| Speaker of the House of Commons | |
|---|---|
| Président de la Chambre des communes | |
 Badge and baton of office of the Speaker | |
_(cropped).jpg) | |
| House of Commons of Canada | |
| Style |
|
| Member of | Parliament |
| Residence | The Farm |
| Appointer | Elected by the members of the House of Commons |
| Term length | Elected at the start of each Parliament |
| Inaugural holder | James Cockburn |
| Salary | CA$309,700 |
| Website | www |
 |
|---|
 Category |
Thespeaker of the House of Commons (French:président de la Chambre des communes) is thepresiding officer of thelower house of theParliament of Canada. Amember of Parliament (MP), a speaker is elected at the beginning of each new parliament by fellow MPs. The speaker's role in presiding over theHouse of Commons of Canada is similar to that of speakers elsewhere in other countries that use theWestminster system.
The 40th speaker of the House of Commons isFrancis Scarpaleggia, who assumed the role on May 26, 2025. The speaker with the longest tenure isPeter Milliken who was elected for four consecutive terms lasting 10 years, 124 days.
In Canada it is the speaker's responsibility to manage the House of Commons and supervise its staff. It is also the speaker's duty to act as a liaison with theSenate andthe Crown. They are to rule over the house and have the government answer questions during the question period as well as keep decorum with the house. The speaker receives a salary ofCA$309,700 ($209,800 as an MP in addition to $99,900 as speaker)[1] and has use of a small apartment, in the House of Commons, and anofficial residence,The Farm, an estate located atKingsmere inGatineau Park,Quebec, across the river fromOttawa.[2][3][4][5]
Along with the Senate speaker, the speaker of the House is responsible for theParliamentary Protective Service, which provides security toParliament Hill with theRoyal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).[6]
The term "speaker" originates from the British parliamentary tradition. The French term now used in Canada isprésident (president, chairperson, or presiding officer); the termorateur, acalque (literal translation) of "speaker" and formerly the term used in France for theSpeaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, was used until the early 1980s.[7]
The speaker and their deputies preside over debates of the House of Commons, invite particular members to speak, maintain order and decorum (including reproving members who misbehave), and make rulings onpoints of order andpoints of privilege. By parliamentary rule and tradition, all statements in the House are addressed to the speaker, never to another member. For example, one does not say, "Prime Minister, will you explain to this House...", or "Thank you for the question." Instead, one would say, "Mr. Speaker, will the Prime Minister explain to this House..." or "Madam Speaker, I thank the honourable member for her question." Members are not allowed to speak while the speaker is speaking, and must sit down when the speaker rises to speak.
By convention, speakers are normally addressed in Parliament as "Mr. Speaker" (monsieur le président) for a man, and "Madam Speaker" (madame la présidente) for a woman; the speaker has also been addressed using theInuktitut term ᐅᖃᖅᑎᑦᑎᔨ(Uqaqtittiji).[8][9] Deputies of the speaker who are presiding at a given time are also addressed as "Mr./Madam Speaker."
Although the Constitution requires that the speaker be elected by the House of Commons, traditionally this amounted to the rubber-stamp approval of an MP nominated by theprime minister.[10] However, in 1986 this was changed and they are now selected bysecret ballot. The speaker remains a sitting MP, but only votes on matters in the case of a tie.
All MPs except forCabinet ministers 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 p.m. the day before the election are listed as candidates on the ballot and are allowed a five-minute speech to persuade their colleagues as to why they should be elected.
Thedean of the House supervises the election of the speaker. The current dean isLouis Plamondon, who is also the longest continuously serving MP who is not in Cabinet.
All candidates who receive less than 5 per cent of the vote are removed from the ballot. If no candidate received less than 5% of the vote then the MP with the fewest vote drops off. This continues, with a one-hour break between ballots, until one candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the vote. In the event of a tie on the final ballot, the ballot is taken again. This happened once, in 1993, whenGilbert Parent won overJean-Robert Gauthier.[11]
The winner is escorted to the speaker's chair by the prime minister and leader of the Official Opposition. The newly elected speaker, by tradition, feigns reluctance as they are "dragged" to the chair[12] in a practice corresponding to the unsubstantiated legend that British speakers risked execution if the news they reported to the king was displeasing.[13]
On June 2, 2011,ConservativeAndrew Scheer (Regina—Qu'Appelle) was elected speaker, defeating the following MPs over the course of six ballots:New DemocratDenise Savoie (Victoria) and ConservativesDean Allison (Niagara West—Glanbrook),Barry Devolin (Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock),Ed Holder (London West),Lee Richardson (Calgary Centre),Bruce Stanton (Simcoe North), andMerv Tweed (Brandon—Souris). At the age of32 years, 13 days, Scheer was the youngest Speaker in Canadian history.
