This paper provides a guide to inaugural speeches for new Members, an important occasion in the career of a parliamentarian. It identifies the most common occasions for delivering the inaugural speech, outlines the contents of a typical speech, and provides excerpts from recent speeches. The paper closes with links to a selection of inaugural speeches made in the Ontario Legislature since 1990.^[i]

In parliaments around the world, special significance is given to a Member’s initial speech in the legislative chamber after first being elected. In the Westminster tradition, this has been known as the Member’s maiden speech. Since 2007, Ontario’s Hansard service has adopted the term inaugural speech.^[ii]

The inaugural speech is usually distinguished from other interventions by Members in the House, such as posing a question during Oral Questions, commenting briefly on another Member’s speech, responding to a Ministerial Statement, or making a statement during the period set aside for Members’ Statements.

It is generally expected that new Members will deliver an inaugural speech and most seem to welcome the opportunity. This paper identifies the most likely occasions for the speech during the opening weeks of a new session. It also describes the contents of a typical inaugural speech and provides excerpts from recent speeches. The final section contains links to all of the inaugural speeches referenced in the paper and a selection from the last eight parliaments.

What is an Inaugural Speech?

The inaugural speech is an important occasion in the career of a parliamentarian.^[iii] It is the first formal opportunity for new Members to address the House at length and represent their constituency in the legislative chamber. By parliamentary convention, all Members will listen respectfully to the speech, refraining from the partisan interjections typical of debate in the Legislature. In return, convention dictates that the inaugural speech will be non-controversial.^[iv]

A legislative chamber is a unique forum for which no professional experience or credentials can fully prepare the new Member. This is true even for those with prior experience in public speaking. The advice Premier George Ross (1899 – 1905) offered to new Members over a century ago remains relevant: “the beginner must so adapt himself to the conditions of Parliamentary speaking that he will not offend against its canons of debate, or its unwritten rules of persuasive oratory.”^[v]

Members often celebrate their inaugural speech by inviting family, friends, and people from their campaign team to the Assembly to watch.

Throne Speech Debate

The ideal occasion for delivering an inaugural speech is during the Throne Speech debate (officially known as the debate on the motion for an Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne). Many Members choose this occasion for their speech for the following reasons:

• Under Standing Order 44(a), 12 hours are allotted for the Throne Speech debate, providing many opportunities for Members to participate.
• Under Standing Order 26(a), participants in the Throne Speech debate may speak for as long as 20 minutes. Under Standing Order 26(b)(iii), a party’s leadoff speaker can take up to 60 minutes, time which is often split between two or more Members. Since 2003, in the first session of the Parliament, the leadoff speaker for the government has been a newly elected Member, most recently Doug Downey (Barrie—Springwater—Oro Medonte) in 2018. On each occasion, the opposition parties have led off with veteran MPPs.
• It is an established parliamentary convention that Members may speak on any topic they choose during a Throne Speech debate. In contrast, during debates on legislation, want of confidence motions and Opposition Day motions, Members are expected to direct their remarks to the subject matter before the House.

The Throne Speech debate typically begins on the next sessional day after the reading of speech by the Lieutenant Governor. A motion to take the Throne Speech into consideration (i.e., to begin the debate) is introduced on the same day that the speech is read. In 2003, this motion itself was debated, a rare occurrence. By the time the Throne Speech debate commenced, 18 newly elected Members had already delivered their inaugural speeches.

Other Opportunities

As noted earlier, the attraction of the Throne Speech debate as the occasion for inaugural speeches is the absence of a requirement that the debate be focused in any way. In almost every other speaking opportunity, the business before the House is of a specific nature and Members should speak to the point of that business. Members wishing to deliver an inaugural speech in such a context are expected to ask leave of the House in order to do so.

One exception is Members’ statements, which may be about almost anything but are limited to no more than 90 seconds. This is normally too brief for an inaugural speech, although some Members have taken advantage of this component of routine proceedings. More commonly, Members simply thank their constituents for electing them and note that this is their first time speaking in the House. This initial statement does not preclude the Member from making a proper inaugural speech at a later date.

Opposition Days have also provided an attractive opportunity for inaugural speeches. These are times set aside for debates on issues selected by the opposition parties. Standing Order 45(a) provides for five such days in each of the spring and fall sittings of the Legislature, distributed among the opposition parties in proportion to their membership in the House. Opposition Days are often scheduled for early in a new session, and Opposition Day motions can sometimes be worded so that an inaugural speech will not be regarded as straying too far from the business at hand.

If Members are unable to deliver their inaugural speeches during the Throne Speech debates or on an Opposition Day, they may have to take advantage of other opportunities. Following the delayed 2003 Throne Speech debate, several Members delivered their first speech during debate of a government bill. In other new parliaments, or following by-elections, Members have even taken advantage of the Budget debate or an interim supply motion. Just under one-half of the inaugural speeches made during the 42^nd Parliament took place during the Throne Speech debate.

The following template offers a list of components typically presented in inaugural speeches delivered during the Throne Speech debate in recent Parliaments.

Above all, each Member will want to make the inaugural speech a reflection of what he or she brings to the Legislature.

In the inaugural speeches of the 42^nd Parliament, a prominent theme was reflection on the honour of serving as a Member and the historical significance of the Legislative Assembly. Stephen Crawford (Oakville) expressed a sense of humility and commented on two of the carvings in the Chamber:

Today I have the privilege of making my inaugural speech to this assembly. I am humbled by the ways in which our work will influence the lives of our communities and the people of Ontario. Recently, I was told of the significance of the carved statues of an owl and an eagle above our heads in this chamber, the eagle on this side and the owl on this side. The eagle is a reminder to the members who sit on the opposition benches of their duty to be vigilant in monitoring the government. The owl is a reminder to members on the government benches to be wise, listen carefully and always act in the best interests of the people. I find this a very helpful reminder of our roles in this chamber.

