During the past session of the Manitoba Legislature Turtle Mountain MLA Doyle Piwniuk had a slightly different role to play.

The Deputy Speaker had to fill in for Speaker Myrna Driedger who was unable to carry out her duties because of knee surgery.

“I had the opportunity to sit in the chair from mid-April to June 1st. It was quite historical because we had very few MLA’s in the legislature. We had six MLA’s with four from the government side and two from the opposition NDP.”

Piwniuk said things started off quietly but then things picked up.

“I enjoyed every minute of it. It’s like being a referee and you have to make calls on both sides and you have to be non-partisan. As Deputy Speaker and Acting Speaker I had to stay neutral through the entire six weeks even through caucus meetings.”

The Turtle Mountain constituency stretches over almost half of the province from west to east, running along Highway 2 from the Saskatchewan border east to a line that goes down near Darlingford to the U-S border.