This Ontario MPP is happy to officiate your wedding, even without his kilt
· Toronto Sun
Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together with your MPP?
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Well, as of March 1, they do in Ontario.
A private member’s bill by Conservative MPPs Dave Smith and Matthew Rae became law then, so with the proper protocols MPPs can now officiate civil ceremonies in Ontario as long as the couple has a valid marriage licence.
Add MPPs to the short list of city clerk or their designate, a band council-approved Indigenous leader, a justice of the peace or judge who can conduct civil ceremonies in this province.
“What I’ve heard over the last eight years from different people is some challenges about getting married,” said Smith, who represents Peterborough—Kawartha and officiated his first wedding on a rural property less than two weeks ago.
“If you don’t want a religious ceremony, you had to go down to city hall. And the pushback in my office was people didn’t want to get married at city hall. They still wanted to have a nice ceremony. And what do we do to help facilitate that?”
Access concerns for rural residents
The other concern was living in a more remote or rural setting.
“If you’re in Apsley, that’s an hour’s drive to get to the city of Peterborough,” said Smith.
He said it’s not automatic for MPPs, who have to ask the public and business service delivery minister for the ability to officiate.
“Once we’re given the authority to do it, we can do it as long as we’re an MPP and actually for 12 months after if we leave office,” said Smith, whose had three more queries about officiating in the last month.
“The reason behind the 12 months is if there’s a snap election or you’re expecting you’re going to win but you lose, but you’ve already arranged to do a wedding for someone, we didn’t want to put that person in a position where they were scrambling to find a new officiant.”
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‘Any MPP can do it’
And it’s done on a volunteer basis with no money exchanging hands.
“It’s not partisan, any MPP can do it,” added Smith. “Ontario is the only one doing it so far. None of the other (provinces) have the elected officials (doing it) yet.”
Smith said there is “some key language” that MPPs are required to use during the ceremony.
“You have to say you’re solemnizing the marriage,” he said. “It’s not holy matrimony. And they have to demonstrate it’s their own free will, they’re not being coerced into it and we have to ask if there’s any legal reason that they know of that they shouldn’t be married.”
As for his first outing as an officiant, Smith enjoyed it.
“It was actually really good,” said Smith. “I sat down with the couple. They came with what they wanted for vows. We walked through how they would want to do it. I felt very honoured to be able to do that service for them.”
They just had one request.
“They told me I couldn’t wear my kilt,” said Smith with a laugh. “I’m known in the area for wearing my kilt whenever I have the opportunity.”