The Ford government is protesting the new seating arrangements inside the Ontario legislative chamber that saw all independent members, including Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, move to the back row – a decision by the Speaker that the Progressive Conservatives believe “conveys favourable treatment.”
After years of occupying a seat on the front benches of the opposition section, Schreiner and his fellow Green MPP Aislinn Clancy were suddenly moved to the back row of the legislature, putting them behind three rows of PC MPPs.
Donna Skelly, a Progressive Conservative who was elected by her legislative colleagues to serve as Speaker this year, told Global News her decision aligns the Ontario legislature with the House of Commons and other legislative bodies across the country.
“I think it’s unusual to have independents sitting on the front bench,” Skelly said. “It didn’t make sense.… It’s unheard of.”
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While the Ford government controls the legislative agenda at Queen’s Park, the Speaker acts as the ultimate authority over the function of the building. The speaker position is a non-partisan role and the MPP elected to the position does not caucus with the governing party.
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Skelly’s decision, however, is receiving pushback from her own party, which is calling on her to revert back to an older seating chart that puts the Green Party in the front row and gives independents their own section.
“I do not support this change, as it would alter the established seating arrangement and unfairly diminish the position of those elected Members,” Government House Leader Steve Clark said in a letter to Skelly’s office that was shared with Global News.
When Clark first learned of the rearrangement, he personally called up members of the Greens, Liberals and NDP to gauge their views on the maneuver and said all parties “agree that the proposed change should not proceed.”
“Fairness should be preserved for all elected Members,” Clark said.
“Moving government members to the front row while relocating independent members to the back conveys favourable treatment,” he pointedly added.
Letter from Government House Leader Steve Clark on the seating arrangement.
Government House Leader’s Office
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Bobbi-Ann Brady, the only Ontario MPP to be elected as an independent, was also impacted by the change and called the Speaker’s move “disrespectful.”
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“I’m the leader of my own party,” Brady told Global News, who said she was bothered by the decision.
“I sit as an independent because I did it all right, not because I was rejected from a party,” Brady said.
Skelly acknowledged that opposition parties have disagreed with her approach, but said she was comfortable overruling the various parties calling for the revision.
“I have to. It’s completely non-partisan. It’s my decision,” she said
“And as the Speaker, I felt it was proper that independents would not be holding a front seat on the front benches, that they should be in the back benches.”
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