Peter Van Loan, PC MP (born April 18, 1963) is a Canadian politician who is the Member of Parliament for the electoral district of York—Simcoe. He has been the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons since May 18, 2011, a role he previously held from 2007 to 2008.

Born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Van Loan is of Estonian heritage. His mother and grandparents fled Estonia during World War II and emigrated to Canada.

Van Loan was educated at the University of Toronto and York University and holds a bachelor’s degree, a Masters in International Relations and an additional Masters degree in geography. Van Loan graduated from York University's Osgoode Hall Law School and was admitted to the Bar of Ontario in 1989.

Prior to his election to public office, Van Loan was a partner and Chair of the Planning and Development Law Group at the law firm of Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP in Toronto, Ontario. Van Loan was also an Adjunct Professor of Planning at the University of Toronto. He eventually served as president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario during Mike Harris' term of office and then the former Progressive Conservative Party of Canada for a brief period. He resigned from the latter post in 2000 after a series of disagreements with its leader, Joe Clark.

Thomas Joseph "Tom" Mulcair (born October 24, 1954) is the Leader of the Official Opposition in Canada, a lawyer, university professor, and politician. A New Democratic Party Member of Parliament for the electoral district of Outremont in Quebec since 2007, he was selected as the leader of the New Democratic Party, thus the Leader of the Official Opposition, in the leadership election on March 24, 2012, with 57.2% of the votes on the fourth and final ballot.

He was the provincial Member of the National Assembly of Quebec for the riding of Chomedey in Laval from 1994 to 2007, holding the seat for the Liberal Party of Quebec. He served as the Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks from 2003 until 2006, in the Liberal government of Premier Jean Charest. Elected MP for Outremont in a by-election in 2007, he was named Deputy Leader of the New Democratic Party, jointly with Libby Davies, shortly afterwards, and has won re-election twice.

On May 26, 2011, he was named the New Democratic Party's Opposition House Leader. On March 24, 2012, Thomas Mulcair was elected to be the new federal NDP leader, succeeding the late Jack Layton. Prior to entering politics, Mulcair was a senior civil servant in the Quebec provincial government, ran a private law practice, and taught law at the university level.

Kenneth Wayne Dryden, PC, (born August 8, 1947) is a Canadian politician, lawyer, businessman, author, and former NHL goaltender. He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Dryden was a Liberal Member of Parliament from 2004 until losing his seat in the 2011 Canadian federal elections to Conservative Mark Adler.

Dryden was born in Hamilton, Ontario, the son of Murray and Margaret Dryden and brother of Dave Dryden, also an NHL goaltender. Dryden was raised in Islington (then just outside Toronto) and drafted fourteenth overall by the Boston Bruins in the 1964 NHL Amateur Draft. Later the same day, Boston traded Dryden to the Montreal Canadiens, along with Alex Campbell, for Paul Reid and Guy Allen, whom the Bruins highly valued. Dryden was informed by his agent that he had been drafted by the Canadiens, and did not find out until the mid-1970s that he had originally been a Bruin.

Rather than play in Montreal, Dryden pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree at Cornell University, where he also played hockey until his graduation in 1969. He backstopped the Cornell Big Red to the 1967 National Collegiate Athletic Association championship and to three consecutive ECAC tournament championships under coach Ned Harkness, winning 76 of his 81 varsity starts. He also was a member of the Canadian amateur national team at the 1969 Ice Hockey World Championship tournament in Stockholm.

Nathan Cullen (born July 13, 1972) is a Canadian federal politician. He is the Member of Parliament for the riding of Skeena—Bulkley Valley and a member of the New Democratic Party. While he was raised in Toronto and worked for several years in Central and South America, he moved to Smithers, British Columbia in 1998 working as a private consultant. He entered politics in 2004, as the NDP candidate challenging the Conservative Party incumbent Andy Burton. Cullen won the 2004 election and was re-elected in 2006, 2008, and 2011, allowing him to serve as a Member of Parliament in the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st Parliaments. Cullen introduced several private member's bills, though none were adopted, such as the Phthalate Control Act and the Canada's Clean Air and Climate Change Act in the 39th Parliament, as well as the Bicycle Path Promotion Act and An Act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 in the 40th Parliament. He was a candidate in the 2012 New Democratic Party leadership election, and came in third. On April 20, 2012 Cullen was named House Leader for the Official Opposition in Thomas Mulcair's first Shadow Cabinet Shuffle.

James Michael "Jim" Flaherty, PC, MP (born December 30, 1949) is Canada's Minister of Finance and he has also served as Ontario's Minister of Finance. From 1995 until 2005, he was the Member of Provincial Parliament for Whitby—Ajax, and a member of the Progressive Conservative Party caucus. He was a cabinet minister in the government of Mike Harris, and unsuccessfully sought the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives on two occasions.

Flaherty won the riding of Whitby—Oshawa in the federal election held January 23, 2006 as a member of the Conservative Party of Canada narrowly beating Liberal incumbent Judi Longfield. He was re-elected in 2008. Flaherty's wife Christine Elliott represents Whitby—Oshawa in the Ontario Legislature.

Flaherty was born in Lachine, Quebec. He attended Bishop Whelan High School and Loyola High School, Montreal. Flaherty has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University, as well as a Bachelor of Laws degree from Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. He practised law before entering political life, and was a founding partner of Flaherty Dow Elliott, a firm specializing in motor vehicle accident and personal injury litigation.^{[citation needed]}