On December 2, 2015,LiberalGeoff Regan was elected speaker by members of the42nd Parliament over fellow Liberal candidatesDenis Paradis,Yasmin Ratansi and ConservativeBruce Stanton.[14] He was the first speaker from Atlantic Canada or Nova Scotia in nearly a hundred years[15] sinceEdgar Nelson Rhodesin 1922.
Anthony Rota was elected as 37th speaker on December 5, 2019, by winning a ranked ballot between himself,Joël Godin,Carol Hughes,Geoff Regan (the speaker during the previous Parliament), andBruce Stanton.[16] Following Rota's win, the Conservatives said that he had them to thank for his new election, after they decided in a Conservative caucus meeting to unseat Regan as a show of strength to the Liberalminority government that had obtained fromthe election that October 21. They did so by ranking Regan lower on the ranked ballot.[17][18]
The speaker usually comes from among MPs of the governing party. But because they cannot vote unless their vote would break a tie andby convention must vote to maintain thestatus quo (which includes voting confidence in the government), a minority government can slightly weaken the opposition's power by electing an opposition speaker.
Speakers have been elected from opposition parties during the 1926 tenure ofArthur Meighen's Conservative ministry, the 1979 ministry ofProgressive ConservativeJoe Clark, andStephen Harper's Conservative Ministry from 2006 to 2011. In the39th Parliament, opposition membersPeter Milliken,Diane Marleau, andMarcel Proulx ran for speaker. In 1957, whenJohn Diefenbaker took power with a minority Progressive Conservative government, he offered the speaker's chair toStanley Knowles of the oppositionCo-operative Commonwealth Federation (the precursor to the New Democratic Party, or NDP) who declined. So far, every speaker from an opposition party has been a Liberal.Louis Plamondon, who served as interim speaker from September 28, 2023 to October 3, 2023 following the resignation ofAnthony Rota, was a member of theBloc Québécois.
The speaker is required to perform their office impartially, but does not resign from their party membership upon taking office, as is done in the United Kingdom. SpeakerLucien Lamoureux, the 27th holder, decided to follow the custom of thespeaker of the British House of Commons and ran in the1968 election as anindependent. Both the Liberal Party and the Progressive Conservative Party agreed not to run candidates against him. The New Democratic Party, however, declined to withdraw their candidate. Lamoureux was re-elected and continued to serve as speaker. However, in the1972 election, the opposition parties did not come to an agreement and ran candidates against him. Lamoureux was again returned but no subsequent speakers have repeated his attempt to run as an independent. The opposition parties may have chosen not to follow the 1968 precedent because of how close the election was: it produced a Liberal minority government with just two more seats than the Conservatives.
On May 19, 2005, SpeakerPeter Milliken was required to cast the tie-breaking vote during a confidence measure for the first time in Canadian history. Faced with the defeat ofPaul Martin's minority government, Milliken voted in favour of theNDP budget amendment. Despite popular belief that the speaker, as a Liberal MP, would automatically support the government, his vote was pre-determined by other factors. As speaker, Milliken's vote must be cast to allow the continuation of debate, or to maintain the status quo, a reflection ofSpeaker Denison's rule practiced in theBritish House of Commons. Thus, the speaker voted in favour ofsecond reading, "to allow the House time for further debate so that it can make its own decision at some future time."[19] The bill would later pass third reading without the need for Milliken's vote.
