2023 Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada election

2023 Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada election

←  2021 October 3, 2023

Majority party Minority party Third party   Candidate Greg Fergus Sean Casey Chris d'Entremont Party Liberal Liberal Conservative Constituency Hull—Aylmer Charlottetown West Nova   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Candidate Carol Hughes Elizabeth May Alexandra Mendès Party New Democratic Green Liberal Constituency Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing Saanich—Gulf Islands Brossard—Saint-Lambert   Seventh party   Candidate Peter Schiefke Party Liberal Constituency Vaudreuil—Soulanges

Speaker before election Anthony Rota Liberal Elected Speaker Greg Fergus Liberal

The 2023 election for Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada took place on October 3, 2023, to elect the 38th speaker of the House of Commons, following the resignation of Speaker Anthony Rota. This was held during the 44th Canadian Parliament.

On September 22, 2023, Speaker Rota invited a former member of the Schutzstaffel , a Nazi paramilitary organization, to attend an address from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, triggering his resignation as speaker. Yaroslav Hunka, who fought with the Waffen-SS during World War II was honoured by Rota and received a standing ovation from attendees. Rota apologized for the oversight and announced he would step down on September 26, resigning as speaker the following day. ^[1]

Greg Fergus, the member of Parliament (MP) for Hull—Aylmer was elected speaker in the election. He is the first person of colour to be elected as speaker, ^[2] and is the third speaker to be elected during a session of Parliament, joining Thomas Bain and Lloyd Francis. ^[3]

Background

Further information: Yaroslav Hunka scandal

Former Speaker Anthony Rota.

Anthony Rota, the MP for Nipissing—Timiskaming, was elected as speaker of the House of Commons on December 5, 2019. ^[4]

On September 22, 2023, following an address to the Canadian parliament by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Rota introduced and recognized Yaroslav Hunka in the parliamentary galleries. He identified Hunka as a "war hero" who fought for the First Ukrainian Division; subsequent media reports then identified Hunka as a member of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division (also known as the 1st Galician Division) of Nazi Germany's Waffen-SS during the Second World War; the unit was responsible for anti-partisan atrocities in Poland, Slovakia and the Austria–Slovenia border. ^[5] Rota apologized, and later resigned on September 26, 2023. ^[1]

Procedure

The speaker's election rules were introduced in 1986 and are set out in Chapter 7 of the House of Commons Procedure and Practice. All MPs except for ministers of the Crown and party leaders are eligible to run for speaker. Any MP who does not wish to put their name forward must issue a letter withdrawing from the ballot by the day before the vote. All MPs who do not remove their name from the ballot as of 6:00 pm ET the day before the election are listed as candidates on the ballot. As this election will occur during a session, the presiding officer during the election would typically be the outgoing speaker or, in the absence of the speaker, the deputy speaker; the election will be presided over by the dean of the House, Louis Plamondon, who was serving as interim speaker. If only one candidate existed, a motion would've been laid before the House to ask if the candidate should take the Chair as Speaker. If the question were challenged, the decision would've been put to a division. ^[3]

Candidates for election each gave a five-minute speech to the House before voting. The House then voted by secret ballot, using the ranked ballot voting system. Each MP ranked each candidate by preference, and an absolute majority was required. If no candidate won a majority, the individual with the fewest votes was eliminated, as were any candidates who received less than 5 percent of the votes cast until one member received a majority vote. ^[3]

Election

The following MPs confirmed their intention to run to in the media:

Elected speaker

• Greg Fergus (Liberal, Hull—Aylmer) ^[6]

Candidates

• Sean Casey (Liberal, Charlottetown) ^[7]
• Chris d'Entremont (Conservative, West Nova; Deputy Speaker and Chair of the Committees of the Whole) ^{[8] [9]}
• Carol Hughes (New Democratic, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing; Assistant Deputy Speaker and Deputy Chair of the Committees of the Whole) ^[9]
• Elizabeth May (Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands) ^[10]
• Alexandra Mendès (Liberal, Brossard—Saint-Lambert; Assistant Deputy Speaker and Assistant Deputy Chair of the Committees of the Whole) ^{[11] [9]}
• Peter Schiefke (Liberal), (Vaudreuil—Soulanges) ^{[12] [13]}

Withdrawn

• Stéphane Lauzon (Liberal), (Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation) ^{[12] [13]}

References

1. "Anthony Rota resigns as Speaker after honouring Ukrainian veteran who fought with Nazi unit". September 26, 2023. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
2. "CP NewsAlert: House of Commons elects Greg Fergus as next Speaker". Toronto Star. October 3, 2023. Archived from the original on October 3, 2023. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
3. Bosc, Marc; Gagnon, André (December 14, 2017). "Chapter 7: The Speaker and Other Presiding Officers of the House". House of Commons Procedure and Practice (3rd ed.). Éditions Yvon Blais. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
4. Tunney, Catharine; Zimonjic, Peter; Harris, Kathleen (December 5, 2019). "Liberal MP Anthony Rota elected Speaker of the House of Commons". CBC News. Archived from the original on April 28, 2022. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
5. Ritchie, Sarah. "Jewish Groups Demand Apology". CTV News. Archived from the original on September 26, 2023. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
6. Glen McGregor [@glen_mcgregor] (September 27, 2023). "Conservative MP Chris d'Entremont (current deputy speaker) formally declares his candidacy to succeed Anthony Rota, writing to MPs that the current situation "unfortunate and exceptionally difficult, but our important work as parliamentarians of the House... must continue."" (Tweet). Retrieved September 28, 2023– via Twitter.
7. Yarr, Kevin (September 28, 2023). "Charlottetown MP Sean Casey running for job of Parliamentary Speaker". CBC News. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
8. Mackenzie Gray [@Gray_Mackenzie] (September 27, 2023). "Liberal MP Greg Fergus says he plans on running for speaker. He's the first Liberal we've heard from publicly to say he's going to run #cdnpoli" (Tweet). Retrieved September 28, 2023– via Twitter.
9. Sérgio Mourato [@OMNITVSergio] (September 27, 2023). "Conservative MP Chris d'Entremont (Deputy Speaker), Liberal MP Alexandra Mendes (Assistant Deputy Speaker), and NDP MP Carol Hughes (Assistant Deputy Speaker), confirmed to run for the full job of Speaker of the House of Commons. #cndpoli" (Tweet). Retrieved September 28, 2023– via Twitter.
10. Cormac Mac Sweeney [@cmaconthehill] (September 27, 2023). "Green Party co-Leader @ElizabethMay has confirmed to me she will be on the ballot to become the new Speaker of the House. However due to her recent health issues will not physically be present for the vote. She does plan to give a virtual speech during the process #cdnpoli" (Tweet). Retrieved September 28, 2023– via Twitter.
11. Davis Legree [@DavisLegree] (September 27, 2023). "Liberal MP and Assistant Deputy Speaker Alexandra Mendès makes her pitch to be the next House speaker. Greg Fergus, also a Liberal, and Chris d'Entremont, the deputy speaker, have also thrown their hats in the ring #cdnpoli" (Tweet). Retrieved September 28, 2023– via Twitter.
12. Aiello, Rachel. "What you need to know about the election of a new Speaker". CTV News. Retrieved October 2, 2023.
13. https://www.ourcommons.ca/content/ParliamentaryBusiness/Booklet-2023-e.pdf