Anthony Rota facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Anthony Rota
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Rota in 2023
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37th Speaker of the House of Commons | |
In office December 5, 2019 – September 27, 2023 |
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Monarch | |
Governor General | |
Prime Minister | Justin Trudeau |
Preceded by | Geoff Regan |
Succeeded by | Greg Fergus |
Member of Parliament for Nipissing—Timiskaming |
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Assumed office October 19, 2015 |
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Preceded by | Jay Aspin |
In office June 28, 2004 – May 2, 2011 |
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Preceded by | Bob Wood |
Succeeded by | Jay Aspin |
Chairman of the COVID-19 Committee | |
In office April 20, 2020 – June 18, 2020 |
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Preceded by | Office established |
Succeeded by | Office de-established |
Personal details | |
Born |
Anthony Michael Gerard Rota
May 15, 1961 North Bay, Ontario, Canada |
Political party | Liberal |
Spouse | Chantal Piché-Rota |
Children | Samantha |
Residences | North Bay, Ontario |
Profession |
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Anthony Michael Gerard Rota MP (born May 15, 1961) is a Canadian politician who served as the 37th speaker of the House of Commons from 2019 to 2023. A member of the Liberal Party, he currently serves as the member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Nipissing—Timiskaming. He previously represented Nipissing—Timiskaming as MP from 2004 to 2011. In 2019, he was elected by the House of Commons to be the speaker in the 43rd Parliament and in 2021 was re-elected in the 44th Parliament.
On September 27, 2023, he resigned as speaker due to the honouring of former Waffen-SS "Galicia" Ukrainian veteran Yaroslav Hunka in the House of Commons, triggering the 2023 speakership election.
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Early life and career
Rota was born in North Bay, Ontario, in 1961, to a family from Cosenza, Italy. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Wilfrid Laurier University, a diploma in finance from Algonquin College and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Ottawa.
Prior to his election, Rota worked for the Industrial Research Assistance Program as regional manager for Ontario. He has also served with the Canadian Technology Network in Ottawa and has worked in the private sector. He is fluent in English, French, Italian and Spanish.
Political career
Rota began his political career at the municipal level, serving as a city councillor for North Bay City Council from 1994 to 1997, chairing the city's planning and economic development committee. He won the federal Liberal Party of Canada nomination for Nipissing—Timiskaming in early 2004, defeating rival candidates Susan Church, Hugh McLachlan and Joe Sinicrope with 52% on the second ballot. In the general election held in June of that year, he narrowly defeated Conservative candidate Al McDonald.
Rota was re-elected in the 2006 election, defeating the Conservative Party's Peter Chirico, the NDP's Dave Fluri, and the Green Party's Meg Purdy. In the 2008 election, he was again reelected. He served as the Liberal Party caucus chair, and as critic for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario.
Rota ran again in the 2011 election and lost by a reported 14 votes to Jay Aspin of the Conservative Party. Due to the narrow margin, an automatic judicial recount was required, confirming the margin at 18 votes. After his 2011 loss, he began teaching at Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario.
In the 2015 election, Rota was again the Liberal candidate, defeating Aspin to again become an MP in the 42nd Canadian Parliament. On December 9, 2015, he was appointed Assistant Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole. He was reelected in the 2019 election.
As Speaker of the House of Commons
Following the 2019 Federal Election, during the 43rd Canadian Parliament he was elected as 37th speaker of the House of Commons on December 5, 2019, by winning a ranked ballot between himself, Joël Godin, Carol Hughes, Geoff Regan (the speaker during the previous Parliament) and Bruce Stanton. Following Rota's win, the Conservatives said that he had them to thank for his new position. They had made the decision to unseat Regan as a show of strength during a caucus meeting. They did so by ranking Regan further down on the ranked ballot.
On June 17, 2020, Rota ordered that NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh be removed from the House of Commons after referring to Bloc Québécois MP Alain Therrien as a racist.
Document disclosure court challenge
In July 2021, the Liberal government took the unprecedented step of taking Speaker Rota to court after Rota ruled that the government did not have the legal authority to withhold documents requested by members of Parliament. The documents requested related to the transfer of samples of the level 4 viruses from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China and the lab's dismissal of two of its scientists.
