Actually, officially speaking, those who get to speak in the House of Commons are those catch the eye of the Speaker.
We do have from time to time debates in the House of Commons that are not regularly scheduled. We've seen this a couple of times with debates on questions of privilege, for example, when a motion of privilege is moved and there is no roster available. In those case the whips hadn't had an opportunity to.... So, I stand up and catch the Speaker's attention and I speak.
In questions and comments, for example, after a debate in the House of Commons, it's always whoever catches the eye of the Speaker. The Speaker has his or her discretion and I know our Speaker and deputy speakers try to follow some kind of pattern. Conservative Speakers typically go to a government MP or a third party MP, and so on and so forth. That structure is in place.
In terms of committee memberships and how they get allocated, I think most caucuses have a system in which members make requests as to what their preferred committee is. There has to be some kind of organization there for allocation. You can't have 30 members wanting to sit on the procedure and House affairs committee when there are only so many spots—or no members, for that matter. I would expect this is a very popular committee, if only to serve with you, Mr. Chair.