon than in larger jurisdictions, where complete non-partisanship is required.  

"The over-arching philosophy in small jurisdictions ... would be primarily impartiality in the chair.... That you defend the rights and privileges of the 18 other MLA fearlessly and without favour during the course of the sitting."

Clarke said impartiality only applies when the House is sitting and two weeks prior. He said when not sitting, his role is still as a MLA working for his constituents. That gives him the right to meet with caucus during those periods. 

"You are deemed to be supporting the platform and the policy decisions of the current government," he said. "So that's a fundamental difference to the Westminster model where the person [Speaker] basically says, 'Nope, I am no longer a partisan politician.'" 

Clarke said he follows the guidelines outlined in memo Floyd McCormick issued in 2017, while he was still clerk, pertaining to the Speaker's restrictions on partisan political activity. 

McCormick's memo says restrictions on partisanship, such as those found in the United Kingdom's House of Commons, are "not practical in a House of only 19 members."