The speaker with the longest tenure is Peter Milliken who was elected for four consecutive terms lasting 10 years, 124 days.

[7] The speaker and their deputies preside over debates of the House of Commons, invite particular members to speak, maintain order and decorum (including reproving members who misbehave), and make rulings on points of order and points of privilege.

Although the Constitution requires that the speaker be elected by the House of Commons, traditionally this amounted to the rubber-stamp approval of an MP nominated by the prime minister.

Any MP who does not wish to put their name forward must issue a letter withdrawing from the ballot by the day before the vote.

The current dean is Louis Plamondon, who is also the longest continuously serving MP who is not in Cabinet.

[13] On June 2, 2011, Conservative Andrew Scheer (Regina—Qu'Appelle) was elected speaker, defeating the following MPs over the course of six ballots: New Democrat Denise Savoie (Victoria) and Conservatives Dean Allison (Niagara West—Glanbrook), Barry Devolin (Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock), Ed Holder (London West), Lee Richardson (Calgary Centre), Bruce Stanton (Simcoe North), and Merv Tweed (Brandon—Souris).

[14] He was the first speaker from Atlantic Canada or Nova Scotia in nearly a hundred years[15] since Edgar Nelson Rhodes in 1922.

In the 39th Parliament, opposition members Peter Milliken, Diane Marleau, and Marcel Proulx ran for speaker.

In 1957, when John Diefenbaker took power with a minority Progressive Conservative government, he offered the speaker's chair to Stanley Knowles of the opposition Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (the precursor to the New Democratic Party, or NDP) who declined.

The opposition parties may have chosen not to follow the 1968 precedent because of how close the election was: it produced a Liberal minority government with just two more seats than the Conservatives.

On May 19, 2005, Speaker Peter Milliken was required to cast the tie-breaking vote during a confidence measure for the first time in Canadian history.

Faced with the defeat of Paul Martin's minority government, Milliken voted in favour of the NDP budget amendment.

Despite popular belief that the speaker, as a Liberal MP, would automatically support the government, his vote was pre-determined by other factors.

Speakers have only needed to vote in order to break a tie 11 times in Canadian parliamentary history.

He was chosen as interim speaker by virtue of his status as Dean of the House, the longest-serving MP who is not a cabinet member or party leader; the Dean of the House is in any event in charge of presiding over the election of a Speaker at the beginning of a new Parliament.

[24][25] On March 9, 2016 Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger served as honorary speaker for about an hour to honour his years of service.

Bélanger had initially been considered a front runner to be speaker in the previous year, but had withdrawn due to his being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.