By Yulanda Gordon, Gleaner WriterJAMAICAN-BORN ALVIN Curling was on Wednesday elected Speaker of the Ontario Provincial Legislature, becoming the first black Speaker for the province and the second in all of Canada.
Curling, 64, was elected without opposition at the first sitting of the House following the October 2 election of the new Liberal Government headed by Dalton McGuinty.
Addressing the House following the election, Curling said it was an honour to be named Speaker and thanked the people of his Scarborough-Rouge River riding for electing him as their representative. He has been MP for that riding since 1985.
"It's a very important job. I know that this job cannot be done successfully without the full co-operation of the entire House," he said. "I know the responsibility is to be fair and to be disciplined in a manner to make sure that we carry out the duties to the people of Ontario. My job is to make sure that every individual member here gets the opportunity to do so."
OPPOSITION OPPOSED SELECTION
Curling's selection for the post did not find favour with members of the opposition Conservative Party nor the New Democratic Party (NDP) whose seven seats in the legislature are one shy of qualifying it for official party status. NDP leader Howard Hampton and Conservative leader Ernie Eves complained that the selection of Curling, who had been publicly endorsed by McGuinty, harkened back to the days when the Premier selected the Speaker. The post became an elected one in 1993.
"We may as well change the rules back again to where the Premier just gets to appoint the Speaker," Hampton said. Opposition members stalled the election by nominating a total of 11 ruling MPs all of whom declined before Curling was elected by acclamation.
Curling has served as Minister of Housing and Skills Development under a previous Liberal government. He gained notoriety in December of 1995 when, during a contentious debate of a controversial Conservative bill, he refused to leave the legislative chamber when he was ordered to do so by the then Speaker.
Curling, then an opposition member, staged an 18-hour overnight sit-in to protest against the bill. Liberal colleagues supplied him with blankets and pizza and he reportedly relieved himself in a bottle. He was subsequently barred temporarily from the Chamber but the bill was subjected to public hearings.
In 1994 Louisiana-born Emery Barnes was the first Black man to be named Speaker of the British Columbia Parliament.
