PLP's Horton becomes Speaker of the House

FRIDAY, FEB. 8: PLP veteran Randy Horton today became the new Speaker of the House of Assembly.

The Southampton West MP was voted into the Speaker’s chair despite opposition from his own party – which wanted to keep all its MPs on the floor of the House in order to put pressure on the OBA’s wafer-thin, two-seat majority.

The Speaker usually does not vote — and if the OBA had had to nominate one of their own MPs, it would have cut their majority to one.

The OBA has a 19-17 majority over the PLP — but that advantage would have been cut to just one if the Speaker had come from their ranks.