The Toughest Job in the House

Who actually wants to be Speaker of the House anyway?

The flurry over House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus’s prerecorded remarks appearing at the Ontario Liberal leadership convention illustrates the fine line that all House of Commons Speakers walk. It is the toughest job in the House.

Mr Fergus’s remarks have been explained as a misunderstanding of where the video was to be played. Regardless, it shows how easily things can go off the rails in this delicate position. We also saw this in the wildly unexpected demise of his predecessor Anthony Rota. The one person with the ability to do whatever they wanted in the chamber inadvertently used this power to embarrass themselves and the entire Western Alliance.

Not so long ago, Speaker was a dignified end-of-career peak. A long serving MP ascended to the chair and stayed there until political retirement. But Andrew Scheer managed to use the job to set himself up as the next party leader. Geoff Regan lost his bid for reelection in 2019. And Mr Rota self-immolated. While the last was a sui generis incident, we will likely see more turnover in the job in the future.

Why? Well frankly the job is hard. In the 21st century, scrutiny and expectations have increased around Speakers, just like other political actors. They are expected to be all things to all people, and to fix all the things that people don’t like about the House. As partisanship intensifies, Speakers are under ever more relentless scrutiny to ensure they don’t favour the other side, and bias is always there if you look for it. No Speaker seems to meet expectations. They’re set up to fail. (Admittedly this was also sometimes the case in the past: John Bosley was pressured out of the job back in 1986.)

Mr. Fergus is the first racialized Speaker, which is a powerful breakthrough and advance for diverse representation in Canadian politics. But there has only been one woman Speaker of the House - Jeanne Sauvé (1980-84). Until this year there have also been relatively few woman candidates for the job, even considering women’s general underrepresentation in the House.

In the most recent October 2023 election 3 of 8 candidates were women: Green MP Elizabeth May stood for the position, as did Alexandra Mendès, a Liberal and Assistant Deputy Speaker, and Carole Hughes, a New Democrat and another Assistant Deputy Speaker who also ran in 2019, when she was the only woman candidate amid four men. It was the same ratio of four men and one woman in 2015 (though Mauril Bélanger withdrew early). It’s similar going further back: in 2011 one woman and seven men ran (Denise Savoie faced off against Andrew Scheer in the final fifth ballot). And in the UK there has only been one woman speaker: Betty Boothroyd (1992-2000).

It could be that few women run for Speaker because they don’t think they will win. But it’s also worth asking whether women want the job as much as men. Being Speaker is a big prestigious high-visibility position, but the actual power doesn’t always match. A Speaker needs to get used to people ignoring them, not doing what they’ve asked them to do, and having their integrity and impartiality regularly questioned. It’s not hard to conjecture why some might not want to take on the role. Indeed, it’s generally understood that Jeanne Sauvé did not seek the job and didn’t particularly relish it.

On the other hand, Mme Sauvé is widely credited with professionalizing the House administration and cleaning up the place. The less visible role of the Speaker is all the things they do when they’re not sitting in the big chair. As with many things about Parliament, the important stuff often happens behind the scenes. But this just further illustrates that being Speaker can be a thankless task. It’s hard to get credit for being the best chair ever of the Board of Internal Economy.

Canadians like to look at the British House of Commons for inspiration, and the British Speaker is often considered more powerful and a much better job. The UK Speaker does have more discretion in some areas, but its not wholly different from Canada. Former UK Speaker John Bercow (2009-2019) made many Canadians swoon with his powerful dominance of the House…until he was found to be a horrid manager and “a serial bully” who should no longer even be allowed on the parliamentary premises.

Canadians also like the British tradition in which Speakers run for reelection as MPs as independents, while the major parties generally do not run candidates against them. Lucien Lamoureux (1968-74) tried to do the same in Canada, but the opposition parties refused to play along. There is certainly something contradictory about running as a Liberal or Conservative candidate and then turning around to be the impartial referee of the House, but politics and the Westminster system are full of contradictions. Even in Britain it only goes so far; lesser parties still fling themselves at Speakers in elections, so impartiality is diluted.

A final note: the decline of francophone Speakers. The last francophone Speaker was Gilbert Parent (1993-2000). Prior to the election of Speakers in 1986 they were appointed by prime ministers, who followed an English-French alternation. but Mr Parent is the only francophone elected since the change. What’s going on? One explanation is the Bloc Quebeçois, whose MPs are unlikely to seek or be elected to the job. But it’s hard not to think there’s at least a bit of a linguistic popularity contest going on, with anglo MPs more likely to support and feel affinity with English-speaking candidates.

As with everything about Parliament, the more expectations we place on Speakers, the more likely we are to be disappointed. This doesn’t mean we should not hold them to a high standard or ignore their missteps. Indeed, Speakers should aspire to making the House of Commons the best place it can be. I’ve written about how the House and Parliament generally struggle to stand up for themselves as independent institutions, rather than just being steamrolled by government or carved up by the bickering parties. The Speaker is still our best hope for this. But it’s a tough job.