Shane Thompson opts for the no-nonsense approach

“Just to clarify: Please. Address. The chair.”

Speaker of the House Shane Thompson has found his weapon of choice for managing unruly NWT politicians: a tone of voice last heard when Nicolas Cage uttered the immortal words, “Put the bunny back in the box.”

Since taking on the speaker’s role post-election, former minister Thompson has developed a hint of a cutting edge that sets him apart from recent occupants of the same chair.

MLAs have to address the speaker when exchanging views in the legislature – they aren’t allowed, technically, to speak directly to each other. (This is a rule inherited from the British parliament, like many others.)

Few other speakers have made a habit of going after MLAs for occasional violation of this rule. Thompson does, with light menace.

Generally, members’ statements must take less than two and a half minutes. In the past, an MLA needlessly prolonging one could rely on a grandfatherly gleam in the eye of the speaker, who’d declare “the member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude their statement” as though he could listen to them talk all day.

Now, their mic gets cut and Thompson asks for unanimous consent in a manner that implies he’ll use their bones as chewing tobacco if they run long again.

“People have always said we want to follow the rules. We want to be perceived as a government that actually follows the rules and implements procedures properly. There’s a little bit of give and take, but you need to follow the rules,” Thompson told Cabin Radio earlier this month, setting out his philosophy.

“That was one of the things that resonated with me. We need to follow the rules. Not that the other speakers didn’t do it, it’s just a different way.”

He also draws a line back to the years he spent as a Fort Simpson soccer coach before becoming a politician.

“As I told my colleagues, you’ve put a coach in the chair. So I’m going to coach the way I normally coach,” he said.

“This is how I want things done. If you ask my girls’ soccer team or my boys’ soccer team, this is how I did things.”

Heaven help any member of a Thompson soccer team who inadvertently spoke to a motion when they should have been speaking to an amendment to a motion.

“To the amendment. To the amendment,” Thompson exclaimed during Thursday’s wildfire inquiry debate – which was littered with enough amendments to confuse anyone – after Jane Weyallon Armstrong had uttered two and a half sentences.

Later, after Richard Edjericon strayed into a political minefield by referring to cabinet members as “you,” Thompson responded: “Colleagues, I need to reiterate, speak to me. When you say ‘you’ and you’re looking over at cabinet, you’re implying cabinet. I need you to look at me and address me.

“We do not need to cross this line. This is a very important debate, and I understand that there is going to be feelings in this, and I understand it’s emotional, but address it to me as the Speaker of the House.”

In an interview, Thompson said he thinks this group of MLAs can avoid – perhaps with the help of some interjections – the interpersonal conflict that appeared to trouble the legislature at times over the past four years.

“There are going to be some disagreements, there are going to be different personalities that come out. And you’re already seeing that,” he said.

“But I think collectively, I have faith that cabinet is going to do a great job, and AOC [the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight, otherwise known as the 11 regular MLAs] is going to do a great job.

“It’s getting used to how I run the House and how they’re going to run it. But we’re working together. I hope and believe we will have a good next four years, and I’m looking forward to it.”

For all that Thompson is guarding parliamentary customs like Smaug on an off day, he’s also departing from recent practice in some areas.

Having gained a reputation as a regular MLA and minister for statements that promoted or eulogized residents of his Nahendeh district, Thompson has kept that going as speaker, delivering almost as many statements as some of the regular MLAs to his left. That’s something speakers before him rarely chose to do.

Thompson is also aware that he might be coming off as a little short at times, an impression on which he’s already begun riffing.

“On a serious note, colleagues, yesterday something happened that I was not happy with,” he thundered at the opening of Thursday’s proceedings.

“I had to read at eight o’clock last night that somebody had a birthday and didn’t tell us about it.”