Subsequently, Speaker Rota reprimanded Iain Stewart, the President of the Public Health Agency of Canada for PHAC's "contempt" of Parliament, after Stewart failed to comply with multiple House and Commons committee orders to produce these unredacted documents.
The Liberal government’s legal challenge centered on whether or not courts can overrule the Parliamentary powers under the Westminster system. Speaker Rota had upheld the principle that the judiciary has no jurisdiction over the operations of the House and that only Parliament can decide how the law applies to its institutions.
The Liberal government subsequently dropped the court application after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called an election in August, dissolving Parliament and thus terminating all business before the House, including the orders to produce the PHAC documents.
On November 22, 2021, Rota was reelected as the speaker of the House of Commons.
Electoral record
Federal
Canadian federal election, 2021: Nipissing—Timiskaming | ||||||||
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Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
Liberal | Anthony Rota | 18,405 | 38.8 | -1.8 | $97,413.97 | |||
Conservative | Steven Trahan | 15,104 | 31.8 | +4.8 | $85,201.35 | |||
New Democratic | Scott Robertson | 10,493 | 22.1 | +1.6 | $14,631.29 | |||
PPC | Gregory J. Galante | 3,494 | 7.4 | +2.2 | $16,450.54 | |||
Total valid votes | 47,496 | |||||||
Total rejected ballots | 337 | |||||||
Turnout | 47,833 | 63.20 | ||||||
Eligible voters | 75,689 | |||||||
Source: Elections Canada |
Canadian federal election, 2019: Nipissing—Timiskaming | ||||||||
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Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
Liberal | Anthony Rota | 19,352 | 40.55 | –11.33 | $105,794.62 | |||
Conservative | Jordy Carr | 12,984 | 27.20 | –2.10 | $86,210.82 | |||
New Democratic | Rob Boulet | 9,784 | 20.50 | +4.26 | $8,883.76 | |||
Green | Alex Gomm | 3,111 | 6.52 | +3.95 | none listed | |||
PPC | Mark King | 2,496 | 5.23 | n/a | $24,007.08 | |||
Total valid votes/expense limit | 47,727 | 99.15 | ||||||
Total rejected ballots | 407 | 0.85 | +0.39 | |||||
Turnout | 48,134 | 64.13 | –4.17 | |||||
Eligible voters | 75,052 | |||||||
Liberal hold | Swing | –4.61 | ||||||
Source: Elections Canada |
Canadian federal election, 2015: Nipissing—Timiskaming | ||||||||
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Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
Liberal | Anthony Rota | 25,357 | 51.9 | +15.41 | – | |||
Conservative | Jay Aspin | 14,325 | 29.3 | −7.11 | – | |||
New Democratic | Kathleen Jodouin | 7,936 | 16.2 | −4.93 | – | |||
Green | Nicole Peltier | 1,257 | 2.6 | −3.37 | – | |||
Total valid votes/Expense limit | 48,875 | 100.0 | $217,533.50 | |||||
Total rejected ballots | 224 | 0.45 | −0.05 | |||||
Turnout | 49,099 | 69.32 | +8.82 | |||||
Eligible voters | 70,820 | |||||||
Liberal gain from Conservative | Swing | +11.26 | ||||||
Source: Elections Canada |
Canadian federal election, 2011: Nipissing—Timiskaming | ||||||||
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Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
Conservative | Jay Aspin | 15,495 | 36.7 | +4.4 | – | |||
Liberal | Anthony Rota | 15,477 | 36.6 | −8.0 | – | |||
New Democratic | Rona Eckert | 8,781 | 20.8 | +5.0 | – | |||
