It's Peter Milliken, besting Andrew Scheer and Merv Tweed on the fifth ballot.

A big shock with the results of the fourth ballot: NDP MP Joe Comartin is out!

Apparently, Comartin's support was strong but largely confined to the Bloc Quebecois and NDP MPs. As a result, it hasn't grown much over the first rounds of balloting.

And so we're down to incumbent Peter Milliken and Conservatives Merv Tweed and Andrew Scheer.

Merv Tweed actually has a fully-stocked hospitality suite and, when I visited during fourth-ballot voting, it was packed and not just with Tory MPs. There were some Comartin supporters there as well. Perhaps recognizing that their man had no more room to grown, some NDP types are being wooed by the man from Brandon. Get ready for Speaker Tweed folks!

With three rounds of voting complete, MPs have yet to elect a speaker. The names of five MPs were on the second ballot: NDP MP Joe Comartin, Conservatives Barry Devolin, Andrew Scheer, and Merv Tweed and Liberal incumbent Peter Milliken. MPs will now now vote a fourth time. Because he finished last on the third ballot, Ontario Conservative MP Barry Devolin will not be on the fourth ballot.

MPs have failed to elect a Speaker for the House of Commons on the second ballot.

The names of six MPs were on the second ballot: Mauril Belanger, Joe Comartin, Barry Devolin, Peter Milliken, Andrew Scheer, and Merv Tweed.

MPs will now be voting a third time. Ottawa Liberal MP Mauril Belanger will not be on the third ballot. Under the voting rules, the candidate who finishes last on each ballot is automatically removed from subsequent ballots. Candidates who fail to receive at least 15 votes are also dropped.

Voting continues until one candidate secures a majority.

MPs began the selection process for Speaker at about 10 a.m.

MPs are voting again.

Here's the rules for the balloting: Any candidate who does not get at least 15 votes is out for any subsequent ballots. If everyone gets at least 15 votes, then they guy who finished last is out.

MPs will keep voting until someone gets a majority.

So, the second ballot is underway without Royal Galipeau or Rob Anders name on the ballot.

Andrew Scheer, Tory MP from Regina, will not turn 30 until next May but he believe he's ready to assume the Speaker's chair. He may be young but he's going all the way back to 1642 in his speech, when King Charles was getting ornery about the young British Parliament. "The speaker must be impartial, fair and non-partisan." He was an assistant deputy speaker in the last Parliament and acknowleges that he learned the rules at the knee of master Milliken.

Royal Galipeau, Tory MP from Ottawa is up. He was on the deputy speaker squad in the last Parliament. Odd that he's running for, in the last Parliament, as a demonstration of of the kind decorum he stands for, I suppose, Galipeau physically threatened Liberal MP David McGuinty on the floor of the House of Commons! ...

1036 - Mauril Bélanger leads off. Calls for a higher level of decorum. "Canadians are expecting to see a collective improvement in our behaviour." Bélanger, speaking in French and English, quotes Ed Broadbent. Bélanger brings up 10 per centers -- the taxpayer funded mailings widely used by Conservative MPs to bomb Liberal-held ridings with ant-Liberal propaganda. "I believe it is not an appropriate use of members' privileges and it is not an appropriate use of taxpayer money." Using these 10-per-centers for partisan purposes was the brainchild of one Kory Teneycke, while he headed the Conservative Research Group, the job held before becoming the prime minister's director of communication. Former Liberal MP Garth Tuner, whose riding got bombed by these things, called them Tory "poop-o-grams".

1041 - NDP MP Joe Comartin is up next. Comartin is widely seen as the most capable of candidates but is probably may be he's too talented and too valuable as a critic and NDP MP. Some of his own NDP colleagues are torn on this issue, wishing their colleague well but thinking their team will be lessened if Comartin has to take up the non-partisan role of Speaker. "I believe the role of the Speaker is quite clear and really quite simple. The responsibility of the speaker is to maintain order and decorum in this Chamber. Beyond that it's my belief that the speaker has the responsibility to protect the rights and responsibilities of every member in this House."

Louis Plamondon is summoned to the Speaker's Chair. "It seems quite comfortable," Plamondon says as he settles in Speaker's Chair for what could be an hour or two or several hours. Plamondon thanks his constituents and his family....

While they're gone -- a quick note on the lay of the land in the House.

First, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has not yet made an appearance and -- who knows? -- he may not. International Trade MInister Stockwell Day is on government business in Brazil this week. Foreign Affairs MInister Lawrence Cannon is in Peru for APEC Leaders Week.

here we are, perched in the press gallery in the House of Commons, just over the left the shoulder of the Dean of the House, Louis Plamondon. Plamondon is sitting in the Speaker's Chair this morning because he, as the aforementioned Dean of the House, gets to run the election for the Speaker. Plamondon, a Bloc Quebecois MP who was first elected as a Progressive Conservative in 1984 when support for les bleus like Plamondon swept Brian Mulroney to his first monster majority. Plamondon would cross the floor six years later to join Lucien Bouchard and the Bloc Quebecois and he's been there ever since.

But back to election of the speaker which I will be live-blogging.