Canada elects first black parliamentary speaker

[Nat Quinn]

Canada has, for the first time, elected a black Canadian as speaker of the country’s lower house of parliament, the House of Commons.

Greg Fergus, an MP for the governing Liberal Party, was elected by secret ballot on Tuesday.

The country had to elect a new speaker following the resignation of Anthony Tota, who had invited a Ukrainian veteran of World War II to parliament. It subsequently emerged that the man had fought on the side of the Nazis in that conflict.

Fergus was first elected to the House of Commons in 2015.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologised for the invitation to the Nazi veteran, saying it was ‘a mistake that deeply embarrassed parliament and Canada’.

The increasingly unpopular Trudeau faces an uphill battle to win another term. His Liberal Party is trailing the main opposition party, the Conservative Party of Canada, significantly in the polls.

 

Canada elects first black parliamentary speaker – Daily Friend

 

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