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CPA Activities: The Canadian Scene

Speaker of the House of Commons re-elected 

On April 3, 2006 Peter Milliken was elected to a third term as Speaker. Mr. Milliken was born and raised in Kingston, Ontario. He was educated at Queen’s, Oxford, and Dalhousie Universities. In 1973, he was called to the bar of Ontario and enrolled as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Ontario. Mr. Milliken was a partner in a Kingston law firm from 1973 until his election to Parliament. 

Mr. Milliken was first elected to the House of Commons in 1988 as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Kingston and the Islands and was re-elected in 1993, 1997, 2000 and 2004. He held several positions including, in opposition, Party Critic for Election Reform and Associate Critic for Seniors, Assistant Party House Leader (House Business), Vice-Chairman of the Special Committee on Electoral Reform and Member of the Standing Committee on House Management. In govemment, Mr. Milliken served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Govemment House Leader, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs and Co-Chair of the Special Joint Committee on a Code of Conduct. In 1996, he was named Deputy Chairman of Committees of the Whole House. In 1997, Mr. Milliken was appointed Deputy Speaker of the House and Chairman of the Committees of the Whole House. On January 29th, 2001, he was elected 34th Speaker of the House of Commons and in October 2004, he was reelected Speaker by acclamation. 

He became only the third person in Canadian history to be elected Speaker of the House of Commons three times —  the others being Rodolphe Lemieux (1922,1925 and 1926) and Lucien Lamoureux (1966, 1968 and 1972). 

New Speakers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick 

The new Speaker of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly is Cecil Clarke. Mr. Clark is a graduate of Mount Allison University.  After working in the Northwest Territories with NWT Housing and later Baffin Tourism and Commerce he returned to Nova Scotia where he was project manager for Sydney Mines Renewal Association. 

A former federal PC candidate in 1997 for Sydney Victoria; he was first elected to the House of Assembly in March 2001, and re-elected in 2003. He served in the Cabinet as Minister of Energy, Minister of Economic Development, Minister responsible for the supervision and management of the Nova Scotia Business Incorporated Act and Minister Responsible for the Innovation Corporation Act; the NS Film Development Corporation; the Water Development Corporation and the World Trade and Convention Centre. He was elected Speaker on March 3, 2006 replacing  Murray Scott who was named to Cabinet. 

Speaker Clark has been active on the Board of Directors of the Cape Breton YMCA, Chair of the YMCA children’s camp Barrachois; an active member of the United Church Board and a member of Mount Allison Federated Alumni. 

The new Speaker of the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly is Michael Malley. Mr. Malley studied at New Brunswick Community College during 1980 and 1981.  He has been active role in the community as a volunteer fire fighter at the Chatham Fire Department and, for 14 years, as an ambulance driver/attendant. He also served on St. Michael’s Parish Council for two terms. 

For 12 years, he was a school bus driver with School District 16 and he also worked for the Department of Tourism from 1979 to 1986. He served as Chatham Town Councillor from May 1992 until December 1994. With the formation of Miramichi City in 1995, he then became a Miramichi City Councillor, a position he held from February 1995 until his election to the Legislative Assembly in June 1999. He was elected Deputy Mayor of Miramichi City in May 1998. While on the Chatham Town Council and the Miramichi City Council, he was a member of several committees, including those for transportation, police, fire, finance and recreation. 

As a member of the Progressive Conservative Party, Mr. Malley was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick in the provincial general election held June 7, 1999, to represent the constituency of Miramichi-Bay du Vin. He served on the Standing Committee on Public Accounts and the Select Committee on Education. 

He was re-elected in the provincial general election held June 9, 2003. He was a member of the Standing Committees on Public Accounts, Private Bills, Crown Corporations, Education and Health Care. He formerly chaired the Standing Committee on Ombudsman and served on the Select Committees on Wood Supply and Public Automobile Insurance. On February 21, 2006, Mr. Malley announced his intention to sit as an Independent Member of the Legislative Assembly. 

On March 28, 2006, Mr. Malley was elected Speaker of the Legislative Assembly replacing Bev Harrison who as named to the Cabinet. On April 13, he decided to rejoin the Government Caucus. 

New Chair of Canadian Branch of CPA 

On May 17, 2006 the Canadian Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association held its first meeting since the general election in January 2006 for the purpose of choosing a new Executive and a Chairman for the Canadian Branch. 

The new Chair is Russ Hiebert who represents South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale in the House of Commons. Originally from Steinbach, Manitoba, he first studied Engineering at the University of Manitoba. He later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Biola University in California and then went to the University of British Columbia where he earned both his Bachelor of Laws degree and his Masters in Business Administration. 

He practiced law for several years and has also owned a software company and worked in several public policy positions. In Ottawa, Mr. Hiebert worked as a Legislative Assistant. In Washington, he worked at the Canadian Embassy and at the International Trade Centre of Canada. 

First elected to the House of Commons in the summer of 2004 he was re-elected in January 2006. In his first term as Member of Parliament, he served on the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. He has also initiated and is a founding co-chair for the new Parliamentary Border Caucus which focuses on Canada/US border issues, trade and security. In August 2005 he was named co-chair of the Conservative Party Task Force on Safe Streets and Healthy Communities, In 2006 he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence. 

Upcoming Activities 

The Forty-Fourth Canadian Regional Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association will be held in Gatineau and Ottawa from July 8-14, 2006. 

Two other activities will be held in conjunction with the Conference. On Saturday and Sunday July 9-10 the Canadian Region of the Commonwealth Women's Parliamentarians will hold their annual meeting. On Thursday July 13 the Canadian Regional Council, consisting of the Chairs of all branches, will hold its annual meeting. 

British Columbia will host the annual Canadian Regional Seminar from October 12-15, 2006 and in January 2007 Prince Edward Island will host the Canadian Conference of Presiding Officers. 

From October 21-28 the 5th Canadian Parliamentary Seminar hosted by the federal Branch will be held in Ottawa. 

At the international level the 52nd CPA Parliamentary Conference will be held in Abuja, Nigeria in September 2006.