‘It is a next chapter’: Ontario legislature set to choose first female Speaker [Video]

The members of Ontario’s legislature are set to make history today by selecting the province’s first female Speaker — but just who will take up the mantle remains to be seen.

Two members of provincial parliament have put their names forward to become the 43rd Speaker of Ontario, as Ted Arnott is set to retire after nearly seven years presiding over the legislative assembly. Electing a Speaker is the legislature’s first and only order of business on the first day back after the February provincial election.

Progressive Conservative member Donna Skelly and New Democrat member Jennifer French are both bidding for the job, and are keenly aware of the significance.

For eight years, French had an office in the legislature near the Speaker’s, and she would hear school groups on tours talking about how there had never been a female Speaker.

“It is a next chapter that’s starting and I …