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 less than seven Liberal and Conservative MPs have indicated they are interested in the position. In addition to incumbent Speaker Greg Fergus who wants to reoffer 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 throw their hats in the ring, Liberal MP Rob Oliphant was also seriously considering running for the job and has consulted colleagues for feedback, sources said, but he had not yet made it 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 of Speaker is a particularly coveted one. It comes with a pay bump of $99,900 — on top of MPs’ 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 for the position 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 that remain on the list 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 so close to a majority. As things stand, they are two MPs short of that threshold. 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.” 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 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 Canada’s longest-serving Speaker, Peter 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 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, Kmiec and Oliphant did not respond to requests for an interview. National Post calevesque@postmedia.com Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.