interim NDP leader. He later supported Pawley, the successful candidate, at the party's leadership convention. The NDP returned to government in the 1981 provincial election. Walding was not appointed to cabinet, as some had expected. Instead, Pawley appointed him as speaker of the legislature on February 25, 1982. Over the next four years, his relationship with Pawley became increasingly strained. In 1983 and 1984, Walding allowed the opposition Progressive Conservatives to stall passage of the Pawley government's re-entrenchment of French-language rights. Initially, the Conservatives refused to enter the chamber to vote on the legislation, and Walding refused to call a vote in their absence. As a result, the division bells were allowed to ring for several hours at the end of each legislative day. When NDP cabinet minister Andy Anstett restricted the amount of time that the bells could ring, the Conservatives boycotted the assembly entirely. Walding still refused to call a vote. On February 21, 1984, he refused a direct request from Pawley to move the legislative agenda forward. The house was eventually prorogued with the issue still unresolved. Many questioned the validity of Walding's decision. Sidney Green, who had left the NDP by then and also opposed French-language re-entrenchment, still argued that Walding was wrong to give the Conservatives a means to disrupt the legislative process. Walding's actions made him extremely unpopular with some segments of his party. He was challenged for the St. Vital NDP nomination in 1986 by Gerri Unwin and Sig Laser, and he defeated Laser by a single vote on the second ballot. Walding was re-elected in the general election of 1986 with a reduced majority. The NDP was re-elected with a narrow majority government, and Pawley did not reappoint Walding as speaker. As a backbencher, Walding spoke out against the Pawley government on several issues. He was particularly opposed to affirmative action legislation, which he regarded as discriminatory. Walding voted for an opposition amendment to his party's budget on March 8, 1988, despite having assured Finance Minister Eugene Kostyra that he would support it. Earlier in the year, longtime cabinet minister Laurent Desjardins had essentially ceased attending legislative sessions. As a result, Walding's defection toppled the Pawley government. The NDP was roundly defeated in the general election that followed, in which Walding was not a candidate. Death and legacy He died at 69 after a short battle with cancer in 2007. He was