Speakers have only needed to vote in order to break a tie 11 times in Canadian parliamentary history. Milliken did so on five occasions, almost as many as all previous speakers combined.[20]
In addition to the speaker, a deputy speaker, also known as theChair of Committees (of the whole), is elected at the beginning of each parliament to act in place of the speaker when the latter is unavailable. Under the Standing Orders, the speaker, after consulting with each of the party leaders, nominates a candidate for deputy speaker to the House, which then votes on that nomination. The deputy speaker presides over daily sessions of the House when the speaker is not in the chair. The deputy speaker also chairs the House when it sits as a Committee of the Whole. Other presiding officers, the deputy chair of committees and the assistant deputy chair of committees, are chosen each session to occupy the chair when the speaker and deputy speaker are not available. The deputy speaker and the other presiding officers are members of the Panel of Chairs, and can therefore be selected by the speaker to chair legislative committees. Like the speaker, the deputy speaker has a role in administering the House.[21]
The deputy speaker of the45th Canadian Parliament (current) isTom Kmiec (Conservative).[22]
The Chair of Committees is vested by Subsection 43(1) of theParliament of Canada Act with full and adequate authority to address matters in the titular Speaker's absence: "Whenever the House of Commons is informed of the unavoidable absence of the Speaker thereof by the Clerk at the table, the Chairman of Committees, if present, shall take the chair and perform the duties and exercise the authority of Speaker in relation to all the proceedings of the House, as Deputy Speaker."[23]
Most former speakers retire from Parliament after their tenure as speaker, sometimes after returning to thebackbench for a period. Several have been appointed to diplomatic positions, summoned to theSenate, or appointed to a vice-regal position such aslieutenant-governor of a province or, in two cases,governor general of Canada (Roland Michener andJeanne Sauvé). While several former Cabinet ministers have served as speaker or stood for the position, no former speakers have subsequently been appointed to Cabinet.
One former Speaker,Andrew Scheer, has gone on to assume afront bench position in the House of Commons: Scheer became leader of theConservative Party of Canada in2017 and served asLeader of the Opposition from 2017 to 2020. Scheer later returned to the position of Opposition leader starting in 2025 when the Conservatives'de jure leader,Pierre Poilievre, was left without a seat in the House of Commons.
The resignation of Speaker Anthony Rota on September 27, 2023, led to an unprecedented situation in which there was no Speaker while the House had several sitting days already planned. To give time for the election of a new Speaker to be organized, the House agreed byunanimous consent on September 26 to nameLouis Plamondon of theBloc Québécois as interim Speaker until the election. He was chosen as interim speaker by virtue of his status asDean of the House, the longest-serving MP who is not a cabinet member or party leader; the Dean of the House is in any event in charge of presiding over the election of a Speaker at the beginning of a new Parliament.[24][25][26]
On March 9, 2016 Liberal MPMauril Bélanger served as honorary speaker for about an hour to honour his years of service.[27] Speaker Regan resumed his duties for the remainder of the sitting of the House.
Bélanger had initially been considered a front runner to be speaker in the previous year, but had withdrawn due to his being diagnosed withamyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Bélanger died on August 15, 2016, five months after being named honorary speaker.[27]
The speaker's counterpart in theupper house is thespeaker of the Senate of Canada. Canadian provincial and territoriallegislatures also have speakers with much the same roles. The position was preceded by thespeaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada.
