A look at former MPP Alvin Curling

21 November 2011 One Comment

Alvin Curling/ oafp.ca

By Samuel Getachew

At the end of a 20-year stellar career at Queen’s Park as an MPP, Alvin Curling of Scarborough achieved many firsts. He served as Minister of Housing and Minister of Skills Development under former Premier David Peterson. However, the one position that he held that stood out prominently was that of the position of speaker of Queen’s Park becoming the first black person to do so.

Today, Queen’s Park is set to embrace yet another first in Donna Cansfield as she is set to become the first woman speaker. By its own definition, the speaker is more symbolic but is also “the heart of the parliamentary system, and (poetically) ‘the linch–pin of the whole chariot’.”

The speaker functions to ensure procedures are followed and since the NDP’s Bob Rae government, the members of the house have nominated and elected with a secret ballot. They only get to vote in case of a tie and traditionally vote with the government on confidence votes. In a minority government where the government can fall unexpectedly, as is the case with the current Liberal government of Premier Dalton McGuinty, their function is an important voice of reason.

Alvin Curling, a Jamaican born Ontarian Liberal, was voted as speaker at the beginning of Premier Dalton McGuinty’s term in 2003. Prior to elected office, the York University graduate was an educator and headed the World Literacy of Canada and briefly served the Jamaican Canadian Association.

After elected office, he was appointed as a diplomat to the Dominican Republic by the then Prime Minister Paul Martin until he was recalled by the newly elected Conservative government of Stephen Harper.

A Senior Fellow with the CIGI (International Economic Governance), he has in recent years made headways with the Premier’s Task Force on the Review of the Roots of Youth Violence, which he co-chaired with Chief Justice and Review Co-Chair Roy McMurtry.