On Tuesday, a new House of Commons Speaker will be elected by MPs after former speaker Anthony Rota’s resignation.

Rota resigned after being urged to quit following his decision to invite a man who served in a Nazi unit to Parliament during a historic visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

This is quite the rare occurrence in Canada, as only two of the 36 speakers elected since Confederation were elected mid-session. All members of Parliament are eligible and automatically considered candidates for the role, except for ministers and leaders of recognized parties. The only information that will be shared with the public at the end of the process is the winner’s name, not how many ballots it took, or by how many votes they won.