Do you perform marriages? Ontario MPPs can now say, 'I do"

“I am terrified of heights,” a relieved Fife says of a last-minute change of venue to her backyard. “The gods smiled down upon me.”

She is one of a handful of Ontario’s 124 MPPs who have signed on to do weddings since the legislature passed a private members’ bill from Progressive Conservatives Matt Rae (Perth) and Dave Smith (Peterborough — Kawartha) in December.

Their bill amended the Marriage Act, allowing legislators to solemnize civil marriages so the happy couples don’t have to go through their local municipal clerk, a justice of the peace or a judge.

“It’s something else we’re able to offer our constituents,” says Rae, noting MPPs are already empowered to take affidavits, administer oaths, affirmations and declarations. That’s in addition to helping constituents access provincial programs and services. 

To date, most legislators who have performed weddings appear to have been officiating mainly for friends and family.

This weekend, Liberal MPP Stephanie Smyth (St. Paul’s) will be doing so for her daughter at an outdoor venue in Burlington.

“It’s excitement and fear at the same time,” says the former television broadcaster, breaking into a laugh at fears she might be tempted to mom it up too much.

“I’m just focusing on being a good officiant who doesn’t cry, who’s able to keep it together and not tell her to stand up straight.”

It was Smyth’s daughter, Honor, who asked the mother of the bride to do double duty.

“She told me it would give her comfort and make her really happy,” says the first-term MPP. 

Rae said he has heard from some fellow legislators that adding weddings to their duties would make busy weekends busier, given that most attend several events a day in their ridings, with many driving long distances.

“That’s why we left it up to each MPP.”

Rae said he does not plan to “advertise” the service but noted that couples had approached him and other elected officials prior to the passage of the private members’ bill in the belief they were already authorized to do weddings.

Mary-Margaret McMahon (Beaches—East York) says she expects providing the service will be “hit or miss” for MPPs, who may decide to sign up to do weddings and take the required training modules if approached. 

“For me, we’re busy enough, our schedules are pretty chock-a-block,” says the Liberal, who will nevertheless officiate the wedding of a former staffer in picturesque Prince Edward County this August.

Under the new law, MPPs retain the wedding power until one year after they leave office so that they can keep previous commitments in the event they lose an election or decide to leave elected politics.

“Weddings take a long time to plan,” notes Rae.

In Waterloo, Fife says she was going to be one of 12 people in the basket of a hot-air balloon for the recent ceremony with a triple theme of “Amelia Earhart meets Indiana Jones meets The English Patient.”

Invitations were retro-looking boarding passes for the flight with the headline “Up, up and away,” in a nod to the 1967 hit song of the same name by the soul-pop group The 5th Dimension.   

Fife’s backyard was “quickly repurposed” to a Moroccan theme for the wedding of her sister Julie Chiasson-Wood and Kathleen Bell, who met during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“This is the first time I’ve ever officiated a wedding, and there was a moment in there where they were doing their vows, and of course I have to say, ‘Repeat after me,’ but I got so caught up in it that I forgot to do it,” Fife recalls.

“It’s a privilege to be able to marry somebody, and also a big responsibility,” she adds. “The most important thing was that these two people found each other, got married, and I didn’t ugly cry.”