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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Speaker is the perfect choice

In black robes and three-cornered hat, the speaker, at first glance, looked like a pirate
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Former Liberal MLA Darryl Plecas is escorted from the speaker corridor to the legislative assembly after being elected speaker at Legislature in Victoria on Sept. 8. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

To the editor,

The widely circulated picture of the somewhat new controversial speaker in B.C.’s legislature showed him dressed in black robes and tricorn, the traditional three-cornered hat. At first glance he looked like a stereotypical pirate. Despite all the howls of derision from the speaker’s former Liberal Party colleagues, his parliamentary garb seemed rather fitting for him and his political colleagues in Victoria. After all, pirates are infamous as looters and pillagers, and politicians have a nasty reputation of doing just that to taxpayers’ wallets.

It turns out he was a federally appointed prison judge for eight years; without doubt, this training makes the man more than eligible for the speaker’s chair. Having sat in judgment of people who are definitely not known for telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, he will surely be acclimated to dealing with a parliamentary chamber full of people who habitually have identical dubious records of veracity.

Bernie Smith, Parksville