Jill Andrew (Toronto—St. Paul’s) described the feeling of awe she experienced walking the halls of the Legislature:

Each day I walk into this building, up and down these hallowed halls, my eyes ascend, I take in a deep breath, I exhale and I remind myself that I am, in fact, not dreaming. I am here. Busily buzzing through the Legislature, as we all do, does not necessarily afford us the time for an intimate engagement with the breadth of historical images and relics within these walls. But on occasion, especially late at night, the inquisitive child in me stands in awe in this building, looking, observing, intently reflecting upon just what those faces on the wall would say to me, if only the walls could speak.

Several Members balanced their praise for the institution with an acknowledgement of darker moments in its history. Jill Andrew, continuing her observations about the legislative building, added the following caution:

I sometimes run my fingers against the marble, feeling the names, reimagining the social, cultural and political times of those carved into history. 'Is this the house democracy built?' I wonder. Well, this magnificent space has been welcoming to many, but it has also been inextricably linked with policies, procedures and legacies that served to exclude, dehumanize and challenge the very right to personhood for many.

Sol Mamakwa (Kiiwetinoong) spoke about his experiences as a First Nations candidate and Member:

When I first decided to run, … I realized that this is a colonial system; this is a colonial government. The legislation, the policies, the approaches never served First Nations people best.

… Oji-Cree is my first language. It’s really an historic moment as well for us, as First Nations people, to be able to speak the language in the House. Also, most importantly, it’s an historic moment for the people of Kiiwetinoong riding and all the Indigenous-language speakers of Ontario.

Further, let it be said that the people of Kiiwetinoong have worked hard over many years to advance their issues outside of government. My role as an MPP gives us an opportunity to push what is right and what is just inside Ontario’s Legislature.

Like many Ontarians, new Members in the 42^nd Parliament were often immigrants or the children of immigrants. Goldie Ghamari (Carleton) recalled her parents’ decision to leave Iran and their arrival in Canada:

My parents had two suitcases, $50 in their pockets, and a one-year-old baby girl, me. They had no friends, no family, no contacts. My father tells me that our first night in Canada, he rented an unfurnished apartment. My parents slept on newspapers that night, and I slept bundled up in my father’s jacket.

My parents gave up everything they had so that they could raise their family in a free and democratic country, a country like Canada. They came here with nothing and they expected nothing. My parents taught me to work hard, to play by the rules, to be thankful for our freedoms, and, most importantly, Mr. Speaker, to respect and to give back to the people and communities that built Canada and made it the best country in the world.

Other Members mentioned the importance of support from their colleagues—both from their own parties and across the aisle—in adapting to life at Queen’s Park. Stan Cho (Willowdale) launched his speech as follows:

Over the past three months, I’ve started to feel more and more comfortable in this chamber, and I have to say I look forward each and every single day to joining my colleagues, on both sides of the House, to serve the people of my community and all Ontarians.

I’d like to begin by thanking my colleagues for their guidance, support and encouragement in my first days here at Queen’s Park. It truly is a testament to our collective purpose here. It doesn’t matter if we are from different parties, from rural or urban ridings, veterans or newly elected members. At the end of the day, I believe that we all share the same goal: a better, more prosperous Ontario.

Lindsay Park (Durham) echoed the sentiment:

One of the things that attracted me to politics is that it’s the ultimate team sport. It’s about working hard together to deliver the best results possible for our communities…. I look forward to working not only with my colleagues on all sides of this chamber, but also with the many staff who make this place function and all of the hard-working public servants who serve our government every day…. We have a duty to our constituents, we have a duty to each other and a duty to the people of Ontario.

Finally, an inaugural speech is never hurt by a humorous anecdote. Michael Parsa (Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill) recounted the new Member orientation and the Clerk’s attempt to convey the significance of serving as an MPP:

When we came here initially we had an orientation. The staff have been so great. I think everybody can attest to this. They were telling us and they gave us one fact—to be honest with you, for the first portions of the fact I missed half of it because I was so dazed with a smile from ear to ear as I was looking around this chamber, shocked that I’m sitting here. Once I got myself back together and paid attention to what the Clerk was teaching us, I heard him give us a fact: Out of the millions who have lived in our beautiful province, only about 1,800 people have had the opportunity to serve here. So it is an incredible honour for every single one of us and that should be [remembered] every single day when we come to work.

Not all Members will approach their inaugural speech with the same level of confidence. Even Premier Ross expressed nervousness, noting that “for some mysterious reason I had the utmost dread of rising to my feet.”^[vi] Leading off for the government in the Throne Speech Debate in April 2001, MPP Norm Miller (Parry Sound-Muskoka) summarized the challenges of speaking in the Legislature:

Those of you present realize it is not an easy task to give a major speech following the Lieutenant Governor’s important address. I said during the recent campaign that I was not a politician or a public speaker. Today, I can safely say I am only one of these.

Members might also struggle to find time in their busy schedules to prepare their speeches. In her inaugural speech in 2003, MPP Jennifer Mossop (Stoney Creek) described the chaos of the first days in her new career:

I had the weekend to prepare, three days. And then I remembered that the moving truck was coming the next morning and I imagined myself amid dozens of unpacked boxes, rocking the baby with one toe and pecking away at my keyboard, trying to come up with a speech. I wondered, maybe for a moment, if anybody would mind if I read from the phone book.

Selected speeches from the previous eight Ontario parliaments are linked below.