the first Speaker to be elected by his or her peers. This change reflects a similar reform undertaken by the federal House of Commons in 1986. The Speaker is usually a member of the governing party. The only exceptions have been Jack Stokes, Nelson Parliament and Hugh Edighoffer. The Speaker is required to perform his or her office impartially, but does not resign from his or her party membership upon taking office. This is identical to the system in place in the federal House of Commons, but stands in contrast to the Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The only Speaker of the Legislative Assembly to have resigned his party affiliation upon election was Nelson Parliament, who was elected in 1920. List of speakers of the Legislative Assembly Key: List of current presiding officers The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly is assisted by four other MPPs who are, along with the Speaker, collectively known as the presiding officers. Standing Order 2 of the Legislative Assembly requires that up to three of the five presiding officers hail from the Official Opposition. In the 43rd Parliament, however, the tradition of appointing three Official Opposition presiding officers was broken when three members from the governing Progressive Conservatives were appointed: Ted Arnott by secret ballot, and Donna Skelly and Patrice Barnes by the Government House Leader Paul Calandra, despite the fact that the Official Opposition NDP had put forward Jill Andrew and Jennifer French—in addition to eventual presiding officer Bhutila Karpoche—as appointees. Calandra dismissed Andrew's and French's appointments and selected Karpoche, Barnes and Lucille Collard from the Liberals, despite the Liberals not holding official party status in the Legislature. Skelly's appointment to the Deputy Speaker position was also unusual in that the role was traditionally given to the runner-up of the Speaker's election, which Skelly did not contend in (the true runner-up was Nina Tangri, who was Arnott's only challenger). The Deputy Speaker is first in line to take the Chair in the absence of the Speaker. The Deputy Speaker is also ex officio the Chair of the Committee of the Whole House. The next three presiding officers are entitled deputy chairs of the Committee of the Whole House. As with the Speaker, the other presiding officers are required to remain impartial in the Chair, but are not required to resign from their political party. They may participate in debate