As is typically the case this far into a sitting, the language used by members of the Yukon Legislative Assembly appears to be getting on speaker David Laxton’s nerves.
“The rhetoric in the House has been rising,” he said Tuesday. “We’ve had several situations in the past few days where I have directed and cautioned both sides of the House on the use of different words, and yet it continues.”
On Monday house leader Darius Elias challenged NDP MLA Jim Tredger over his accusation that the Yukon Party chooses “rhetoric and secrecy over the facts.”
Laxton ruled that members should avoid the word “rhetoric,” but “secrecy” is OK.
“The idea that the government does things in secret is your opinion,” he said. “They may not tell you what they’re doing right away. Is that secret? I don’t know. I don’t really care. They choose to tell you about when they have made a decision on something when they’ve made a decision on it.”
On Tuesday Laxton said it’s up to MLAs to set the level of decorum in the House.
“If you take offence to something somebody has said, in some cases, maybe you should get a thicker skin, because I will not defend you when you turn around and do it again.”