Dean (list), its the deanlist (and some basic info about speaker elections in canada)

This is my deanlist.

Louis Plamondon
Lawrence MacAulay
Wayne Easter, or
Hedy Fry
Geoff Regan
John McKay, or
Carolyn Bennett
Cheryl Gallant
Dominic LeBlanc
Scott Reid
Brian Masse
Dave MacKenzie
Michael Chong
Pierre Poilievre
James Bezan
Francis Scarpaleggia
Dean Allison
David McGuinty
Andrew Scheer
Diane Finley
Peter Julian
Colin Carrie
Charlie Angus
Scott Simm

What is it?

It is a list of MPs based on how long they've served, but only based on unbroken service. In case of ties, the tie is broken based on the order their name is listed in the Canada Gazette for the returns of the election. (for example, this sheet showing LeBlanc vs Gallant)

In two cases, Wayne Easter vs Hedy Fry; and Carolyn Bennett vs John McKay, I do not have access to an online Gazette to reference. For some reason (from the last time I did this, years ago) I think I recall this being the proper order.

So what is the "Dean"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_of_the_House_(Canada)

Basically, the person who acts as speaker during speaker elections. A UK equivalent would be "Father/Mother of the House"

This deanlist simply lists MPs based on how long they've sat in unbroken service. As such, the top person on the list, is the dean. Why a list is helpful is that you can then simply reference it whenever that person is no longer an MP to find out who is next.

I use such a thing for my own entertainment; but having it online means I can't lose my deanlist to hard drive crashes. As such, here is the current list as it stands.

Remember too that party leaders and cabinet ministers can not serve as Dean, hence, having a list can be helpful even to parliamentarians.

Except for the two 'ties' I mentioned earlier, this list is properly sorted; I've manually gone through the gazette for both the 2000 and 2004 elections to sort out the MPs in their proper order.

In 1986 the House of Commons began to elect its Speaker here in Canada. The first election was proceeded over by the outgoing speaker, John Bosley. John Fraser was elected. He was re-elected in 1988, with Herb Gray serving as Dean.

In 1994, however, Gray was in Cabinet, and so Len Hopkins served that role, while 1997 saw Charles Caccia do so. Both elected Gilbert Parent as Speaker. In 2001 Caccia served again, this time Peter Milliken was elected.

In 2004 and 2006, Bill Blaikie served, the first MP from outside one of the two main parties to do so. Both saw Milliken re-elected.

2008 saw Louis Plamondon, from the Bloc Quebecois, serve as Dean, where Milliken was re-elected again.

Plamondon also has been dean for the 2011 election of Andrew Scheer, and the 2015 election of Geoff Regan. He will do so for an unprecedented 3rd time later this year, in what is expected to be Geoff Regan's re-election.


Tomorrow, another Senate Reform post! From here on in I will try to schedule the Senate Reform posts to go up in the morning.