44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 3, 2023 10:00AM
- Oct/3/23 10:03:10 a.m.
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All members should have received by email last night the list of candidates for the speakership.
This list is also available at the table and on ourcommons.ca if members wish to consult it before the vote.
Before proceeding, I want to invite any member whose name is on the list of candidates but who does not want to stand for election to rise and inform the Chair accordingly.
The member for Argenteuil—La Petite‑Nation.
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- Oct/3/23 10:04:56 a.m.
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Further to that statement, the list of candidates is revised accordingly.
Pursuant to Standing Order 3.1, the House must proceed to the speeches from each candidate for Speaker.
Notwithstanding any Standing Order, any procedure or any practice adopted by this House, and to help the newly elected members identify the candidates for the office of Speaker, I will recognize in alphabetical order each candidate by name and electoral district.
When the last candidate to address the House completes his or her speech, I will leave the chair for 30 minutes, after which members will proceed to the election of the Speaker.
I will now call upon Mr. Sean Casey, the hon. member for Charlottetown, to speak for not more than five minutes.
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- Oct/3/23 10:39:17 a.m.
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Mr. Chair, right hon. Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition, leader of the Bloc Québécois, leader of the NDP, leader of the Green Party, hon. colleagues, hon. candidates, dear friends, it is a privilege for me to rise in the House today as an official candidate for Speaker of the House of Commons.
Colleagues, I am running for this position because I want to follow in the footsteps of the extraordinary men and women who came before me in service of us all. Two of those extraordinary men are here in the chamber with us: the hon. member for Regina—Qu'Appelle and the hon. member for Nipissing—Timiskaming.
Honourable colleagues, to stand here as a candidate for Speaker means to stand for the candidacy of the custodian and the guardian of this sacred democratic chamber. It is not lost on me that I do so 71 years after my grandfather, Luis Gonzalez, fled Spain under dictatorial rule, boarding a ship called the Anna Salen in search of a place where he could speak freely, where he could send a representative to speak on his behalf, arriving on the shores of Halifax on December 29, 1952.
This past weekend, my daughter Ellie, who just turned seven, asked me what I was doing. I told her that I was running for speakership of this place. She is too young to understand what that means. She is too young to fully grasp the significance of the work that we do here every single day, but she will understand it one day. Colleagues, if you are asking me for my two reasons for running to be the 38th Speaker, there they are: to be your servant as we honour those who sought this place out in generations past and to be your servant to help build an even stronger democratic institution for my children, your children and future generations of Canadians.
Colleagues, we are at a pivotal moment in Canadian history. I truly feel that. Through the conversations that I have had with so many of you over the weekend, I know that you feel that way, too. We have the work ahead of us of rebuilding trust in this place among members, of rebuilding trust that Canadians have in this place, of rebuilding trust that our allies and friends around the world have in us. As your Speaker, that will be my primary priority.
First and foremost, I seek to put in place a policy that will ensure due diligence, so that when I rise as your Speaker to ask hon. members to rise on behalf of somebody who is in the gallery, you can do so with trust and with confidence. I pledge to you that within one week of being elected your Speaker, I will invite Jewish community leaders from across the country, as well as veterans groups that are also affected by what happened that Friday, to this place, to apologize as your Speaker on behalf of all members of this House. I pledge that I will send a communiqué within one week of being elected Speaker to the hon. Speaker of the Parliament of Ukraine, informing him of my intentions to apologize to him and the members of the Ukrainian Parliament.
I believe these to be diligent measures and ones that are necessary if we seek to move on and truly reconcile with what occurred on September 22. Just as important will be my work to ensure that your right to speak freely in this place is defended. The story goes that the distance between the Right Hon. Prime Minister's desk and the desk of the leader of the official opposition was measured in such a way to be the distance of two duelling individuals, their swords drawn, with one inch added in the middle, that inch to symbolize that in this place we solve our differences not through violence but through discourse, dialogue and debate.
As your Speaker, I vow to do everything that I can within the powers and the tools available to me as Speaker, to ensure that when you come to this place every single day to do the hard work for Canadians, you are able to do that, to share your gift, the gift that your constituents saw in you and the reason they sent you here: to be able to share that gift unimpeded and without fear of intimidation.
Hon. colleagues, since 2015, I have had the privilege of working with you as the proud member for Vaudreuil—Soulanges, as the parliamentary secretary on four different portfolios and as the chair of a committee. I hope that those I have had the chance to work with could see that I am a fair and transparent person. I come here every day with the intention of working with you, regardless of which party you belong to, to find solutions for improving Canadians' quality of life.
Hon. colleagues, I sincerely thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you today.
Colleagues, I hope you will give me the grand honour of being the 38th Speaker of this House of Commons.
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- Oct/3/23 11:19:20 a.m.
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Pursuant to the provisions of the Standing Orders, the House will now proceed to elect a Speaker.
After the Clerk has unsealed the ballots, I will suggest to the House a procedure that will accelerate the voting process.
We will now prepare to begin to vote according to the provisions of Standing Order 4. Please allow me to outline the procedure for all members.
The names of the candidates eligible for the election are listed on the ballot in alphabetical order. To vote, you must rank the candidates in order of preference by placing the number “1” in the space next to your first-choice candidate, the number “2” next to your second-choice candidate, and so on, until you have ranked all candidates for whom you wish to vote. Please note that it is not necessary to rank all candidates.
In order to vote, I will ask that members leave their desks, exit through the curtains, and come to the table using the doors on the left and right sides of the chair on their respective sides of the House. The clerk will issue to each member a ballot paper.
After casting their ballots, members are asked to leave the voting area.
The polling booths are now open to vote.
The polling booths are now open to vote.
(Members were issued ballots and marked their ballots in secret at voting stations)
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- Oct/3/23 1:42:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the government and every member of this House, I want to congratulate you on your election.
I also want to thank all the other candidates for the speakership. I thank them for answering the call to keep our democracy healthy and strong.
Mr. Speaker, today, you are the first Black Canadian to become Speaker of the House. This should be inspiring for all Canadians, especially those in younger generations who want to get involved in politics. Congratulations.
The House is the home of Canadian democracy. Members of Parliament come from every corner of the country to represent their communities. Canadians from coast to coast to coast elect us to work hard for them and to be their voices in this place. They elected us to deliver results to help make their lives better. This remains our number one job. The only way we can make progress is by working together and by respecting each other.
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- Oct/3/23 1:49:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, before I recognize you, I would like to recognize the candidates whose names were on the list today. We had a tough choice to make. I tip my hat to them. They are great parliamentarians who have always created a space for debate and who have been extremely effective.
Mr. Speaker, I congratulate you on behalf of myself and the Bloc Québécois. We are very pleased to see you in the chair. We are very proud of you.
All of the Speakers who came before you were faced with the challenge of moving from a sometimes very partisan role to one where they had to set aside partisanship and become impartial. I am sure that you will be able to fulfill this role and that you will maintain the impartiality required for our Parliament to do noble work for our fellow citizens. They expect nothing less from us.
I, too, want to use a hockey analogy. I really hope that you will be an impartial, effective and respectful referee. On behalf of myself and the Bloc Québécois, my whip and my leader, I offer you our full co-operation. I look forward to working together so that ideas can come first and be the top priority in Parliament.
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