{"id":89400,"date":"2023-10-05T10:48:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T14:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=89400"},"modified":"2025-10-10T14:10:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T18:10:30","slug":"greg-fergus-house-of-commons","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/greg-fergus-house-of-commons\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumnus Greg Fergus Elected as Speaker in the House of Commons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Alumnus Greg Fergus Elected as Speaker in the House of Commons\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

On Oct. 3 in a historic mid-session vote, Greg Fergus became the first Black Canadian to be elected as a Speaker in the House of Commons, a role he said he would lead with respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Speaker, to use the old hockey analogy, is nothing more than a referee,\u201d Fergus said in his first speech in the House.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cAnd if there\u2019s one thing I know, it\u2019s that nobody pays good money to go see the referee. They go to see the stars: you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Fergus is a Carleton University alumnus, graduating with an honours degree in Political Science<\/a> (International Relations) in 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Carleton community is particularly proud to see alumni such as Mr. Fergus succeed to key posts in the Chamber,\u201d says Jerry Tomberlin, Carleton\u2019s Interim President and Vice-Chancellor. \u201cWhile the position will no doubt come with many challenges, I am certain that Parliament and Canada will be well-served by his exceptional experience and judgement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May of this year, Fergus returned to Carleton as a panelist at the university\u2019s inaugural Challenge Conference<\/a>. The conference brought together purpose-driven business, government, academic and community leaders to discuss Canada\u2019s mental health crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWe expect perfection,\u201d said Fergus in the conference\u2019s panel on the cost of mental health.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cFrom journalists to teachers, to politicians. We\u2019ve got to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Greg Fergus at Carleton University\u2019s Challenge Conference on May 10.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fergus has been a Member of Parliament for Hull\u2013Aylmer since October 2015. Since 2021, he served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the President of Treasury Board. His election as Speaker is both a testament to his hard work and a groundbreaking milestone for Canada\u2019s House of Commons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the official announcement here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On Oct. 3 in a historic mid-session vote, Greg Fergus became the first Black Canadian to be elected as a Speaker in the House of Commons, a role he said he would lead with respect. “The Speaker, to use the old hockey analogy, is nothing more than a referee,” Fergus said in his first speech in the House.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":89401,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[17],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-89400","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-alumni"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/89400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/89400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98276,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/89400\/revisions\/98276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=89400"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=89400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}