Speakers 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.

Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

Conservative Speaker

• John Stevenson (27 December 1867 to 15 February 1871)

Liberal Speakers

• Richard William Scott (7 December 1871 to 21 December 1871)
• James George Currie (21 December 1871 to 29 March 1873)
• Rupert Mearse Wells (7 January 1874 to 11 March 1879)
• Charles J. Clarke (7 January 1880 to 25 March 1886)
• Jacob Baker (10 February 1887 to 7 April 1890)
• Thomas Ballantyne (11 February 1891 to 5 May 1894)
• William Douglas Balfour (21 February 1895 to 14 July 1896)
• Francis Eugene Alfred Evanturel (10 February 1897 to 17 March 1902)
• William Andrew Charlton (10 March 1903 to 26 April 1904)

Conservative Speakers

• Joseph Wesley St. John (22 March 1905 to 7 April 1907)
• Thomas Crawford (8 April 1907 to 24 March 1911)
• William Henry Hoyle (7 February 1912 to 1 May 1914)
• David Jamieson (16 February 1915 to 24 April 1919)

Liberal turned Independent Speaker

• Nelson Parliament (9 March 1920 to 8 May 1923)

Conservative Speakers

• Joseph Elijah Thompson (6 February 1924 to 8 April 1926)
• William David Black (2 February 1927 to 28 March 1929)
• Thomas Ashmore Kidd (5 February 1930 to 3 April 1934)

Liberal Speakers

• Norman Otto Hipel (20 February 1935 to 2 September 1938)
• James Howard Clark (8 March 1939 to 14 April 1943)

Conservative Speakers

• William James Stewart (22 February 1944 to 21 March 1947)
• James de Congalton Hepburn (24 March 1947 to 169 April 1948)
• Myrddyn Cooke Davies (10 February 1949 to 31 March 1955)

Progressive Conservative Speakers

• Alfred Wallace Downer (8 September 1955 to 26 March 1959)
• William Murdoch (26 January 1960 to 26 April 1963)
• Donald Hugo Morrow (29 October 1963 to 15 June 1967)
• Frederick McIntosh Cass (14 February 1968 to 28 July 1971)
• Allan Edward Reuter (13 December 1971 to 22 October 1974)
• Russell Daniel Rowe (22 October 1974 to 17 October 1977)

New Democratic Speaker (Minority Government)

• John Edward Stokes (17 October 1977 to 21 April 1981)

Progressive Conservative Speaker

• John Melville Turner (21 April 1981 to 4 June 1985)

Liberal Speaker

• Hugh Alden Edighoffer (4 June 1985 to 19 November 1990)

New Democratic Speaker

• David William Warner (19 November 1990 to 26 September 1995)

Progressive Conservative Speakers

• Allan K. McLean (26 September 1995 to 26 September 1996)
• Edward A. Doyle (26 September 1996 to 3 October 1996)
• Christopher M. Stockwell (3 October 1996 to 16 June 1999)
• Gary Carr (20 October 1999 to 19 November 2003)

Liberal Speakers

• Alvin Curling (19 November 2003 to 19 August 2005)
• Michael A. Brown (11 October 2005 to 28 November 2007)
• Steve Peters (28 November 2007 to 21 November 2011)
• Dave Levac (21 November 2011 to present)