7 things P.E.I. MLAs weren't supposed to say in the Legislature
'Fall back like a dinosaur' and other terms that earned rebukes from the Speaker of P.E.I. Legislature
There's a certain decorum required of any elected member in Canada's parliamentary system. Maintaining and sometimes interpreting what that level of decorum should be is up to the various speakers of the legislative assemblies.
With regards to acceptable language for use in legislative debate, the Rules of the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island state, "No member shall use language or words offensive toward the House or any member."
It's generally accepted that anything that questions the honesty or personal integrity of a member is off-limits, as are personal attacks and obscene language.
Beyond that it's up to each individual speaker to decide for themselves what constitutes unparliamentary language.
According to the 2014 Annual Report of the P.E.I. Legislative Assembly (tabled Jan. 25, 2016), the following seven words and phrases resulted in cautionary warnings for unparliamentary language from the P.E.I. Speaker in 2014:
- ...It almost looked like he was sucking up to the premier.
- Untrue.
- Arrogant.
- Fall back like a dinosaur.
- Bluffing.
- Guts.
- When the premier's inner circle tried to get greased, Islanders got fleeced.