Talk:Legislative Assembly of Ontario

Revisions of Seating plan chart
Anyone working on revising the seating plan chart with the recent by-election wins of Johnson, and Hoskins and the changes to the leadership? Jonathan (talk) 20:04, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

Completed. Seating plan template up to date as of September 30, 2009 Jonathan (talk) 19:55, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

With 107 member it is the largest Provincial Parliament in Canada(Quebec out).
Still in contrast, having the lower proportion of representatives for person. Wherever the British traditional system is not satisfactory any more ,the proportional representation isn’t ether —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.197.95.10 (talk) 20:52, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

To Fat pig73: Please don't de-link the names of members -- it will just create more re-linking work once their biographies are written. CJCurrie 04:31, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

By-election results
It's available on the Elections Ontario website - live. With about half of polls reporting (8:50 pm), John Tory has about 56%, the nearest competitor around 17%. Safe to say he has been elected.

Speech from the Throne
If Ontario has alway's had a unicameral legislature, where does the Lieutenant Governor give the Throne Speech? Does s/he actually enter the debating chamber? (Alphaboi867 02:44, 12 October 2005 (UTC))

Im assuming that this is the nation-wide procedure. Keeperoftheseal 19:56, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
 * In PEI and Saskatchwan, the Lt. Governor does enter the chamber for the Throne Speech and for granting Assent. But there is still a Black Rod who knocks at the chamber doors, requesting that His/Her Honour be allowed to enter the chamber. The cerimony is just the same as if there were a Legislative Council, except altered to reflect the fact that there isnt.

Something amusing
Looking over the official Hansard, I've discovered that the Legislative Assembly of Ontario held an unusual number of thirty-minute bells during its evening session of June 7, 2004 -- including two consecutive bells between 10:00 and 11:00 pm. No formal explanation was given for this unusual turn of events, although it may not have been entirely coincidental that the final game of the 2004 Stanley Cup Playoffs was taking place at the same time.

I would refer readers in particular to Marilyn Churley's comments after the legislature formally resumed:

''While I was reflecting on my earlier comments, I was watching the end of the hockey game. I have to say that we're very sad. Calgary just lost. I don't know, Speaker, if you had an opportunity to leave the chair and see, but they lost. But we do want to congratulate both teams on games well played. It was a pleasure to see all the great hockey being played up until tonight. Again, I just want to congratulate Calgary -- yay, team -- for playing a good game. There you go.''

''I'm looking forward now to getting into baseball, which for me is more of a spring-summer kind of game anyway. It's kind of weird playing hockey in the middle of summer, with the weather in Florida, what, over 80 degrees or something.''

Mr Speaker, I will have an opportunity to have a few more comments about the bill before us in my two-minute summary.

If anyone who follows this discussion page plans to watch tonight's game, if might be worthwhile to turn to the Legislative Assembly channel every twenty minutes or so to see if they'll do something similar this year. CJCurrie 22:59, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Numbers
I see we have a vacancy listed, but has Cordiano actually resigned yet? My understanding is that he decided to stand down from cabinet, but is keeping his seat for the time being. CJCurrie 00:26, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Additional Information
'''Hi, I have never contributed to an article and thought I would give it a try. Please have a look at this material and tell me what you think.'''

I would also like to add a short section on the Office of Assembly (the professional/administrative section of the Legislature as well as the Legislative Library).

Please tell me what you think.

Tibby68 15:31, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

ABOUT THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO The Legislative Assembly, commonly called the House, consists of 103 Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) elected to represent the people of their constituencies. The principal task of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario is passing laws, which are first introduced as bills in the legislature. Most laws originate with the cabinet (Government bills), and are passed by the legislature after stages of debate and decision-making. Although, ordinary Members of the Legislature pass few laws they have introduced privately (Private Members' bills) they nonetheless play an integral role in scrutinizing, debating and amending bills presented to the legislature by cabinet.

Members express the different points of view and opinions of their constituents when they debate the issues of the day in the Legislature, allowing average citizens to express their views through them. A parliamentary debate on a government bill explores all relevant aspects of the matter in question, and presents all the arguments that can be made for and against it.

The most important responsibility of the Legislature is to provide a public platform, and an orderly process in which the actions of the government can be examined and scrutinized. This oversight function operates at two levels. The first is the confrontation between Government and Opposition in the Chamber. The Government is obliged to defend everything it wants to do, and the Opposition is given the opportunity to criticize the Government and expound its own policies.

