Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario is the presiding officer of the provincial legislature. Since 1990 the position has been elected by MPPs using a secret ballot. Previously, the Speaker had been appointed by the Premier of Ontario after consultation with the Leader of the Opposition and the leader of the third party and then ratified by the legislature. David Warner was the first Speaker to be elected by his or her peers.

The Speaker is usually a member of the governing party. The only exceptions have been Jack Stokes, Nelson Parliament and Hugh Edighoffer. Stokes was the NDP MPP for Lake Nipigon, and was named Speaker by Progressive Conservative Premier Bill Davis. Davis was elected to lead a minority government and having an opposition MPP as Speaker was a means of denying the opposition one vote (as the Speaker only votes in the occasion of a tie and then must vote by precedent). Nelson Parliament was a Liberal who became Speaker when the United Farmers of Ontario formed government as the entire UFO/Labour caucus were freshly elected with no legislative experience. As a result the Premier, E.C. Drury, looked to the opposition benches for a Speaker. Upon becoming Speaker, Parliament resigned from the Liberal caucus and sat without party affiliation. While this is the normal practice in the British House of Commons, it is the only time it has happened in Ontario.

Hugh Edighoffer was elected Speaker following the 1985 provincial election that returned a tenuous minority Progressive Conservative government under Frank Miller. However, the opposition Liberals and NDP controlled the legislature and elected Edighoffer as Speaker at the beginning of the session. Days later, the Miller government was brought down by a Motion of Non-Confidence and, as a result of an accord between the Liberals and the NDP, Liberal leader David Peterson was asked to form a government without the legislature being dissolved and a new election. Edighoffer, a Liberal MPP, remained Speaker for the duration of the Peterson government.

2011 Speaker election

There were nine candidates for the position of Speaker in the 40th Ontario legislature, held after the 2011 provincial election returned a minority Liberal government. Liberals Donna Cansfield, Kevin Flynn, Dave Levac and David Zimmer. A fifth candidate, Progressive Conservative MPP Frank Klees withdrew after his bid failed to receive sufficient support from either side of the aisle.

David Zimmer dropped off after the first ballot. On the second ballot, Dave Levac was elected Speaker. The actual vote totals were not released.

2014 Speaker election

Liberal MPP Dave Levac was re-elected to a second term as Speaker at the first session of the 41st Parliament held on July 2, 2014, becoming the first Speaker since Hugh Edighoffer to serve more than one term. Levac defeated NDP MPP Paul Miller and Progressive Conservative Rick Nicholls on the third ballot. NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo was eliminated on the first ballot and Liberal MPP Shafiq Qaadri was eliminated on the second ballot. Actual vote totals were not released.

Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

Legislature	Speaker by Order of Election	Speaker	Party	Term Began	Term Ended	Term Length
1	1	Stevenson, John	Conservative	27 December 1867	7 December 1871
2	2	Scott, Richard William	Liberal	7 December 1871	21 December 1871
2	3	Currie, James George	Liberal	21 December 1871	29 March 1873
2, 3	4	Wells, Rupert Mearse	Liberal	7 January 1874	7 January 1880
4, 5	5	Clarke, Charles J. P.	Liberal	7 January 1880	10 February 1887
6	6	Baxter, Jacob	Liberal	10 February 1887	11 February 1891
7	7	Ballantyne, Thomas	Liberal	11 February 1891	21 February 1895
8	8	Balfour, William Douglas	Liberal	21 February 1895	14 July 1896
8, 9	9	Evanturel, Francis Eugene Alfred	Liberal	10 February 1897	10 March 1903
10	10	Charlton, William Andrew	Liberal	10 March 1903	22 March 1905
11	11	St. John, Joseph Wesley	Conservative	22 March 1905	7 April 1907
11, 12	12	Crawford, Thomas	Conservative	8 April 1907	7 February 1912
13	13	Hoyle, William Henry	Conservative	7 February 1912	16 February 1915
14	14	Jamieson, David	Conservative	16 February 1915	9 March 1920
15	15	Parliament, Nelson	Liberal	9 March 1920	6 February 1924
16	16	Thompson, Joseph Elijah	Conservative	6 February 1924	2 February 1927
17	17	Black, William David	Conservative	2 February 1927	5 February 1930
18	18	Kidd, Thomas Ashmore	Conservative	5 February 1930	20 February 1935
19, 20	19	Hipel, Norman Otto	Liberal	20 February 1935	2 September 1938
20	20	Clark, James Howard	Liberal	8 March 1939	22 February 1944
21, 22	21	Stewart, William James	Conservative	22 February 1944	21 March 1947
22	22	Hepburn, James de Congalton	Conservative	24 March 1947	10 February 1949
23, 24	23	Davies, M.C.	Conservative	10 February 1949	8 September 1955
25	24	Downer, Alfred	Progressive Conservative (PC)	8 September 1955	26 January 1960
26	25	Murdoch, William	Progressive Conservative (PC)	26 January 1960	29 October 1963
27	26	Morrow, Donald Hugo	Progressive Conservative (PC)	29 October 1963	14 February 1968
28	27	Cass, Frederick McIntosh	Progressive Conservative (PC)	14 February 1968	13 December 1971
29	28	Reuter, Allan Edward	Progressive Conservative (PC)	13 December 1971	22 October 1974
29, 30, 31	29	Rowe, Russell Daniel	Progressive Conservative (PC)	22 October 1974	17 October 1977
31	30	Stokes, John Edward "Jack"	New Democratic Party (NDP)	17 October 1977	21 April 1981
32	31	Turner, John M.	Progressive Conservative (PC)	21 April 1981	4 June 1985
33, 34	32	Edighoffer, Hugh Alden	Liberal	4 June 1985	19 November 1990
35	33	Warner, David William	New Democratic Party (NDP)	19 November 1990	26 September 1995
36	34	McLean, Al	Progressive Conservative (PC)	26 September 1995	26 September 1996
36	35	Doyle, Edward	Progressive Conservative (PC)	26 September 1996	3 October 1996
36	36	Stockwell, Chris	Progressive Conservative (PC)	3 October 1996	20 October 1999
37	37	Carr, Gary	Progressive Conservative (PC)	20 October 1999	19 November 2003
38	38	Curling, Alvin	Liberal	19 November 2003	19 August 2005
38	39	Brown, Michael A.	Liberal	11 October 2005	28 November 2007
39	40	Peters, Stephen	Liberal	28 November 2007	21 November 2011
40, 41	41	Levac, Dave	Liberal	21 November 2011

See also

• Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada

External links

• The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly from the Ontario Legislative Assembly website. Biography of the current speaker and a history of the office.
• List of historical speakers.