{"id":215853,"date":"2019-05-25T10:22:37","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T14:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=215853"},"modified":"2019-05-25T10:22:37","modified_gmt":"2019-05-25T14:22:37","slug":"alberta-ndp-cries-foul-as-speaker-cooper-names-new-legislature-clerk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/25\/alberta-ndp-cries-foul-as-speaker-cooper-names-new-legislature-clerk\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta NDP cries foul as Speaker Cooper names new legislature clerk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Legislature Speaker Nathan Cooper has announced that longtime senior parliamentary counsel Shannon Dean will replace Merwan Saher as the clerk of the assembly effective immediately. (File Photo<\/a>: Nathan Cooper\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EDMONTON \u2014 Alberta’s legislature has a new clerk of the assembly, but it’s a move the opposition NDP says smacks of political skulduggery and manipulation.<\/p>\n

Legislature Speaker Nathan Cooper has announced that longtime senior parliamentary counsel Shannon Dean will replace Merwan Saher as the clerk of the assembly effective immediately.<\/p>\n

It’s a non-partisan job that will see Dean oversee the administration of the legislative offices and work hand-in-glove with Cooper as he makes rulings on legal issues and precedents in the house.<\/p>\n

Dean has also done the job in an acting capacity before.<\/p>\n

Cooper says while the decision is not a knock on Saher, he wanted to move in a different direction with Dean.<\/p>\n

Saher is Alberta’s former auditor general and was named to the clerk job in February, just weeks before a provincial election that saw Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservatives win government.<\/p>\n

Cooper was then selected as the new Speaker.<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Rachel Notley, in a news release, suggested that Saher was let go as part of a covert plan by Kenney to politicize key non-partisan jobs in the legislature to muzzle dissent.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday’s replacement of the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly is an unprecedented and shocking development that raises serious concerns about the level of non-partisan service that can be expected by members of the Official Opposition from the Speaker’s Office and the associated Legislative Assembly Office,\u201d said Notley in the news release Friday.<\/p>\n

While Cooper is a member of Kenney’s United Conservatives, the Speaker is considered independent and serves all members equally.<\/p>\n

Cooper, in an interview, fired back at Notley, saying it was his decision alone.<\/p>\n

He labelled the attack an unfair smear on Dean’s two decades of non-partisan service to the legislature, noting that Notley did not raise an objection to Dean when Dean recently held the clerk’s job in an acting capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrankly, I was quite surprised to see the statement from the leader of the opposition turning this into a partisan issue,\u201d said Cooper.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Dean) is literally one of the most respected table officers in the entire country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dean becomes Alberta’s ninth clerk of the assembly and the first woman to hold the job.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON \u2014 Alberta’s legislature has a new clerk of the assembly, but it’s a move the opposition NDP says smacks …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":215854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-dean-bennett","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215855,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215853\/revisions\/215855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}