The second confrontation is the historical confrontation between Parliament, answerable to the people, and the Executive, appointed by the Crown. The Legislature is expected to monitor closely how ministers spend public money and manage their departments, and ensure that the grievances of citizens are brought to the attention of the government. This task is often exercised by ordinary backbenchers who become highly knowledgeable about the impact of government policy on the community through their extensive constituency work.

In the Ontario Legislature this confrontation provides much of the material for Oral Questions and Members' Statements. Legislative scrutiny of the executive is also at the heart of much of the work carried out by the Legislature's Standing Committees, which are made up of ordinary backbenchers.

A Member's day will typically be divided among participating in the business of the House, attending caucus and committee meetings, speaking in various debates, or returning to his or her constituency to address the concerns, problems and grievances of constituents. Depending on personal inclination and political circumstances, some Members concentrate most of their attention on House matters while others focus on constituency problems, taking on something of an ombudsman's role in the process.

Finally, it is the task of the Legislature to provide the personnel of the executive. As already noted, under responsible government, ministers of the Crown are expected to be Members of the Assembly. When a political party comes to power it will invariably place its more experienced parliamentarians into the key cabinet positions, where their parliamentary experience may be the best preparation for the rough and tumble of political life in government.

Coat of Arms

The Legislative Assembly of Ontario is the first legislature in Canada to have a Coat of Arms separate from the provincial coat of arms.

Green and gold are the principal colours in the shield of arms of the province. The Mace is the traditional symbol of the authority of the Speaker. Shown on the left is the current Mace. On the right is the original Mace from the time of the first parliament in 1792. The crossed Maces are joined by the shield of arms of Ontario.

The crown on the wreath represents national and provincial loyalties; its rim is studded with the provincial gemstone, the amethyst. The griffin, an ancient symbol of justice and equity, holds a calumet, which symbolizes the meeting of spirit and discussion that Ontario's First Peoples believe accompanies the use of the pipe.

The deer represent the natural riches of the province. The Loyalist coronets at their necks honour the original European settlers in Ontario who brought with them the parliamentary form of government. The Royal Crowns, left 1992, right 1792, recognize the parliamentary bicentennial and recall our heritage as a constitutional monarchy. They were granted as a special honour by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the recommendation of the Governor General.

In the base, the maple leaves are for Canada, the trilliums for Ontario and the roses for York (now Toronto), the provincial capital.

The motto "AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM" is one of a series of Latin phrases carved in the Chamber of the Legislative Building. It challenges Members of Provincial Parliament to "Hear the Other Side".

[I have uploaded a jpeg of the Shield of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario already]

Flag

The Banner is the shield of arms of the Assembly displayed in Flag form.

Assessment
I have changed the importance rating of this article to "High", which is on par with the articles about the Legislatures of AB, BC, MB and NT, as well as the Provincial Premiers. PKT (talk) 17:34, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

List of members

 * Cabinet ministers are in bold, leaders are in italics and the Speaker of the Legislature has a dagger next to his name.

Problem of duplicate articles / Merger proposal with Parliament of Ontario
I propose that Parliament of Ontario be merged into Legislative Assembly of Ontario. The correct article title can be debated, but it is clear that both articles currently refer to the same entity. Set theorist (talk) 06:20, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Agreed, and Legislative Assembly of Ontario is the actual name. --Skeezix1000 (talk) 15:09, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
 * I see what the problem is. The Parliament of Ontario was formerly a list of the legislative sessions in Ontario since 1867, and it formed part of a series of similar lists for other provinces.  The lead paragraphs for these lists were somewhat awkwardly written, and it wasn't abundantly clear that there were main articles for each of the legislative assemblies.  At the end of 2013, one editor (who presumably did not appreciate that there were already main articles for each of the legislatures) in good faith changed the article titles and added content.  Unfortunately, it resulted in a series of duplicate articles.  I am going to move the list articles back to the original titles, keep some of the improved text but move most of it to the main legislative article.  As for article titles, I will stick to the longstanding names we have been using.  If anyone prefers Parliament of Ontario, etc., they can initiate a WP:RM.--Skeezix1000 (talk) 14:53, 10 July 2014 (UTC)
 * I am not sure my assessment above was correct. Parliament of Ontario *was* formerly a list of the legislative sessions in Ontario, and it was expanded to effectively become a duplicate of this article.  Unclear, but it might have been an awkward attempt to create an article for the Legislature of Ontario, comprised of the Lieutenant Governor and the Legislative Assembly.  Hard to tell with the edit summaries.  Really not evident that a separate article was required, since the previous sentence says just about everything there is to say about the Legislature, and it is already covered off in this article.  Anyway, it's fixed and should be far less confusing.  --Skeezix1000 (talk) 14:54, 11 July 2014 (UTC)


