The House and Its Members

Introduction

During his tenure in the Chair, Speaker Parent faced some interesting challenges with respect to the composition of the House. At the beginning of his term in 1994, he presided over a House with five distinct political parties, although only three of them were recognized parties in the House. In June of 1994, he dealt with a request from one of the smaller parties to be treated as a recognized party for certain purposes, such as seating arrangements. In 1996, the issue of which party should form the official opposition arose when the resignation of the Leader of the Opposition left the two largest opposition parties with the same number of seats in the House of Commons.