Northern MP congratulates new House speaker

Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP Carol Hughes is congratulating Greg Fergus, who was elected speaker of the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Hughes, who will keep her post as assistant deputy speaker, lost the vote to take over the job vacated by Anthony Rota.

Rota, MP for Nipissing-Timiskaming, was forced to resign last week after he arranged honours in the House of Commons for someone who fought for the Nazis during the Second World War.

Tuesday, Liberal Greg Fergus was elected to replace him, making him the first black Canadian to hold the role. Hughes said he has a big challenge ahead.

“There is still a lot of work that needs to be done when it comes to decorum in the House,” she said.

“I think that members need to be a lot more respectful to each other and allow each other speak without having to try to shut them down or show them down.”

She also had kind words for rota, whom she said was a really nice guy who made a terrible mistake.

“Obviously, he had no choice but to step down given how terrible that error was and the impact that that had both within Parliament and internationally,” Hughes said.

“And I think that now we need to be able to start getting that House back in the order back into the business of the day.”

• Download the CTV News app now and get local alerts on your device
• Get local breaking news and updates sent to your email inbox