Opposition House Leader

The Leader of the Official Opposition in the House of Commons, more commonly known as the Opposition House Leader, is a member of the Official Opposition, not to be confused with the Leader of the Official Opposition, but is generally a senior member of the frontbench. The House Leader is responsible for questioning the Government House Leader on the forthcoming business of the House of Commons, negotiating with the Government House Leader and other parties' house leaders on the progress of business in the House, and managing the Official Opposition's business in the House of Commons.

The position of Opposition House Leader evolved in the 1950s as each Opposition party began to designate a particular MP to question the Government House Leader on upcoming House business. The title of Opposition House Leader became official in 1963, and in 1974, a special annual indemnity was attached to the position of House Leader in each of the opposition parties.

Notable Opposition House Leaders include Herb Gray of the Liberal Party (also a Government House Leader) and Erik Nielsen of the Progressive Conservative Party.

List

#	House Leader	Party	Took Office	Left Office	Party Leader
	Lionel Chevrier	Liberal	October 14, 1957	February 5, 1963	Louis St. Laurent
					Lester B. Pearson	Gordon Churchill	Progressive Conservative	May 16, 1963	April 21, 1965	John Diefenbaker
	Michael Starr	Progressive Conservative	April 22, 1965	April 23, 1968
					Robert Stanfield	Ged Baldwin	Progressive Conservative	July 27, 1968	September 20, 1973	Thomas Bell	Progressive Conservative	September 21, 1973	May 9, 1974
	Ged Baldwin (second time)	Progressive Conservative	August 14, 1974	February 24, 1976
						Joe Clark	Walter Baker	Progressive Conservative	February 25, 1976	March 26, 1979	Allan MacEachen	Liberal	October 9, 1979	December 14, 1979	Pierre Trudeau	Walter Baker (second time)	Progressive Conservative	April 14, 1980	September 8, 1981	Joe Clark	Erik Nielsen	Progressive Conservative	September 9, 1981	February 8, 1983	Doug Lewis	Progressive Conservative	February 10, 1983	September 6, 1983	Erik Nielsen (interim)	Erik Nielsen (second time)	Progressive Conservative	September 7, 1983	April 5, 1984	Brian Mulroney	Ray Hnatyshyn	Progressive Conservative	April 6, 1984	July 9, 1984	Brian Mulroney	Herb Gray	Liberal	September 18, 1984	February 7, 1990	John Turner	Jean-Robert Gauthier	Liberal	February 7, 1990	January 29, 1991	Herb Gray (interim)	David Dingwall	Liberal	January 30, 1991	May 8, 1993	Jean Chrétien
	Michel Gauthier	Bloc Québécois	November 10, 1993	February 17, 1996			Lucien Bouchard
					Gilles Duceppe (interim)
	Gilles Duceppe	Bloc Québécois	February 17, 1996	March 15, 1997	Michel Gauthier
	Suzanne Tremblay	Bloc Québécois	March 17, 1997	April 25, 1997	Gilles Duceppe
	Randy White	Reform	June 20, 1997	January 30, 2000	Preston Manning
	Chuck Strahl	Reform	January 31, 2000	April 24, 2001
		Canadian Alliance			Deborah Grey (interim)
					Stockwell Day
	John Reynolds	Canadian Alliance	April 24, 2001	December 17, 2001
	Randy White (second time)	Canadian Alliance	December 18, 2001	April 3, 2002	John Reynolds (interim)
	John Reynolds (second time)	Canadian Alliance	April 4, 2002	December 22, 2003
					Stephen Harper
	Loyola Hearn	Conservative	January 8, 2004	March 21, 2004	Grant Hill (interim)
	John Reynolds (third time)	Conservative	March 22, 2004	January 27, 2005	Stephen Harper
	Jay Hill	Conservative	January 28, 2005	February 5, 2006
	Ralph Goodale	Liberal	February 10, 2006	September 6, 2010	Bill Graham
					Stéphane Dion
					Michael Ignatieff	David McGuinty	Liberal	September 7, 2010	March 26, 2011
	Thomas Mulcair	New Democratic Party	May 26, 2011	October 12, 2011		Jack Layton
					Nycole Turmel (interim)
	Joe Comartin	New Democratic Party	October 13, 2011	April 19, 2012
					Thomas Mulcair	Nathan Cullen	New Democratic Party	April 20, 2012	March 20, 2014	Peter Julian	New Democratic Party	March 24, 2014	Incumbent

See also

• Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (Canada)
• Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada)
• Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada