Duration: 7:39 minutes
Kevin Gallagher: Inside Ontario's Legislative Building, every Parliament since 1867 is accounted for on these walls. Engraved in stone, all numbered with a start and end date, including the names of the members that served.
Still, many don't know what a parliament is or what it does. I'm Kevin Gallagher with the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, here to explain.
Often people refer to legislative buildings as Parliament, but more accurately, Parliament is a lawmaking body made up of elected representatives inside. These lawmaking powers, start, stop and restart under certain circumstances.
For example, of Parliament's activities may be paused for a legislative reset called prorogation. This ends the current session and allows a new session to start. A Parliament ends by means of a dissolution. This initiates a general election.
There are 124 electoral districts in Ontario a number that can change based on population growth. An election is held in each riding. The candidate who earns the most votes in each district becomes the member of Provincial Parliament or MPP for their region. So each one of these chairs inside Ontario's legislative chamber represents one of those ridings.
There are multiple political parties in the province, and the one that elects the most members sits on this side of the House and forms government, while opposition parties sit across the aisle.
Joanne McNair: Before they can take their seat and participate in debates and votes in the house each member has to swear an oath of allegiance or affirm their loyalty to the sovereign.
Kevin Gallagher: That's Joanne McNair. She's an expert in parliamentary procedure at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. She says MPPs usually swear or affirm their allegiance to the monarch individually. Many invite family and friends, though it wasn't always this way.
Joanne McNair: Now from 1867 until about the fifties, what we used to do was we’d swear everybody in at the same time in the chamber on the very first day before anything else happened in the house.
Deborah Deller: If you are swearing your oath, please have your holy book in your right hand.
Kevin Gallagher: The last time every MPP was sworn in at the same time was in 2014.
There's always an executive branch of Ontario's government led by the premier even when Parliament is dissolved. When a different party wins enough seats to form government, their leader is called the Premier Designate. The Premier is then expected to resign before a new Premier can be sworn in by the Lieutenant-Governor.
In this ceremony from 2018, the Honorable Elizabeth Dowdeswell the Lieutenant Governor at the time swears in Premier Doug Ford and his cabinet.
Elizabeth Dowdeswell: We come together to witness a ceremony that in many respects remains unchanged from its origins well before confederation. It is rooted in the principles of democracy which we value most. Citizen participation, and the election by the people of their representatives.
Kevin Gallagher: Each cabinet minister manage key government departments like health care, education, housing or even natural resources. The Lieutenant Governor appoints them based on the Premier's recommendation.
A new Parliament begins when it's summoned by the Lieutenant Governor on the advice of the Executive Council. However, no business can be conducted until the Speaker is elected. On the day the House is summoned to meet., the members are informed that the Lieutenant Governor cannot deliver the throne speech until they have elected a Speaker.
Todd Smith: I’m commanded by her honour, the Lieutenant Ggovernor to state that she does not see fit to declare the causes of the summoning of the present legislature of the province until a Speaker of the house shall of been chosen according to law.
Kevin Gallagher: The Speaker is the referee of the House in charge of the rules, a nonpartisan position that plays a key legislative Administrative and ceremonial role.
Todd Decker: It is now my duty as Clerk of the house to preside over the election of the Speaker.
Kevin Gallagher: The Clerk of the house facilitates the nomination process.
Gila Martow: It’s with very big pleasure that I, Gila Martow, move, seconded by the member for Perth-Wellington Randy Pettapiece, that Ted Arnott member for the electoral district of Wellington-Halton Hills do take the chair of the Speaker.
Kevin Gallagher: Members name their preferred choice for Speaker.
Todd Decker: Does Mr. Arnott accept the nomination?
Ted Arnott: To serve the house I will.
Kevin Gallagher: Once all candidates have been nominated, votes are cast in a secret ballot. Multiple rounds of voting are often required, and no other business in the House can proceed until a Speaker is chosen. It's a constitutional requirement.
Traditionally, the member elected to be Speaker of the House is dragged to the chair, a playful practice. Other Westminster style Parliaments follow as well, including the House of Commons in Ottawa. Today's lighthearted reluctance is inspired by a time hundreds of years ago, when the King appointed this Speaker to be his eyes and ears in Parliament.
Joanne McNair: And the story goes that the king on a few occasions became so upset and so angered by what the Speaker was reporting back to him he ordered the Speaker executed.
So they explain the dragging of the Speaker as being because it was a dangerous job.
Kevin Gallagher: Though, as McNair explains, the accuracy of this historic law is hard to verify.
Joanne McNair: There are several former Speakers who did meet very violent ends including execution, but there is no evidence that this was due to their role as Speaker, in fact a lot of the executions happened several years after they’d ceased to be Speakers.
However, it is true that they did have to be the eyes and ears of the king and report back to the king and undoubtedly the king did get very upset at times and the poor Speaker would have to sit there and take the brunt of the king’s ire, and defend the commons to the king. So it’s not a stretch to imagine that people probably didn’t really want to be the Speaker because that couldn’t have been very much fun.
Kevin Gallagher: Despite the rules, precarious past Speakers in Ontario's legislature usually appreciate their colleagues support.
Ted Arnott: Thank you very, very much for the honor that you're giving me today. And I hope that I am up for this challenge.
Kevin Gallagher: Not all Parliaments last for the same amount of time. In Ontario every legislature has lasted one year though it’s generally limited to a four-year duration. It would be possible to extend a Parliament beyond four years as was done during the first and second world wars, but this requires an act of Parliament.
Since 1982 an extension beyond five years could only occur under very extreme, emergency circumstances such as war, invasion, or insurrection. And the act of Parliament for such an extreme extension would require the support of two thirds of the members of the legislature.
For more videos on parliamentary rules, traditions, and procedures be sure to follow and subscribe to our channels. For the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, I’m Kevin Gallagher.