Who's in, who's out? At least seven MPs running for Speaker role on Monday

OTTAWA — When members of Parliament return to the House of Commons on Monday, their first order of business will be to elect a new Speaker. To date, no fewer than seven Liberal and Conservative MPs have indicated they are interested in the position.

In addition to incumbent Greg Fergus who wants to re-offer for a second time, Liberal MPs Francis Scarpaleggia, Sherry Romanado and Sean Casey and Conservative MPs Chris d’Entremont and Tom Kmiec, are expected to seek the job.

Liberal MP Rob Oliphant was also seriously considering running for the job and was widely consulting colleagues for their feedback this week. On Friday, he confirmed it was official.

As for Liberal MP Alexandra Mendès, who has served as assistant deputy Speaker since 2019 and was in the running back in 2023, she has decided to opt out this time around. Mendès was recently diagnosed with cancer and has been undergoing treatments.

The position is a particularly coveted one. It comes with a pay bump of $99,900 — on top of an MP’s base salary of $209,800 — and an official country residence in the Gatineau Hills, called “The Farm.” The Speaker also has access to a small apartment on Parliament Hill.

According to House of Commons standing orders, all MPs — except party leaders and ministers — are automatically on the list of candidates for the position of Speaker.

Those who do not want to be considered need to indicate in writing that they are withdrawing their name. They have until 6 p.m. Sunday, the day before the election, to do so. The official list of candidates will then be published.

On Monday morning, the dean of the House — Bloc Québécois MP Louis Plamondon, who was first elected in 1984 — will assume the role of Speaker during the vote.

Candidates will have five minutes to make their pitch to all MPs in the House before MPs vote via a secret ballot, ranking each candidate by their order of preference. The rules of a preferential ballot apply, with the winner having to obtain a majority of votes in a round.

In anticipation of the vote, candidates sent out letters by email to their fellow MPs and made phone calls to garner support. Liberal and Conservative caucuses will be meeting on Sunday, where there will likely be decisions made on the preferred candidates.

One active discussion among Liberals in caucus, sources say, is whether they want to elect one of their own as Speaker — and therefore lose a crucial vote in the House — when they are just two seats short of a majority.

One name to watch will be d’Entremont — the Conservatives’ now lone MP in Nova Scotia — who has served as deputy Speaker since 2021 and is expected to garner support from both sides of the aisle. He said he will be pitching his experience in the role on Monday.

“We’ve got a lot going on in the next few days,” he said. “Whether it’s a Throne Speech, whether it’s the first set of question periods, that experience is going to be very important to bring us through the next few weeks, and that’s what I’m going to run on.”

Oliphant — a Toronto-area MP who was first elected in 2008 — touted his personal relationship with parliamentarians across the aisle which he said might help him foster respect as Speaker. “I can’t say this for sure, but I think they would listen to me,” he said.

Oliphant said he was once asked to withdraw remarks in the House by Peter Milliken, who was Speaker for 10 years, from 2001 to 2011, and said Milliken would serve as a role model if he were to take on the role.

“The thought that was in my head was I had disappointed the Speaker, and I quickly withdrew the remarks because he had that much gravitas, that much respect,” Oliphant said of that moment.

“I think that we have lost that.”

Scarpaleggia has been the Liberal MP for the Montreal riding of Lac-Saint-Louis for more than two decades and sat on both the government and opposition benches in the House. He said he will be putting forward his “accumulated experience” as a parliamentarian.

“I just feel that I’ve got the level of experience that is right for the moment,” he said.

Casey, Liberal MP for Charlottetown since 2011, will be running for Speaker for a second time and making a similar pitch as he did during his speech in 2023 to bring back more civility and respect in the House. He said it did not get any better under Fergus.

“I think it’s a perfect time for a reset, a complete reset, including a new Speaker, someone who will set the tone early and consistently and vigorously,” Casey said.

D’Entremont said that he would not “interrupt all the time and pontificate” like Fergus did in his time as Speaker and would make sure to not expel MPs from the House. He argued that Milliken “never kicked anybody out.”

In a particularly raucous question period in April last year , Fergus ejected Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre after he refused to apologize for calling then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “wacko,” and Conservative MP Rachael Thomas for criticizing Fergus.

Casey said he does not fault Fergus for the heightened partisanship under his tenure.

“Greg did the best he could. His approach is collegial and that’s the way he came out of the gate. And I felt that time and time again, there were parliamentarians that were taking advantage of his good nature,” he said.

Fergus, Romanado and Kmiec did not respond to requests for an interview.

No matter the outcome of the election, Oliphant said he will be genuinely happy either way.

“I will be extremely happy to win, and extremely relieved if I don’t.”

“It’s a lot of work.”

National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com

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