IN THE NEWS ~ Filibuster earns Julian verbiage volume title

Published: May 13, 2013 2:00 PM

A long filibuster went a long way to Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian earning the title as the most talkative Member of Parliament in the House of Commons in 2012.

In honour of summer reading season, Samara, a research group that strives to improve political participation, counted the words the 302 MPs spoke in 2012. The non-profit organization discovered the bilingual Julian was the most talkative at 226,027 words.

Last spring, Julian spoke on the federal budget for 13 hours over two and a half days. He mounted the filibuster in his role as NDP interim finance critic. He was filling in for Peggy Nash during her unsuccessful campaign for the leadership of the New Democratic Party. She was reappointed to the position by leader Thomas Mulcair after he won.

Julian did the duties in addition to his regular one as the NDP energy and natural resources critic.

Winnipeg North MP Kevin Lamoureux of the Liberal Party finished second to Julian in verbiage volume with just 3,500 fewer words. That was almost 50,000 more than the next closest, Green Party leader Elizabeth May (174,783).

New Westminster-Coquitlam MP Fin Donnelly came in at No. 142 with 20,929 words, less than 10 per cent of Julian's output.

Fellow New Democrat MP, Kennedy Stewart (Burnaby-Douglas), was 90th at 31,540 words spoken in Parliament while Prime Minister Stephen Harper was 109th with 26,758 words.

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