Background
Peters was born in Saint Thomas, in the southwestern section of Ontario.
Peters was born in Saint Thomas, in the southwestern section of Ontario.
He was educated at the University of Western Ontario, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1985.
He served as Speaker from 2007 to 2011 and was a Cabinet Minister in the government of Dalton McGuinty. Peters subsequently worked as an archivist at Victoria Hospital in London, Ontario, and at Alma College in Saint Thomas. He also worked as a stock clerk at an A&P food store in Saint Thomas.
Peters began his political career at the municipal level, being elected to the Saint Thomas city council in 1988.
He became the city"s mayor in 1991, and was the youngest mayor in the country at the time. Peters was re-elected by significant majorities in 1994 and 1997.
Peters ran as a candidate of the Ontario Liberal Party in the 1999 provincial election. He defeated incumbent Progressive Conservative (Personal Computer) Master in Public Policy Bruce Smith in the riding of Elgin—Middlesex—London by 1,171 votes.
In September 2000, he was named opposition critic for Agriculture.
Foreign the next three years, most of his interventions in the legislature were focused on agricultural and rural issues. Peters was easily re-elected in the 2003 provincial election, receiving over 57% of the vote. Bruce Smith, again running for the Progressive Conservatives, received just over 30%.
In late September 2004, he announced that the provincial government would provide $30 million to farmers affected by the Biosystems Engineering crisis, which had prevented Canadian beef from reaching the American market.
He was named as Ontario"s Minister of Labour following a cabinet shuffle on 29 June 2005. Though he was re-elected in the general election of October 2007, he was dropped from cabinet in a post-election cabinet shuffle.
On 28 November 2007, he was elected by his fellow members as the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly on the fourth ballot, defeating Michael A. Brown, Ted Arnott, David Zimmer and Lorenzo Berardinetti. On 9 November 2010, Peters announced that he would not be seeking re-election in the 2011 Ontario general election.
In 2013, he supported Gerrard Kennedy in his bid to become leader of the Liberal Party.
Cabinet positions
After leaving the legislature, Peters became executive director of the Alliance of Ontario Food Processors.
He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1999 to 2011.