Succession
Despite widespread perceptions, the deputy prime minister does not automatically assume the office of prime minister if the incumbent of the latter office dies or resigns. In the event of the sudden resignation or death of a prime minister, constitutional convention requires the governor general to consult the governing party and call on a member to form a government. No policy or convention precludes the deputy prime minister from being chosen as the new prime minister in such a scenario, but none assures it, either–the party caucus would be free to recommend any new leader of its choice to the governor general. Barring extraordinary circumstances, the governor general is expected to follow the wishes of the party, although officially he or she retains the authority to make the final decision. That being the case, no Prime Minister has died in office or resigned suddenly (except following his or her party's electoral defeat) since the 1890s, many decades before the office of Deputy Prime Minister was created.
In the provinces of Canada, the deputy premier also does not automatically succeed to the office of premier in the event of a sudden resignation or death. Unlike at the federal level, however, there have been instances where the governing party recommended that the deputy premier serve as premier on an interim basis until a permanent successor was chosen — most notably, Dan Miller ascended from the deputy premiership to the premiership of British Columbia in 1999, following the resignation of Glen Clark, and Kathy Dunderdale ascended from the deputy premiership to the premiership of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2010, following the resignation of Danny Williams.
Extended notice is usually given when a sitting prime minister does not plan to seek re-election. Leadership contests to determine the successor to a prime minister are usually held during the final days of the incumbent's term, and are traditionally a lengthy and competitive process. In almost all cases, the outgoing prime minister hands over power directly to their designated successor, without any interim prime minister. By contrast, during leadership contests for the official opposition party, the leader of the opposition has often (though not always) been occupied by an interim parliamentary leader. The opposition party's deputy leader (assuming that post is occupied) is often chosen for this role unless (s)he plans to run in the leadership election, in which case someone else would be chosen since it would be considered harmful to the election process if the interim leader was to be one of the candidates.
Therefore, if in the future a Prime Minister were to die in office, resign without notice or become permanently incapacitated, it would probably be expected that the Deputy Prime Minister would likely to take over as an interim Prime Minister, but not if (s)he was expected to run for the full-time leadership of the governing party. Legally speaking, any "interim" Prime Minister appointed by the Governor General would not merely be an "Acting Prime Minister," and would have the full powers and prerogatives of any other prime minister.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)