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Peter Milliken

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Hon. Peter Andrew Stewart Milliken
File:Peter Milliken.jpg
Member of Parliament
for Kingston and the Islands
Assumed office
1988
Preceded byFlora MacDonald
Personal details
BornNovember 12, 1946
Kingston, Ontario
Political partyLiberal
ResidenceKingston
ProfessionLawyer
CabinetSpeaker of the Canadian House of Commons

Peter Andrew Stewart Milliken, MP, BA , MA , LL.B (born November 12, 1946) is a Canadian lawyer and politician. He has been a member of the Canadian House of Commons since 1988, and has served as Speaker of the House since 2001. Milliken represents the Ontario riding of Kingston and the Islands as a member of the Liberal Party. As Speaker of the House of Commons, he is entitled to be styled The Honourable while in office.

Milliken is the cousin of John Matheson, a former Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) best known for his prominent role in adopting the red maple leaf as the Flag of Canada.[1]

Early life and career

Milliken was born in Kingston, Ontario, a descendant of United Empire Loyalists who left the new United States of America after the American Revolution. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Economics from Queen's University (1968), a Bachelor of Arts (1970) and Master of Arts (1978) in Jurisdiction from Oxford University in England, and a Bachelor of Laws (1971) degree from Dalhousie University.[2] He was active in student politics, and served a year as speaker of the student government's assembly at Queen's. In 1967-68, he worked as a special assistant to federal cabinet minister George J. McIlraith.[3]

Called to the Ontario Bar in 1973, Milliken was a partner in a prestigious Kingston law firm before entering political life. He also lectured on a part-time basis at the Queen's University School of Business from 1973 to 1981, became a governor of the Kingston General Hospital in 1977, and has been a trustee with the Chalmers United Church.[4] A fan of classical music, he has sung with the Pro Arte Singers and the Chalmers United Church Choir as well as serving on the board of the Kingston Symphony Orchestra.[5] In 2001, he was awarded an honorary Bachelor of Laws degree from the State University of New York at Potsdam.[6] He is an honorary member of the Royal Military College of Canada.

Milliken has long been active in political matters, having served as president of the Kingston and the Islands provincial Liberal Party Association in the 1980s. He subscribed to the Canadian House of Commons Hansard at age sixteen, and once wrote a thesis paper on Question Period.[7] Unlike most MPs, he was already well-versed in parliamentary procedure at the time of his first election.[8]

Member of Parliament

Milliken won the Kingston and the Islands Liberal nomination in 1988 over local alderman Alex Lampropoulos,[9] and defeated well-known Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Flora MacDonald by 2,712 votes in the 1988 general election. The Progressive Conservatives won the election with a majority government, and in early 1989 Milliken was named as the Liberal Party's critic for electoral reform, associate critic for senior citizens, and whip for eastern and northern Ontario.[10] Shortly thereafter, he was named to the parliamentary standing committee on elections, privileges, procedures and private members' business.[11] He supported Jean Chrétien for the federal Liberal leadership in 1990.[12]

He was easily re-elected in the 1993 election, as the Liberal Party won a majority government, and was named to a two-year term as parliamentary secretary to the Government House Leader in December 1993. He also became chair of the Commons procedure and House affairs committee.[13] Milliken was a leading candidate for Speaker of the House in January 1994, but lost to Gilbert Parent.

Milliken supported fellow Kingstonian John Gerretsen for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party in 1996 and moved to the camp of the eventual winner, Dalton McGuinty, after Gerretsen was eliminated on the second ballot.[14] In the same year, Milliken and fellow Liberal MP John Godfrey introduced the Godfrey-Milliken Bill as a satirical response to the American Helms-Burton Act.[15] The Bill, which would have allowed the descendants of United Empire Loyalists to claim compensation for land seized in the American Revolution, was drafted in response to provisions in the Helms-Burton Act which sought to punish Canadian companies for using land nationalised by Fidel Castro's government in Cuba.[16] Godfrey and Milliken gave a twenty-minute presention on their bill in Washington, D.C. in early 1997, and were greeted with warm applause from local Helms-Burton opponents.[17]

Milliken was re-elected for a third term in 1997 election, and became Deputy Speaker of the House for the parliament that followed.[18]

Speaker of the House

Milliken was elected Speaker of the House in late January 2001, after five ballots of a secret vote of all MPs held at the first sitting of parliament following the 2000 federal election.[19] He was widely praised by government and opposition MPs for his rulings, which were considered very fair.[20] He also brought new life to the chair in delivering his rulings and remarks with a sarcastic humour. Elected for his fifth term in 2004, he was the unanimous choice of MPs to be re-elected Speaker for the next parliament.[21]

In 2005, Milliken prevented an early federal election by breaking a tie vote on the second reading of Bill C-48, an amendment to the 2005 federal budget, which was a confidence motion. The vote was 152 in favour and 152 against prior to his vote, and he voted in favour of the bill. The Speaker does not vote except in the case of a tie, and must vote in such a way as to keep the matter open for further consideration if possible (ie. passing C-48 to allow further debate for a third reading). This was the first time that a Speaker used his tie-breaker vote on a confidence motion.[22]