The speaker is entitled to use a baton to represent the authority of their office. The baton was created as aheraldic emblem for the HonourableJohn Allen Fraser, the 32nd Speaker of the House, in 1992. In the same year, Fraser had the baton made as a physical object to commemorate the 125th anniversary ofCanadian Confederation.[28]
The baton is made of green maple-wood, as green is the traditional colour of the House of Commons, and the maple tree a symbol of Canada. The baton is topped with a lion which embodies Parliament resting its paw on a maple coronet embellished with 12 red jewels, which represent the number of provinces and territories at the time.[28] The dovetailing on the baton's tips represent the neck bands worn by the speaker, as well as battlements protecting the country.[29] On the underside of the bottom tip, Fraser'sshield of arms is engraved and surrounded by the phrasePro Regina Et Patriae; For Queen and Country.[28]
Key:
| No. | Portrait | Name Electoral district (Birth–Death) | Term of office | Term length | Party | Parliament | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Term start | Term end | |||||||
| 1 |  | James Cockburn MP forNorthumberland West (1818–1883) | November 6, 1867 | March 25, 1874 | 6 years, 99 days | Conservative | 1st | |
| 2nd | ||||||||
| 2 |  | Timothy Anglin MP forGloucester (1822–1896) | March 26, 1874 | February 12, 1879 | 4 years, 323 days | Liberal | 3rd | |
| 3 |  | Joseph-Goderic Blanchet MP forLévis (1829–1890) | February 13, 1879 | February 7, 1883 | 3 years, 359 days | Liberal-Conservative | 4th | |
| 4 |  | George Airey Kirkpatrick MP forFrontenac (1841–1899) | February 8, 1883 | July 12, 1887 | 4 years, 154 days | Conservative | 5th | |
| 6th | ||||||||
| 5 |  | Joseph-Aldric Ouimet MP forLaval (1848–1916) | July 13, 1887 | July 28, 1891 | 4 years, 15 days | Liberal-Conservative | ||
| 7th | ||||||||
| 6 |  | Peter White MP forRenfrew North (1838–1906) | July 29, 1891 | August 18, 1896 | 5 years, 21 days | Conservative | ||
| 7 |  | James David Edgar MP forOntario West (1841–1899) | August 19, 1896 | July 31, 1899 | 2 years, 346 days | Liberal | 8th | |
| 8 |  | Thomas Bain MP forWentworth South (1834–1915) | August 1, 1899 | February 5, 1901 | 1 year, 188 days | Liberal | ||
| 9 |  | Louis-Philippe Brodeur MP forRouville (1862–1924) | February 6, 1901 | January 18, 1904 | 2 years, 346 days | Liberal | 9th | |
| 10 |  | Napoléon Belcourt MP forOttawa (City of) (1860–1932) | March 10, 1904 | January 10, 1905 | 306 days | Liberal | ||
| 11 |  | Robert Franklin Sutherland MP forEssex North (1859–1922) | January 11, 1905 | January 19, 1909 | 4 years, 8 days | Liberal | 10th | |
| 12 |  | Charles Marcil MP forBonaventure (1860–1937) | January 20, 1909 | November 14, 1911 | 2 years, 298 days | Liberal | 11th | |
| 13 |  | Thomas Simpson Sproule MP forGrey East (1843–1917) | November 15, 1911 | December 2, 1915 | 4 years, 17 days | Conservative | 12th | |
| 14 |  | Albert Sévigny MP forDorchester (1881–1961) | January 12, 1916 | January 7, 1917 | 361 days | Conservative | ||
| 15 | .jpg) | Edgar Nelson Rhodes MP forCumberland (1877–1942) | January 18, 1917 | March 5, 1922 | 5 years, 46 days | Conservative | ||
| 13th | ||||||||
| 16 |  | Rodolphe Lemieux MP forGaspé (1866–1937) | March 8, 1922 | June 2, 1930 | 8 years, 86 days | Liberal | 14th | |
| 15th | ||||||||
| 16th | ||||||||
| 17 |  | George Black MP forYukon (1873–1965) | September 8, 1930 | January 16, 1935 | 4 years, 130 days | Conservative | 17th | |
| 18 | James Langstaff Bowman MP forDauphin (1879–1951) | January 17, 1935 | February 5, 1936 | 1 year, 19 days | Conservative | |||
| 19 |  | Pierre-François Casgrain MP forCharlevoix—Saguenay (1886–1950) | February 6, 1936 | May 10, 1940 | 4 years, 94 days | Liberal | 18th | |
| 20 |  | James Allison Glen MP forMarquette (1877–1950) | May 16, 1940 | September 5, 1945 | 5 years, 112 days | Liberal | 19th | |
| 21 | .jpg) | Gaspard Fauteux MP forSt. Mary (1898–1963) | September 6, 1945 | September 14, 1949 | 4 years, 69 days | Liberal | 20th | |
| 22 |  | William Ross Macdonald MP forBrantford (1891–1976) | September 15, 1949 | June 11, 1953 | 3 years, 269 days | Liberal | 21st | |
| 23 | Louis-René Beaudoin MP forVaudreuil—Soulanges (1912–1970) | November 12, 1953 | October 13, 1957 | 3 years, 335 days | Liberal | 22nd | ||
| 24 | .jpg) | Roland Michener MP forSt. Paul's (1900–1991) | October 14, 1957 | September 26, 1962 | 4 years, 347 days | Progressive Conservative | 23rd | |
| 24th | ||||||||
| 25 | Marcel Lambert MP forEdmonton West (1919–2000) | September 27, 1962 | May 15, 1963 | 230 days | Progressive Conservative | 25th | ||
| 26 | Alan Macnaughton MP forMount Royal (1903–1999) | May 16, 1963 | January 17, 1966 | 2 years, 246 days | Liberal | 26th | ||
| 27 |  | Lucien Lamoureux MP forStormont—Dundas (1920–1998) | January 18, 1966 | September 29, 1974 | 8 years, 253 days | Liberal | 27th | |
| Independent | 28th | |||||||
| 29th | ||||||||
| 28 | James Jerome MP forSudbury (1933–2005) | September 30, 1974 | December 14, 1979 | 5 years, 75 days | Liberal | 30th | ||
| 31st | ||||||||
| 29 | .jpg) | Jeanne Sauvé MP forLaval-des-Rapides (1922–1993) | April 14, 1980 | January 15, 1984 | 3 years, 276 days | Liberal | 32nd | |
| 30 | Lloyd Francis MP forOttawa West (1920–2007) | January 16, 1984 | November 4, 1984 | 293 days | Liberal | |||
| 31 | _(cropped).jpg) | John Bosley MP forDon Valley West (1947–2022) | November 5, 1984 | September 29, 1986 | 1 year, 328 days | Progressive Conservative | 33rd | |
| 32 | John Allen Fraser MP forVancouver South (1931–2024) | September 30, 1986 | January 16, 1994 | 7 years, 108 days | Progressive Conservative | |||
| 34th | ||||||||
| 33 |  | Gilbert Parent MP forWelland—St. Catharines—Thorold (until 1997) MP forNiagara Centre (from 1997) (1935–2009) | January 17, 1994 | January 28, 2001 | 7 years, 11 days | Liberal | 35th | |
| 36th | ||||||||
| 34 | _cropped.jpg) | Peter Milliken MP forKingston and the Islands (born 1946) | January 29, 2001 | June 2, 2011 | 10 years, 124 days | Liberal | 37th | |
| 38th | ||||||||
| 39th | ||||||||
| 40th | ||||||||
| 35 | .jpg) | Andrew Scheer MP forRegina—Qu'Appelle (born 1979) | June 2, 2011 | December 2, 2015 | 4 years, 183 days | Conservative | 41st | |
| 36 |  | Geoff Regan MP forHalifax West (born 1959) | December 3, 2015 | December 5, 2019 | 4 years, 2 days | Liberal | 42nd | |
| 37 | .jpg) | Anthony Rota MP forNipissing—Timiskaming (born 1961) | December 5, 2019 | September 27, 2023 | 3 years, 296 days | Liberal | 43rd | |
| 44th | ||||||||
| 38[a] | Louis Plamondon MP forBécancour—Nicolet—Saurel (born 1943) | September 27, 2023 | October 3, 2023 | 6 days | Bloc Québécois | |||
| 39 |  | Greg Fergus MP forHull—Aylmer (born 1969) | October 3, 2023 | May 26, 2025 | 1 year, 235 days | Liberal | ||
| 40 | Francis Scarpaleggia MP forLac-Saint-Louis (born 1957) | May 26, 2025 | Incumbent | 264 days | Liberal | 45th | ||
There are benefits for the 61-year-old bachelor to being Speaker: he has a small apartment just down the hall from his spacious offices and a grand official residence in Gatineau Park (the Farm), across the Ottawa River in Quebec.
He or she is responsible for the administration of the Commons, the staff, the precinct's security, printing and postal services, and providing MPs funds and resources to do their job — an office that comes with an approximately $414 million budget.
One of the best-kept secrets inside the main building on Parliament Hill — known as Centre Block — is what's inside room 202N.
Uqaqtittiji, first, it was incredible to hear a part of the throne speech delivered in Inuktitut. Canada is richer for it and my sincere congratulations to Her Excellency Mary May Simon. I love that a qulliq was lit beside her and that I could smell it from where I stood. (Lori Idlout)
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