Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) is the title of an elected member of theLegislative Assembly of the Canadian province ofOntario. Elsewhere in Canada, the titular designation "Member of Provincial Parliament" has also been used to refer to members of theLegislative Assembly of Lower Canada from 1791 to 1838, and to members of theLegislative Assembly of Quebec from 1955 to 1968.
Thetitular designation "Member of Provincial Parliament" and theinitialism "MPP" were formally adopted by the Ontario legislature on April 7, 1938. Before the adoption of this resolution, members had no fixed designation. Prior toConfederation in 1867, members of theLegislative Assembly of the Province of Canada had been known by various titles, including MPP, MLA and MHA. This confusion persisted after 1867, with members of the Ontario legislature using the titleMember of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) or Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) interchangeably.[1]
In 1938, Frederick Fraser Hunter, the member for St. Patrick (in Toronto), introduced aprivate member's bill to designate members with the titleMember of Parliament (MP), arguing that the titles of MPP or MLA were confusing, inaccurate, and undignified. However, his proposal failed to pass. As an alternative, a resolution was adopted fixing the title as Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP).[1]
The text of theresolution passed by the House on that day is as follows:
On motion of Mr. Hunter, seconded by Mr. Miller,
Resolved, That in all matters of address, titular distinction, formal correspondence, official proceedings and all similar matters having to do with and coming under the jurisdiction of the Legislature of Ontario, the members of the Legislative Assembly shall be entitled to the designation "Member of Provincial Parliament" and its abbreviation "M.P.P."[2]
InQuebec, a bill to adopt the titular designation "Member of Provincial Parliament" (fr:membre du Parlement provincial) and the initialism "MPP" (fr:M.P.P.) was assented on December 15, 1955.[3] Like in Ontario, members had no fixed designation prior to this bill's adoption, although they were usually referred to as "Members of the Legislative Assembly" (MLAs) (fr:membres de l'Assemblée législative (M.A.L.s)).
The bill to change the titular designation was supported byQuebec premierMaurice Duplessis, who gave a speech in support of it in the legislative assembly. The reasons he gave for this change were the following:
The designation was changed again in 1968 when theNational Assembly of Quebec was renamed. The member's titular designation was "Member of the Quebec Parliament" (MQP, ormembre du Parlement du Québec (M.P.Q)) from 1968 to 1971, then "Member of the National Assembly" (MNA, ormembres de l'Assemblée Nationale (M.A.N.) from 1971 to 1982. The designation "Member of the National Assembly" is still used in English, but the French titular designation was abolished, and MNAs are now simply referred to as "député", the same title used for federal members of Parliament and for the members of other provincial assemblies.[5]
Ontario is currently the only Canadian provincial legislative assembly to employ this designation.[6][7] Members of other Canadian provincial and territorial assemblies employ the titles: