Who Has Entered the Election to Be the Next House Speaker?

House Speaker Anthony Rota admonishes Public Health Agency of Canada President Iain Stewart in the House of Commons on June 21, 2021, for failing to provide documents related to the firing of two scientists from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

Following the resignation of Anthony Rota as Speaker of the House, members of Parliament are set to vote on Oct. 3 on the MP who will take over the role.

The Speaker is elected by MPs to preside over House of Commons business by acting as a fair and impartial mediator, maintaining order during proceedings and presiding over question period, when the government is held to account for its policies and conduct.

The person in this role ensures question period is conducted in a civil manner and defends the right of all MPs to be heard in debate, requiring an MP to apologize or ordering an MP to leave the chamber if necessary. The Speaker does not participate in debates and only votes in case of a tie.

The MP elected to the role can come from any party, and the role is considered non-partisan.

Mr. Rota’s time as House Speaker came to an abrupt end on Sept. 26 when he announced his resignation after a mishap the previous week, where he invited and recognized a former member of a Nazi unit during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Parliament. Yaroslav Hunka had fought with the 4th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, a military wing of the Nazi Party.

Mr. Rota was first elected Speaker in December 2019, when he beat four other contenders, and was re-elected in November 2021 by beating six other candidates, reported CBC News. The COVID-19 pandemic influenced Mr. Rota’s time as Speaker, as he presided over Parliament’s transition to virtual and then hybrid sessions.

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In July 2021, he asked the Federal Court to strike down a Liberal government lawsuit to block MPs from receiving classified documents related to two scientists who had been fired from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. They had transferred deadly Ebola and Henipah virus samples to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China and were formally fired in January 2021 after being escorted out of the Winnipeg lab in 2019.

Since Mr. Rota’s resignation, Bloc Québécois MP Louis Plamondon has served as interim House Speaker,  having been chosen by all House leaders to do so on a temporary basis. He is what’s known as the “Dean of the House,” as the MP with the longest unbroken sitting record who isn’t a minister or party leader, according to CBC News.

Ironically, when a new Speaker is elected next week, Mr. Plamondon’s term length will have been the shortest of any Speaker in Canadian history by a long shot, lasting just five days, National Post reported.

Deputy House Speaker, Parliamentary Secretary

While all MPs who are not the leader of a party or a minister are automatically considered candidates for Speaker, a handful have said they intend to make their case about why they should be given the role. Conservative MP Chris d'Entremont, who became deputy House Speaker following the 2021 election, was one of the first to put his name forward.

Mr. d'Entremont, first elected in 2019, has served as “backup” House speaker when Mr. Rota was absent from the chamber. He has served in several shadow roles in the cabinets of former Tory leaders Andrew Scheer and Erin O'Toole.

On Sept. 27, Mr. d'Entremont told reporters that there needed to be more “decorum” and “respect for one another” in the House of Commons in the aftermath of Mr. Rota’s resignation. “But ultimately, you have to have a personal relationship with all of the members of the House of Commons, have an understanding of what their needs and wants are, because the Speaker is serving the members,” he said.

Liberal MP Greg Fergus, who currently serves as parliamentary secretary to both Treasury Board President Anita Anand and Health Minister Mark Holland, also told reporters on Sept. 27 that he would let his name stand for the role. “The importance of the rules and traditions of the House to encourage frank and impassioned debate, but within a framework of making sure they can talk to each other,” he said.

“Each one of the 338 members of Parliament has a right to be in the House, to express themselves, and not to be intimidated.”

Mr. Fergus, who has been an MP since 2015 and previously served as parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, would need to resign from his current parliamentary secretary role if elected as Speaker.

Assistant Deputy Speakers, Green Party Leader

The two assistant deputy Speakers have also put their names forward to replace Mr. Rota.

New Democrat MP Carol Hughes, who has been in the role since 2015 and was first elected as an MP in 2008, says she has consistently placed the rules and regulations of Parliament “above partisanship” throughout her time on the job.

“I have continued to work to ensure that each member of Parliament, and by extension their constituents, have a voice in our cherished institution,” wrote Ms. Hughes in a letter sent to MPs, reported CBC News.

Liberal MP Alexandra Mendès, the second assistant deputy Speaker, has served as an MP in Quebec since 2008 and has been an assistant deputy Speaker since 2019.

Green Party Co-Leader Elizabeth May, who ran for Speaker in 2019, also said she will be running for the job again. Back in 2019, she described herself as being suited for the role due to being “less partisan, certainly, than most members of Parliament.”

But MPs are required to attend the House in person to vote for the Speaker, and Ms. May has said she won’t be attending the upcoming session due to health reasons pertaining to fatigue and stress. However, a spokesperson from the Speaker’s office told CBC News in an email that the rules “do not specifically preclude a member from being elected in absentia.”

And while party leaders are not allowed to be Speaker, the Green Party does not have official party status due to having only two seats out of the minimum 12 seats required. Therefore, she would still be eligible to be a candidate for that reason.

Job Perks

Liberal MP Sean Casey has also thrown his hat in the ring to become the first House Speaker from the province of Prince Edward Island. “It would be historic,” the MP since 2011 told CBC NewsP.E.I. on Sept. 28.

Peter Schiefke, who has been a Liberal MP since 2015, would also like to have the job. Mr. Schiefke has held various parliamentary secretary positions, including parliamentary secretary to the prime minister.

The role of Speaker comes with several lofty perks, such as an additional $92,800 on top of an MP’s $194,600 base salary, a $1,000 car allowance, an apartment on Parliament Hill, and an official country residence in Quebec’s Gatineau Hill. The Speaker has a yearly office budget of $1.26 million, according to CBC News.

Despite these benefits, the House Speaker is always physically dragged to the chair by the prime minister and leader of the Opposition after being elected. This tradition of feigning reluctance to the new role dates back to the early days of the British Parliament. The Speaker’s function is to communicate the opinions of the House of Commons to the monarch, and the Speaker could face execution if the monarch disagreed with the message.

On Oct. 3, the Speaker will be elected by a written secret ranked ballot, where MPs list the candidates in order of preference. If there is no winner on the first ballot, the last-place candidate will be dropped and their votes redistributed until someone obtains a majority.