Custom Search

Canadian Resources:

Head of Government
The Prime Minister of Canada is the head of government. The prime minister is appointed by the governor general, but to ensure the continuity of a stable government, this person must have the confidence of the House of Commons to lead the government. In practice, the position usually goes to the leader of the political party that has the most seats in the lower house. On several occasions in Canadian history no party has had a majority in the House of Commons and thus one party, usually the largest, forms a minority government. As of 2008, Canada's government has a minority government.
 

The prime minister holds office until he resigns or is removed by the governor general; therefore, the party that was in government before the election may attempt to continue to govern if it so desires, even if it holds fewer seats than another party. Coalition governments are rare at the federal level: since Sir John A. Macdonald's Liberal-Conservative governments in the mid 1800s, Canada has had only one other coalition government, the Union Government of Sir Robert Borden during World War I.

Political parties are not mentioned in the constitution. By the convention of responsible government, the prime minister and most of his cabinet are members of Parliament so they can answer to Parliament for their actions. But any Canadian adult is constitutionally eligible for the position, and prime ministers have held office after being elected leader but before taking a seat in the Commons (John Turner, for example), or after being defeated in their constituencies. The Prime Minister selects the other ministers of the Crown to head the various government departments and form the Cabinet; these individuals are appointed by the governor general and remain in office at the pleasure of the viceroy.

If the Commons passes a motion of no confidence in the government, the prime minister and the rest of Cabinet are expected either to resign their offices or to ask for a dissolution of Parliament so that a general election can be held. To avoid a no-confidence motion from passing, parties enforce strong party discipline, in which members of a party – especially from the ruling party – are strongly urged to vote the "party line" (see Chief Government Whip (Canada)) or face consequences. While a member of a governing party is free to vote his conscience, he is constrained by the fact that voting against the party line (especially in confidence votes) might prevent advancement within the party or lead to expulsion from the party. Expulsion leads to loss of election funding and the former party backing an alternative candidate.

 While the government likes to keep control of the agenda, by convention a government can only fall if a money bill (financial or budget) is defeated. However, if a government finds that it can not pass any legislation, it is common (but not required) for a vote of confidence to be held. In addition, the prime minister may declare a given bill to be a matter of confidence.

When there are enough seats for another party to form a government after the resignation of a prime minister, the governor general may ask the other party to try to form the government. This became clear after the King-Byng Affair in 1926. In practice, it is unlikely that a new alliance could be formed that would have the confidence of Parliament.