 * The merging is reasonable, but I'm putting back the reference to "Parliament of Ontario" in the infobox. The Assemblies and Parliaments/Legislatures of Canadian provinces are legally different things. Assemblies are just the house, whereas the Parliaments/Legislatures are the house, plus the Lieutenant Governor, plus (formerly) the provincial upper house. Also, the page title List of Ontario Legislative Assemblies is somewhat problematic because Ontario counts Parliaments, not Assemblies. —Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 20:16, 29 July 2014 (UTC)
 * I get that. But why "Parliament of Ontario"?  Where does that name come from?  The constitution refers to the Assembly + the LG as the Legislature. I don't mind adding a reference back but let's make sure it's the correct reference.  If I am missing something, please tell me, but I don't think we should be adding the Parliament reference back - Legislature of Ontario would be okay with me, though. --Skeezix1000 (talk) 21:19, 29 July 2014 (UTC)
 * I don't disagree that List of Ontario Legislative Assemblies might have issues - I just reverted it back because of the many above-noted problems with Parliament of Ontario. List of Parliaments of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario might be better.--Skeezix1000 (talk) 21:23, 29 July 2014 (UTC)
 * I have changed the "Parliament of Ontario" reference in the infobox to "Legislature of Ontario", as per the Constitution. --Skeezix1000 (talk) 18:39, 5 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Ontario is inconsistent in what it calls its legislature. When listing historical sittings it refers to "Parliaments", the members are called "MPPs", and there are plenty of times the Ontario Gazette uses phrases like "Parliamentary Notice" or "Applications to Provincial Parliament". But as you observe, "Legislature of Ontario" is also common. I get the impression that "Parliament" is the preferred term, but unless I find some official statement saying so, I guess we should use the language in the Constitution. —Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 05:12, 7 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Agree that it is very inconsistent (especially historically - old postcards of Queen's Park often refer to the Parliament Buildings). The members do call themselves MPPs, which is reflected in the article, but beyond that I am not aware of anything suggesting "Parliament of Ontario" is the preferred term, or even that it is the common term (such that we'd prefer it over the actual name) beyond the legislative sessions (which is not entirely the same thing).  If we are missing something, I have no doubt someone will come along and point us in the right direction. Skeezix1000 (talk) 13:16, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

The body calls itself "Legislative Assembly of Ontario" (seee here). It is in the "1st Session of the 41st Parliament". The website says: "In Ontario, Parliament is referred to as the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. It may also be called the legislature or the House." Although "Legislature" and "Parliament" are used commonly, so is "Legislative Assembly", so we might as well go with the official name in this instance. Ground Zero | t 14:50, 7 August 2014 (UTC)
 * The issue is not so much the Legislative Assembly, which clearly goes by that name, but rather the actual Legislature/Parliament, which is the combination of the Legislative Assembly and the Lieutenant-Governor. The parallel would be to the Parliament of Canada, which consists of the House of Commons, the Senate and the Governor General (User:Miesianiacal would correct me here, and note that it is the Monarch as represented by the GG).  --Skeezix1000 (talk) 15:03, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

Historical makeup
Why is there no section on the historical makeup of the of the assembly? brill (talk) 17:46, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

Redirect timeline?
This timeline is an exact copy of this timeline. I propose a redirect from Legislative Assembly of Ontario to 41st Parliament of Ontario for that section. sikander (talk) 15:40, 31 July 2017 (UTC)

Infobox Leader of the Opposition
Doug Ford is leader of the PC Party, NOT Leader of the Opposition. Since he does not hold a seat, it is impossible for him to hold that position. Vic Fedeli still holds that position, and unless Ford names someone else (which he has stated he won't), Fedeli will most likely hold that until the results of the next election, where the leader of the second party (if they are elected) will most likely become Leader of the Opposition. Do not place Doug Ford in the infobox under this position. RoyalObserver (talk) 20:04, 14 March 2018 (UTC)

