Deadly history of Canada’s Speaker: What’s really behind the ‘dragging’ tradition?

Liberal MP Greg Fergus became the first Black Canadian Speaker of the House of Commons after being picked by his colleagues through a secret ranked-ballot vote.

While most Canadians were occupied listening to the first remarks of the newly elected Speaker, others were left scratching their heads over what preceded the inspiring speech by Fergus.

Canada’s first Black Speaker of the House of Commons was “dragged” by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Leader of the Opposition Pierre Poilievre to the Chair.

“As U.S. speaker of the house historically removed from his position, Canada on the other side has anointed the first Black man to be a speaker of the house in history, you had to be there and watch how they dragged him to the altar (it was amazing) 🤭🤭😂😂,” chuckled a social media user on X, formerly Twitter.

Why do politicians “drag” the newly elected Speaker?

Although an amusing sight, the logic behind “dragging” a newly elected Speaker traditionally was lost on many, including credible historians who were sent back in time when asked about the historical significance of the now perceivably weird but funny act.

“God, this takes me back to my undergraduate days. And even back then I find zero knowledge,” historian Robert Bothwell told Yahoo News Canada.

However, when pressed, the University of Toronto Professor Emeritus was quick to dig into his history notes and link the reason behind playful hesitance on Fergus’ part as the PM and the Conservative Leader dragged him across the House to the British Parliament centuries ago.

“When a new Speaker of the House of Commons is elected, the successful candidate is physically dragged to the Chair by other MPs.”

“This custom has its roots in the Speaker’s function to communicate the Commons’ opinions to the monarch. Historically, if the monarch didn’t agree with the message being communicated then the early death of the Speaker could follow. Therefore, as you can imagine, previous Speakers required some gentle persuasion to accept the post,” the noted historian told Yahoo News Canada, citing the UK Parliament website following his brief research.

The historically perilous role of Canada’s Speaker

Bothwell was also roughly able to trace how far back the source of this tradition actually went.

“If it ever happened it would be prior to 1560. The last really unreasonable monarch was Mary I, who died in 1558. Her successors certainly never did it, though James II might have found some means other than death. However his parliaments were pretty subservient. Charles II, his predecessor, had some trouble with parliaments, but nothing that would have involved punishing the Speaker.”

Until the seventeenth century, the Speaker was often blamed if they delivered news from Parliament that the King did not like which made the role quite perilous.

The evidence of which lies in the fact that between 1394 and 1535 seven Speakers were executed by beheading, according to the British Parliament.

“Three ex-Speakers were executed in the reign of Henry VIII, the best-known being Sir Thomas More. He had been Speaker of the 1523 Parliament, but was not executed until 1535 after he was accused of denying the King was the legitimate head of the church,” said Bothwell citing the British Parliament history.

Therefore, Speakers in and around the 15th century leading up to the era of ruthless King Henry VIII were or could be minor political figures, and if they supported the wrong side, off with their heads.

However, after 1560 the monarchs got out of the habit of executing (ex) speakers and the tradition transitioned into a much lighter life-sparing version of jokingly physically hauling a newly elected Speaker to the House Chair.

While the first Black Canadian Speaker, Fergus isn’t the first Speaker to be escorted across the hall in this fashion.

Liberal MP Anthony Rota was heaved along in 2019 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and then Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer on being appointed the Speaker of the House a Common, a practice that was repeated in 2021 on his re-election.