It's going to be another challenging month in the national spotlight for Mississauga South MP Paul Szabo, as the House of Commons committee he chairs gets ready for marathon hearings that will set the stage for the Mulroney-Schreiber inquiry.

The Liberal backbencher became a staple of nightly news broadcasts at the end of last year when the Parliamentary ethics committee which he chairs began its investigation into the Airbus affair.

Both former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and German businessman Karlheinz Schreiber testified before the committee. Szabo was charged with trying to keep order amid the chaos of questioning.

Now the House of Commons committee is rushing to finish its work as soon as possible in order to force Prime Minister Stephen Harper to launch a full public inquiry into the issue. "The opposition parties seem to be talking and have some common ground on the idea of making sure that committee is not seen to be a source of delay for the public inquiry," said Szabo.

The pressure fell squarely on the ethics committee after Harper said last week that setting up a separate public inquiry will be delayed until after the MPs finish their current legislative investigation.

The committee is not scheduled to resume its hearings until Feb. 29, after Parliament resumes. But Szabo is already polling committee members about the possibility of holding lengthy evening sessions, which would be broadcast in prime time, to get the inquiry completed. Among those still slated to testify are three former Cabinet Ministers, two former chiefs of staff of federal ministries, a journalist and a former clerk of the Privy Council.