Inappropriate statment
"The motto "Audi Alteram Partem" is one of a series of Latin phrases carved in the Chamber of the Legislative Building. It challenges Members of Provincial Parliament to "Hear the Other Side," an objective which is rendered impossible, because the Westminster system results in a government best characterized as an elected dictatorship.[4]" This seems to be a bit POV for wikipedia. Thoughts? TimeEngineer (talk) 15:49, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
 * I agree, that's definitely too POV, and also not entirely true, since a minority government must "hear the other side" to get anything done really, and majority governments even will sometimes "hear the other side" if there is much public opposition to something they are doing. UmpireRay (talk) 16:14, 29 June 2018 (UTC)


 * Moreover, the cited source does not qualify as a reliable source. Mind  matrix  18:37, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

Split proposal
Having read the Discussion from 2014. I propose Legislature of Ontario be split off from this article. 2 potential issues I can cover. 1. It's officially called the Legislature of Ontario not the Parliament of Ontario, the resolution that changed the title to M.P.P even still uses the term "Legislature of Ontario" (text is below), it never switched, the use of "Parliament of Ontario" is an informal practice. 2. Splitting the House from the legislature is consistent with other Canadian Provinces, examples include General Assembly of Prince Edward Island, General Assembly of Nova Scotia, Quebec Legislature, Alberta Legislature, ect.

On motion of Mr. Hunter, seconded by Mr. Miller, Resolved, That in all matters of address, titular distinction, formal correspondence, official proceedings and all similar matters having to do with and coming under the jurisdiction of the Legislature of Ontario, the members of the Legislative Assembly shall be entitled to the designation "Member of Provincial Parliament" and its abbreviation "M.P.P." WanukeX (talk) 00:10, 11 December 2021 (UTC)
 * TBH, I never fully understood why we have such articles (General Assembly of Prince Edward Island and Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island for examples), as they have basically the 'same' info. If the provinces still had bicameral legislatures? then it would make sense, for we'd then have three articles per province. An article for the upper house, the lower house & both houses combined. GoodDay (talk) 08:42, 11 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Makes no sense having two separate and overlapping articles for a unicameral assembly, the better option is to clearly define the terminology early on. Just about as dumb is having separate articles for a “premier of X” and “List of premiers of X” rather than combining the two. Ricjac (talk) 08:04, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

Legally, you're right that the Legislature and the Assembly are different entities. That's why they have separate entries on a project like Wikidata. But I doubt we would have enough to say about the Legislature to justify an entire article. That page would always be just a definition and a list. And it so happens that's what we see in pages like General Assembly of Prince Edward Island. So maybe a better solution would be to match PEI's format and rename List of Ontario Legislative Assemblies to "Legislature of Ontario" and add an infobox to that page? —Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 22:50, 4 March 2022 (UTC)

Oppose: Having actually worked at the Assembly for many years, although they are de facto independent entities (in most cases), they are effectively the same from an operational standpoint and as others have said, I doubt we have enough content to justify a split.Spilia4 (talk) 17:03, 1 June 2022 (UTC)

Oppose 2022. This is splitting hairs and looking for problems where none exist. The name Legislative Assembly is clearly stated in the Constitution Act. Until that is amended or the Legislative Assembly renames itself as the Quebec National Assembly did, LEAVE IT ALONE. BrentS (talk) 01:41, 13 July 2022 (UTC)


 * "The name Legislative Assembly is clearly stated in the Constitution Act", look about 10 words earlier in Section 69 and you'll spot it the "Legislature of Ontario" being referred to separately from the "Legislative Assembly of Ontario".
 * 69 There shall be a Legislature for Ontario consisting of the Lieutenant Governor and of One House, styled the Legislative Assembly of Ontario." WanukeX (talk) 14:25, 7 May 2024 (UTC)

Support the proposal by. The monarch & lieutenant governor are a part of the "Parliament of Ontario", but are not a part of the "Legislative Assembly of Ontario". There is a difference here, as in the other provinces. The new page should be called Parliament of Ontario. -- GoodDay (talk) 02:13, 29 April 2024 (UTC)


 * Agree in Part, but the new page should be Legislature of Ontario, not Parliament, that's the language used in section 69 of the Constitution Act 1867 "There shall be a Legislature for Ontario",, and as I wrote in my initial comment in 2021 even the motion that designated the title "Member of Provincial Parliament" continued to call it "Legislature" not "Parliament". WanukeX (talk) 14:19, 7 May 2024 (UTC)