EVENT DATE: November 9, 2011
TOPIC: The Role of the Speaker

Peter Milliken, the longest-serving Speaker of the House of Commons, recently joined Queen’s University as a Fellow in the School of Policy Studies.  He was first elected to the House of Commons in 1988 as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Kingston and the Islands.  He was re-elected in six consecutive elections before retiring in 2011.  He was elected as Speaker of the House in 2001 and re-elected three times, serving until retirement.  He is renowned for his knowledge of the rules of parliament and respect for its traditions.

Mr Milliken was born and raised in Kingston, Ontario.  He was educated at Queen’s, Oxford, and Dalhousie Universities.  In 1973, he was called to the bar of Ontario and enrolled as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Ontario.  He was a partner in a Kingston law firm from 1973 until 1988, when he was first elected to Parliament.  In 2001, he received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the State University New York at Potsdam.  In 2003, he was named Honorary Commander of the Fort Henry Guard and was appointed Honorary President of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada – Hamilton Branch.