Sunday May 25, 2025 | NATIONAL NEWS reporting from VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
After a few weeks of telling Canadians that she sought to be the next Speaker in the House of Commons, Elizabeth May today announced that she would not put her name forward for that honourable position.
May had clearly recognized the obvious: she is the only Green MP elected to the 45th Parliament. With that comes an obligation to voters who sent her back to the House of Commons for a fifth term as the Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands as well as to Greens across the country who support the Green Party of Canada..
Had May put her name officially forward for the Speaker’s chair (and won), there would have been no Green Party voice in the House of Commons. She remains the defacto leader of the party that lost its other co-leader (Jonathan Pedneault) on the April 28 federal election night (see April 28, 2025 election night results).
The Speaker has a non-partisan role and does not sit in any party caucus. The Speaker doesn’t vote in the House unless there is a tie (traditionally voting with the government).
Speaker decision on Monday:
Eight MPs have put their names forward for Speaker, a decision that will made by a vote in the House of Commons tomorrow, May 26, on the first day for 343 newly-sworn in MPs.
Eight MPs are standing for Speaker:
- Conservative MPs: John Nater (Perth-Wellington / Ontario) and Chris d’Entremont (Acadie-Annapolis),
- Liberal MPs: Sean Casey (Charlottetown / PEI), Rob Oliphant (Don Valley West / Ontario), and four Quebec MPs Alexandra Mendes (Brossard-Saint-Lambert), Sherry Romanado (Longueil-Charles-LeMoyne), Francis Scarpaleggia (Lac-Saint-Louis), and former Speaker Greg Fergus (Hull-Aylmer).
The election is overseen by the ‘Dean of the House’- the MP with the longest unbroken sitting record who isn’t a minister or party leader. Bloc Quebecois MP Louis Plamondon, who was first elected in 1984, will be overseeing his seventh Speaker election.
The collective impact of voters:
This is a minority Liberal government with a large enough seat count (169 Liberals where 172 is required for a majority) will need the balance and support that the collective wisdom of voters put into place for the 45th Parliament… more Conservatives, but also NDP and Green… all of whom will be called upon to vote in a dynamic that produces what Canadians need in these challenging times.
Canada faces an economic challenge to diversify and strengthen the country’s economy and meanwhile protect this country’s sovereignty from the pressures being sent our way from the current USA administration.
May making what for her seems like a sacrifice underscores the sense of sacrifice that voters are asking of all Members of Parliament in these challenging times.
The Liberals are reminded of the privilege they’ve been given by falling just short of a majority. The Conservatives were reminded of tolerance for political extremes by not seeing their leader re-elected as a member of parliament. And the NDP was given a reminder to stay focussed on what really matters to Canadians by being sheared down to just seven seats as voters feared what might happen if the mainstream Liberals weren’t given a strong result.
As well, many ridings saw recounts of slim-margin wins. Voters again showed their desire for temperance and responsibility in their elected officials at this time of economic warfare with the United States. Fewer MPs than usual saw resounding majority wins in their ridings. Voters were instinctively trying to produce a balanced result.
Hopefully Carney leads with the humility demanded of this result.
Elizabeth May’s letter is presented in full, below.
Letter from Green MP Elizabeth May to fellow Parliamentarians
May 25, 2025
Dear Parliamentary Colleagues,
First, congratulations to all for the trust your constituents have placed in you. We, Members of Parliament, are a small community. We are the largest parliament ever with 343 people. It is a large parliament but it remains a very small village. We all have much more in common than in the difference.
To all of you elected for the first time, deep congratulations and an open hand of friendship. I have been working in this challenging environment for some time. Without sounding presumptuous, if I can help in any way, please feel free to ask questions about how you can best serve your constituents and make a difference.
The truth of Westminster Parliamentary Democracy is that, just as every Canadian is equal to every other Canadian, every Member of Parliament is equal to every other Member of Parliament. The Prime Minister is First among Equals, primus inter pares. So read our founding principles.
There are many ways of describing the job of our Speaker, but fundamentally our Speaker works to protect our rights. Chief among these is our fundamental right of free speech on behalf of our constituents and our right to work constructively in the business of legislative change.
Over the decades the Speaker has allowed that role to be eroded to accommodate the larger political parties and their back rooms and whips, as they try to control their Members’ free speech. In my years of parliamentary service only one brave MP, the late Mark Warawa, Conservative member from Langley City, ever complained to the Speaker that his right of free speech had been denied to him by his party whip. Our Speaker at the time, the Hon Member for Regina Qu’Appelle confirmed two important things in that 2013 ruling: 1) that it is the Speaker’s job to defend individual MPs and our rights, and 2) that only the Speaker decides who will speak.
Since the early 1980s, lists of MPs who are to speak, drawn up by party whips, are given to the Speaker, but as Speaker John Fraser had confirmed years before, the Speaker is not obliged to follow those lists. In the event, our former Speaker ruled that Mark Warawa’s rights were not infringed because Mark had not attempted to rise in his place to “catch the Speaker’s eye.” The Whip telling him moments before Members’
Statements that he could not speak was not a denial of his rights: https://macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/the-speakers-ruling-on-the-case-of-mark-warawa
I share this now because our first order of business Monday morning is to elect our Speaker. It is an institution that cannot exist without respect. The rulings of the Speaker are final. There is no appeal. The Speaker is not a person or a personality. Respect for each other and our institutions is the glue that hold our democracy together.
Two things – within our control – threaten the health of our democracy – the excessive power of party strategists and the unholy growth in power of the Prime Minister’s Office.
In truth, I would love to be your Speaker and try to redress the imbalance as party whips and partisan games – on all sides- bog down the work of democracy. I have however reached the inescapable conclusion that I cannot let down Canadians who know we need at least one Green voice in this place to address critical threats to our children’s future. I cannot silence myself no matter how much I would enjoy the experiment of using our existing rules in the service of democracy.
I know all those friends and colleagues who have written appeals to gain our votes and support. They are all good people. Solid citizens. I worry that none of them is up to the task of restoring Westminster parliamentary democracy to Canada. But I see glimmers of hope in conversations I have had over the last number of days. I will vote for the Honourable member for Hull-Aylmer. We have to put our hope and trust in the
Institution of Speaker and support the next Speaker wholeheartedly whomever it may be. But in truth getting this next parliament to work, to be an example for children across Canada of how grown-ups should behave, is up to all of us more than to any one miracle worker of a Speaker.
With that, best wishes to us all in finding wisdom in the exercise of our duties of service
to our nation.
Elizabeth May, O.C.
Member of Parliament
Saanich–Gulf Islands