By Andrew Davidson, CBC News

Conservative MP Andrew Scheer waves during the voting for a Speaker of the House of Commons in November 2008. (Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)

As today's highly anticipated question period kicked off in the House of Commons, the man in the Speaker's chair looked a tad different, not to mention a tad younger than the long-serving QP referee Peter Milliken.

Deputy Speaker Andrew Scheer took over duties from Milliken, who (ahem, nice work if you can get it) is attending the G8 Speakers' Conference in Italy.

Conservative MP and prolific Twitter-er James Moore chimed in on the 30-year-old fellow Tory's performance.

"Doing a fine job," Moore tweeted. "Youngest Speaker in the Commonwealth?"

The Speaker's job comes with considerable benefits. The position's salary is topped up to almost $230,000 from the base MP salary of $155,400. It also comes with a one-of-a-kind apartment in Parliament's Centre Block and the use of a charming, storied estate known as Kingsmere in the nearby Gatineau Hills of Quebec.