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Milliken won his riding for a sixth time in the 2006 election, as the Conservative Party won a minority government nationally. Though his party is no longer in government, he was re-elected as Speaker of the House for the 39th Parliament on April 3, 2006, defeating fellow Liberals Diane Marleau and Marcel Proulx on the first ballot.[23] With his re-election, he became only the second Speaker chosen from an opposition party in the history of the House of Commons (James Jerome being the other).[24]

Milliken has cast a total of three tie-breaking votes, more than any other speaker in Canadian history.[25]

Tables of offices held

Preceded by Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons
2001- 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Kingston and the Islands
1988- 		Succeeded by
Incumbent

Electoral record

Template:Canadian federal election, 2006/Electoral District/Kingston and the Islands

Template:Canadian federal election, 2004/Electoral District/Kingston and the Islands

Template:Canadian federal election, 2000/Electoral District/Kingston and the Islands

Template:Canadian federal election, 1997/Electoral District/Kingston and the Islands

Template:Canadian federal election, 1993/Electoral District/Kingston and the Islands

Template:Canadian federal election, 1988/Electoral District/Kingston and the Islands

All electoral information is taken from Elections Canada. Italicized expenditures from elections after 1997 refer to submitted totals, and are presented when the final reviewed totals are not available. Expenditures from 1997 refer to submitted totals.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Jennifer Ditchburn, "Peter Milliken fascinated by Commons workings from an early age", Canadian Press, 29 January 2001, 18:04 report.
  2. ^ Peter Milliken biographical sketch, "Canada votes 2006", Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
  3. ^ Judi McLeod, "Gentleman Politician", Kingston Whig-Standard, 5 August 1988, p. 1.
  4. ^ Lynn Messerschmidt, "Longtime Liberal challenges city councillor for nomination", Kingston Whig-Standard, 9 March 1988, p. 1.
  5. ^ Anne Kershaw, "Peter Milliken: Liberal Party", Kingston Whig-Standard, 19 November 1988, p. 1.
  6. ^ Peter Milliken, Commencement Address to the State University of New York at Potsdam, 20 May 2001.
  7. ^ Jeffrey Simpson, "Speaking of politics: a race too close to call", Globe and Mail, 10 January 2001, A15.
  8. ^ Stevie Cameron, "Time will tell whether promising neophytes produce a good show", Globe and Mail, 24 November 1988, A2.
  9. ^ Carol Goar, "The first time Bill MacAleer ...", Toronto Star, 26 May 1988.
  10. ^ Bill Hutchison, "Milliken appointed to shadow cabinet", Kingston Whig-Standard, 7 February 1989, p. 1.
  11. ^ "Milliken appointed to special Commons committee", Kingston Whig-Standard, 18 April 1989, p. 1.
  12. ^ Geoff Pounsett, "Missing Meech deadline won't kill Canada: Chretien", Kingston Whig-Standard, 28 May 1990, p. 2.
  13. ^ Hugh Winsor, "Chretien grooms rookies", Globe and Mail, 7 December 1993, A1; "MPs may try to halt change in ridings", Hamilton Spectator, 15 March 1994, C9.
  14. ^ Murray Hogben, "Local delegates had plenty of decisions to make", Kingston-Whig Standard, 2 December 1996.
  15. ^ "Beware the wrath of the Loyalists", Financial Post, 25 July 1996, p. 12 and Allan Fotheringham, "Ridicule is the best policy when taking on Helms-Burton", Financial Post, 27 July 1996, p. 17.
  16. ^ "MPs mock Helms-Burton at Congress", Globe and Mail, 12 February 1997, N10.
  17. ^ Kathleen Kenna, "U.S. crowd applauds MPs' jabs at Cuba law", Toronto Star, 12 February 1997, A16.
  18. ^ "PM makes Reform MP a deputy Speaker", Globe and Mail, 24 September 1997, A4.
  19. ^ Broadcast News, 29 January 2001, 16:34 report.
  20. ^ Graham Fraser, "It's High Noon and he's the marshal", Toronto Star, 9 June 2001, NR04.
  21. ^ "Peter Milliken is the unanimous choice of M-P's to be speaker of the House of Commons", Broadcast News, 4 October 2004, 11:07 report.
  22. ^ John Ward, "Speaker's tie-breaking vote to save the minority government was a first", Canadian Press, 19 May 2005, 17:54 report.
  23. ^ Brock Harrison, "Speaker's job still available", Kingston Whig-Standard, 7 February 2006, p. 1.
  24. ^ There was also an "opposition speaker" in the 1926, although the circumstances were much different. Rodolphe Lemieux, a Liberal, was chosen as speaker during the Liberal government of William Lyon Mackenzie King, and continued to serve in that capacity after King's government was defeated and a new ministry formed by Arthur Meighen of the Conservative Party.
  25. ^ Donna Jacobs, "Speaker Milliken likes it heated", Ottawa Citizen, 5 June 2006, A2.
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