ANALYSIS: Unseating of House Speakers in Canada and US Unique, but Ramifications Worlds Apart

Newly elected Speaker of the House of Commons Greg Fergus is escorted into the House of Commons by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Oct. 3, 2023. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

Neighbours Canada and the United States both recently experienced upheavals over who should be the Speaker of their house of elected representatives—and the U.S. situation has yet to be fully resolved—but the ramifications for political life in the two countries are in completely different ballparks.

“The Speaker, to use the old hockey analogy, is nothing more than a referee,” newly elected House of Commons Speaker and Liberal MP Greg Fergus said on Oct. 3.

“If there is one thing I know, it is that nobody pays good money to go see the referee. They go to see the stars: you, the players on the ice.”

Going through the order of the day, presiding over ceremonies, and making sure members of Parliament don’t swear or refer to each other by name capture routine duties of the House speaker in Ottawa.

The role in Canada can lead to some political controversies if, for example the speaker—usually of the ruling party since they have more members and thus more likely to elect one of their own—stands up to the government, but such events are few and far between. All in all the speaker must strive to remain independent, and he or she does not wield political power.

It’s a different picture south of the border, where a bench-clearing baseball brawl could describe the current struggles over who controls the coveted, powerful position.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks at a press conference on Oct. 3, 2023. Speaker Kevin McCarthy YouTube channel/Screenshot via NTD

Those infamous brawls typically involve opposite teams, but this week’s events in D.C. were the result of intense infighting on the Republican side, with a small conservative faction making a power play.

For the first time in history, the House of Representatives voted on Oct. 3 to oust a speaker. The removal of Kevin McCarthy was spurred from his own camp, with Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz filing the motion to vacate the chair.

Mr. Gaetz has charged that Mr. McCarthy failed to respect the agreement that propelled him into the position, which he obtained after a 15-round voting marathon in January that involved at least one intra-party physical altercation as tempers flared.

“Kevin McCarthy couldn’t keep his word,” Mr. Gaetz told reporters on Oct. 3. “He made an agreement in January regarding the way Washington would work, and he violated that agreement. We are $33 trillion in debt. We are facing $2.2 trillion annual deficits.”

Mr. McMarthy said after the vote he didn’t regret the actions he undertook while speaker. “I don’t regret standing up for choosing government over grievance. It is my responsibility. It is my job. I do not regret negotiating. Our government is designed to find compromise.”

There was small support for Mr. Gaetz’s motion from the Republican side, with only eight representatives voting in favour. The vote passed 216–210 with support from the Democrats.

“It is now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican Civil War,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries remarked after the vote.

Republicans plan to hold a speaker’s candidate forum on Oct. 10 and hold an election in the House the following day. They hold a 221–212 majority in the chamber, captured in last year’s mid-term elections.

Political Power

The House Speaker position wields significant power in the United States, setting the political agenda, overseeing committee assignments, and making deals with the opposition.

As a spokesperson for the majority, the U.S. House Speaker is allowed to be political, unlike his counterpart in Canada, though the individual also shares similar responsibilities such as guiding floor debates.

Whereas the Canadian House Speaker rarely makes the news, the U.S. House speaker is almost the daily centre of attention along with the U.S. president, for which he is the second in line of succession after the vice-president.

What got former House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota in hot water was not a political move. He took the fall for inviting and paying tribute in the Commons to Yaroslav Hunka, who fought in Ukraine during World War II with a unit of Hitler’s Waffen SS.

House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota leaves Parliament Hill after announcing his resignation as Speaker of the House of Commons in Ottawa on Sept. 26, 2023. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Mr. Rota was solely responsible for the incident, which made international headlines.

“I accept full responsibility for my actions,” Mr. Rota told the House of Commons on Sept. 26 while announcing his resignation. He became Speaker in 2019 and was first elected as a Liberal MP in 2004.

Before becoming the first Speaker to resign in over half a century, Mr. Rota’s time in the role was appreciated by his peers. Former Tory MP Derek Sloan said he should be remembered not for the latest controversy but for standing up to the government on the Winnipeg laboratory documents scandal.

“Rota told MPs that he would fight ‘tooth and nail’ to protect the principle ‘that the legal system does not have jurisdiction over the operations of the House. We are our own (court).’ This is the kind of leadership he should be remembered for,” wrote Mr. Sloan on X.

The Liberal government took Mr. Rota to court over his request to hand over the documents, which pertain to the ousting of two China-linked scientists at the National Microbiology Laboratory, Canada’s top biosafety lab.

Outside North America

The power granted to the U.S. House Speaker is a feature of the American system that is not common in other Western democracies.

Many countries follow variations of the U.K. model of the Westminster system of parliamentary government, including Canada, where the Speaker of the House is independent and oversees debates.

France, which is a republic with a president like the United States, also has a Speaker elected by members of the National Assembly. The president of the National Assembly serves a similar role as that within the Westminster system, organizing parliamentary work and steering debates during sessions.

The position also has the power of referral to appoint three members to the Constitutional Council, in charge of reviewing the constitutionality of legislation but separate from the role of a supreme court.

The national parliament in Germany, the Bundestag, is led by a president with a role similar to the House Speaker in Canada. But that individual occupies the second-highest office of state after the federal president. Aside from overseeing debate, the president also manages the administration of the Bundestag and serves as its ambassador in the public domain.

Jackson Richman, Lawrence Wilson, and Chandra Philip contributed to this report.