He's Back!
Anthony Rota Liberal MP for Nipissing-Timiskaming has been re-elected Speaker of the House of Commons in the first act of the 44th Parliament.
Rota, who was speaker in the 43rd Parliament, beat out five other candidates to be the Speaker of the House of Commons.
Other candidates included Marc Dalton, Conservative MP for Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge, Chris d'Entremont, Conservative Party of Canada MP for West Nova, Joel Godin Conservative Party of Canada MP Portneuf-Jaques-Cartier, Carol Hughes NDP MP for Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing, Elizabeth May, Green Party of Canada MP Saanich—Gulf Islands and fellow Liberal Alexandra Mendes, MP for Brossard--Saint-Lambert.
Rota in his first speech as speaker stated that it was time to remember who was watching the proceedings, "I would like to remind us that in this very house, Canadians can watch us from their house, their computers, or the news."
He made mention to a verse of a song that he has on the wall of his office, "Kids are not so bad, sometimes the spit, lie or steal, they often do what we teach them. When I am here in the House and an MP or as the Speaker I often think of that verse of the song, and I want to you think about that verse as well as often kids watch us here in the house as well and we want to teach them how to do things right.
Rota said that he thanks all MP's from all parties who took his phone call before todays vote, "I just want to thank all of you who took the time to call me back. I got to know many of you and I encourage you to reach out to all members, not just from your own party but of other parties. You would be surprised what you find out about each other."
The new speaker said that by talking to people you can be surprised what you find out about others " I found out something that something that was very interesting and came a surprise. The Honourable member from Kamloops Thompson Caribou and I have common roots.
"Our ancestors, his parents and my grandparents come from the same small town in the mountains of southern Italy."
Prime Minsiter Trudeau said that the members have chosen Rota to guide the parliament, "Canadians chose a parliament that will work together to get big things done.
"There will be moments we get caught up in heated debates, but when that happens we will have you Mr. Speaker to guide us back on track."
The Leader of the Opposition Erin O'Toole congratulated the returning speaker, "This is the peoples house and too often, whether it be from Northern Ontario, or whether from one Ocean to another the people often feel left out of these debate.
"You have been able to preside through a difficult time," O'Toole added. "You ensured the light of our democracy did not flicker during this time."
The House adjourned for the remainder of the day.
Tuesday Morning in the Senate Chamber, the Governor General of Canada Mary Simon will deliver the Speech from the Throne. Start time is at 10:15 MST. We will have live reaction of the speech via our YouTube Channel starting at 12:30 PM MST.