Theodore Calvin Arnott (born April 8, 1963) is a Canadian politician who was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario on September 6, 1990, representing the Riding of Wellington.

While attending school, he had a newspaper delivery route at the age of 9, and later worked part time as a retail store clerk, a construction labourer, and a factory worker.

[2] After graduating from Arthur District High School, he attended Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in political science, and later receiving a Diploma in Business Administration.

From 1987 to 1990, he was Executive Assistant to Jack Johnson, MPP for the Riding of Wellington and Chair of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Caucus.

In the 1995 provincial election, Arnott was re-elected in Wellington, receiving 67% of the votes cast, as part of a majority Progressive Conservative Government led by Mike Harris.

[6] During the 1995–1999 term of office, he served as Chair of the Standing Committee on the Legislative Assembly, and later as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Economic Development and Trade, with responsibilities for supporting small business.

This was despite a poll published by the Kitchener-Waterloo Record the week before the election predicting his defeat and claiming he was 18 percentage points behind his Liberal challenger.

A partial list of his legislative accomplishments includes his amendment to the Highway Traffic Act allowing volunteer firefighters to use a flashing green light on their personal vehicles when responding to an emergency.

His amendment to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board Act to allow municipalities to purchase the highest level of coverage for their volunteer firefighters was adopted as a Government bill and was passed into law.

Another bill he introduced, co-sponsored by Liberal and NDP MPPs was passed recognizing January 21 as "Lincoln Alexander Day" in Ontario.

[14] In recent years, he has worked with local partners and advocated for infrastructure projects, including a new Groves Memorial Community Hospital,[15] supporting renovations and improvements to the Georgetown Hospital,[16] the Highway 6 Morriston bypass project,[17] a new Wilfrid Laurier University campus in Halton,[18] and a new Halton Courthouse.

With a large number of newly elected MPPs routinely trading insults across the floor, his efforts to gain control of the raucous House were often drowned out by the noise.

In July 2019, the Office of the Speaker released “Rules of Respect and Courtesy in the Chamber.”[24] In it, Arnott urged MPPs to set a higher standard of behaviour in their day-to-day activities in the Legislature's Chamber.

[26] On April 17, 2024, in response to the situation in Palestine and Israel, Arnott prohibited Palestinian kaffiyehs from being worn by anyone — MPPs or guests — in the Ontario legislature over concerns the scarves make “an overt political statement."