The Legislative Assembly needs a neutral, non-partisan MPP to preside over its meetings and enforce its rules. At the beginning of every Parliament, the MPPs elect a Speaker from among themselves to fill that role. The current Speaker is the Honourable Donna Skelly.
The House sits too often for the Speaker to preside over all the proceedings each day. To fulfill the role when the Speaker can’t be in the Chamber, the MPPs elect from among themselves several deputy presiding officers.
Currently, the Legislature has four deputies. Each of these deputies has all of the procedural authority of the Speaker when they are acting in the Speaker’s place.
Deputy Speaker and Chair of the Committee of the Whole House, Effie Triantafilopoulos, MPP
Effie Triantafilopoulos has been an MPP since 2018 and represents the riding of Oakville North—Burlington. She was appointed as Deputy Speaker and Chair of the Committee of the Whole House in 2025.
First Deputy Chair of the Committee of the Whole House, Jennifer French, MPP
Jennifer French has been an MPP since 2014 and represents the riding of Oshawa. She was appointed as First Deputy Chair in 2025.
Second Deputy Chair of the Committee of the Whole House, Ric Bresee, MPP
Ric Bresee has been an MPP since 2022 and represents the riding of Hastings—Lennox and Addington. He was appointed as Second Deputy Chair in 2025.
Third Deputy Chair of the Committee of the Whole House, Andrea Hazell, MPP
Andrea Hazell has been an MPP since 2023 and represents the riding of Scarborough—Guildwood. She was appointed as Third Deputy Chair in 2025.
Table officers
In front of the Speaker’s chair in the Chamber is a table, called the Clerk’s table, or just the Table. The people who sit there are table officers: experts in parliamentary procedure. They provide non-partisan, confidential advice to the Speaker and all MPPs.
As presiding officer of the House, the Speaker’s role is at the heart of Ontario’s parliamentary system. The Speaker serves the House by overseeing its meetings, enforcing its rules, and maintaining order and decorum. The role requires the Speaker to be fair and impartial and to make sure that the House is able to conduct debates respectfully.
The Speaker is the head of the Office of the Legislative Assembly, a non-partisan office that supports the work of all MPPs. The Speaker also has a ceremonial and diplomatic role: welcoming visiting dignitaries to the Legislative Building and representing the Legislature across Canada and abroad.
The Speaker is the neutral, non-partisan presiding officer of the Legislative Assembly. Although the Speaker is an MPP, they don’t serve any political party or the Crown; they are responsible to the House as a whole.
The Speaker doesn’t need to give up their party membership when they are elected, but they don’t attend caucus meetings or political events. They also don’t cast votes in the House unless there is a tie, and they don’t participate in debates.
In the Chamber
The Speaker enforces and interprets the House’s rules as laid out in the standing orders, and their rulings can’t be appealed. When there is a situation that the standing orders don’t cover, the Speaker makes a decision based on precedent.
It is part of their job to maintain order and decorum in the House. If an MPP is disrupting order—for example, by using unparliamentary language or making personal attacks on other MPPs—the Speaker can “call them to order.” If the MPP continues to disregard the Speaker’s authority, the Speaker can “name” them, removing them from the Chamber.
Out of the Chamber
The Speaker is the head of the Office of the Legislative Assembly, which provides MPPs with non-partisan support and services, and also chairs the Board of Internal Economy, which controls that office’s finances.
The Speaker also serves a ceremonial and diplomatic role as the Legislature’s representative, whether welcoming dignitaries to the Legislative Building, or representing the Legislature across Canada and abroad.
Election of the Speaker
At the start of a Parliament, before any other work is done, the MPPs elect a Speaker by secret ballot. Any MPP (except for party leaders and cabinet ministers) can nominate any other MPP.
Once a Speaker has been elected by majority vote, the MPPs who nominated them and seconded their nomination will escort them to the dais, where the Speaker’s chair is.
It’s a long-standing tradition that the new Speaker feigns resistance as they are escorted, in honour of the dangerous history of the role. In the early days of the British House of Commons, the Speaker could be beheaded if the monarch didn’t like the news they brought from Parliament.
Ontario’s MPPs have elected their Speakers by secret ballot since 1990. Speakers before 1990 were appointed by the governing party.
| Name | Start date | End date |
|---|---|---|
| Ted Arnott | July 11, 2018 | April 14, 2025 |
| Dave Levac | November 21, 2011 | July 11, 2018 |
| Steve Peters | November 28, 2007 | November 21, 2011 |
| Michael A. Brown | October 11, 2005 | November 28, 2007 |
| Alvin Curling | November 19, 2003 | August 19, 2005 |
| Gary Carr | October 20, 1999 | November 19, 2003 |
| Christopher M. Stockwell | October 3, 1996 | June 16, 1999 |
| Edward A. Doyle | September 26, 1996 | October 3, 1996 |
| Allan K. McLean | September 26, 1995 | September 26, 1996 |
| David William Warner | November 19, 1990 | September 26, 1995 |
| Hugh Alden Edighoffer | June 4, 1985 | November 19, 1990 |
| John Melville Turner | April 21, 1981 | June 4, 1985 |
| John Edward Stokes | October 17, 1977 | April 21, 1981 |
| Russell Daniel Rowe | October 22, 1974 | October 17, 1977 |
| Allan Edward Reuter | December 13, 1971 | October 22, 1974 |
| Frederick McIntosh Cass | February 14, 1968 | July 28, 1971 |
| Donald Hugo Morrow | October 29, 1963 | June 15, 1967 |
| William Murdoch | January 6, 1960 | April 26, 1963 |
| Alfred Wallace Downer | September 8, 1955 | March 26, 1959 |
| Myrddyn Cooke Davies | February 10, 1949 | March 31, 1955 |
| James de Congalton Hepburn | March 24, 1947 | April 16, 1948 |
| William James Stewart | February 22, 1944 | March 21, 1947 |
| James Howard Clark | March 8, 1939 | April 14, 1943 |
| Norman Otto Hipel | February 20, 1935 | September 2, 1938 |
| Thomas Ashmore Kidd | February 5, 1930 | April 18, 1933 |
| William David Black | February 2, 1927 | March 28, 1929 |
| Joseph Elijah Thompson | February 6, 1924 | April 8, 1926 |
| Nelson Parliament | March 9, 1920 | May 8, 1923 |
| David Jamieson | February 16, 1915 | April 24, 1919 |
| William Henry Hoyle | February 7, 1912 | May 1, 1914 |
| Thomas Crawford | April 8, 1907 | March 24, 1911 |
| Joseph Wesley St. John | March 22, 1905 | April 7, 1907 |
| William Andrew Charlton | March 10, 1903 | April 26, 1904 |
| François Eugène Alfred Évanturel | February 10, 1897 | March 17, 1902 |
| William Douglas Balfour | February 21, 1895 | July 14, 1896 |
| Thomas Ballantyne | February 11, 1891 | May 5, 1894 |
| Jacob Baxter | February 10, 1887 | April 7, 1890 |
| Charles Clarke | January 7, 1880 | March 25, 1886 |
| Rupert Mearse Wells | January 7, 1874 | March 11, 1879 |
| James George Currie | December 21, 1871 | March 29, 1873 |
| Richard William Scott | December 7, 1871 | December 21, 1871 |
| John Stevenson | December 27, 1867 | February 15, 1871 |