Green | Scott Daley | 2,518 | 6.0 | −0.8 | – | |||
Total valid votes/Expense limit | 42,271 | 100.0 | – | |||||
Total rejected ballots | 225 | 0.5 | +0.1 | |||||
Turnout | 42,496 | 60.5 | +6.8 | |||||
Eligible voters | 70,244 | – | – | |||||
Conservative gain from Liberal | Swing | +6.2 | ||||||
This vote was subject to mandatory recount because of the margin of win being less than 1/1000 of the total votes. |
Canadian federal election, 2008: Nipissing—Timiskaming | ||||||||
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Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
Liberal | Anthony Rota | 18,510 | 44.6 | –0.1 | $77,997 | |||
Conservative | Joe Sinicrope | 13,432 | 32.3 | –2.2 | $81,801 | |||
New Democratic | Dianna Allen | 6,582 | 15.8 | –1.5 | $8,409 | |||
Green | Craig Bridges | 2,808 | 6.8 | +3.3 | $10,803 | |||
Canadian Action | Andrew Moulden | 204 | 0.5 | – | ||||
Total valid votes/Expense limit | 41,536 | 100.0 | $87,383 | |||||
Total rejected ballots | 167 | 0.4 | 0.0 | |||||
Turnout | 41,703 | ~58.2 | −9.4 | |||||
Liberal hold | Swing | +2.1
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Canadian federal election, 2006: Nipissing—Timiskaming | ||||||||
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Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
Liberal | Anthony Rota | 21,393 | 44.7 | +2.4 | ||||
Conservative | Peter Chirico | 16,511 | 34.5 | –2.6 | ||||
New Democratic | Dave Fluri | 8,268 | 17.3 | +0.3 | ||||
Green | Meg Purdy | 1,698 | 3.5 | +0.4 | ||||
Total valid votes | 47,870 | 100.0 | ||||||
Total rejected ballots | 211 | 0.4 | −0.1 | |||||
Turnout | 48,081 | 67.6 | +5.2 | |||||
Liberal hold | Swing | +2.5
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Canadian federal election, 2004: Nipissing—Timiskaming | ||||||||
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Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |||||
Liberal | Anthony Rota | 18,254 | 42.3 | |||||
Conservative | Al McDonald | 16,001 | 37.1 | |||||
New Democratic | Dave Fluri | 7,354 | 17.0 | |||||
Green | Les Wilcox | 1,329 | 3.1 | |||||
Canadian Action | Ross MacLean | 204 | 0.5 | |||||
Total valid votes | 43,142 | 100.0 | ||||||
Total rejected ballots | 222 | 0.5 | ||||||
Turnout | 43,364 | 62.4 |
Municipal
1994 North Bay City Council election 10 to be elected |
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Candidate | Votes | % | ||||
Lynne Bennett (X) | 9,913 | 6.95 | ||||
Anthony Rota | 9,070 | 6.36 | ||||
Peter Handley | 9,055 | 6.35 | ||||
Laurie Kidd | 8,859 | 6.21 | ||||
George Maroosis (X) | 8,651 | 6.07 | ||||
Jack Smylie (X) | 8,571 | 6.01 | ||||
Jay Aspin (X) | 8,528 | 5.98 | ||||
Wayne Poeta | 8,346 | 5.85 | ||||
Terry Talentino | 7,545 | 5.29 | ||||
Arne Schmidt (X) | 7,480 | 5.24 | ||||
Frank O'Hagan (X) | 7,178 | 5.03 | ||||
Sarah Campbell | 6,902 | 4.84 | ||||
Don King (X) | 5,819 | 4.08 | ||||
Peter Baker | 5,404 | 3.79 | ||||
Gillian Spencer | 4,823 | 3.38 | ||||
Dick Prescott | 4,069 | 2.85 | ||||
Bernie MacDonald | 3,646 | 2.56 | ||||
Preston Quirt | 3,297 | 2.31 | ||||
Gerry Cardinal | 3,181 | 2.23 | ||||
Kevin Kendall | 3,037 | 2.13 | ||||
Miles Peters | 2,778 | 1.95 | ||||
Mike Gelinas | 2,310 | 1.62 | ||||
Louis Brown | 2,007 | 1.41 | ||||
Scott Porter | 1,348 | 0.95 | ||||
Bill Philippe | 814 | 0.57 | ||||
Source: |
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See also
In Spanish: Anthony Rota para niños