Parliament of Canada - Relationship With The Executive

Relationship With The Executive

The Canadian government consists of the monarch, predominantly represented by his or her governor general, in Council, which is a collection of ministers of the Crown appointed by the governor general to direct the use of the executive powers. Per the tenets of responsible government, these individuals are almost always drawn from the parliament, and then are predominantly from the House of Commons, the only body to which the ministers are held accountable, typically during Question Period, wherein the ministers are obliged to answer questions posed by members of the loyal opposition. Hence, the person who can command the confidence of the lower chamber—usually the leader of the party with the most seats therein—is the one who is typically appointed as prime minister. Should that person not actually hold a seat in the House of Commons, he or she will, by convention, seek election to one at the earliest possible opportunity; frequently, in such situations, a junior Member of Parliament who holds a safe seat will resign to allow the prime minister to run for that riding in a by-election. If no party holds a majority, it is customary for the governor general to summon a minority government or coalition government, depending on which the Commons will support.

The lower house may attempt to bring down the government by either rejecting a motion of confidence—generally initiated by a minister to reinforce the Cabinet's support in the Commons—or by passing a motion of no confidence—introduced by the opposition to display its distrust of the Cabinet. Important bills that form part of the government's agenda will usually be considered matters of confidence, as are budgets. Where a government has lost the confidence of the House of Commons, the prime minister is obliged to either resign (allowing the governor general to appoint the Leader of the Opposition to the office), or seek the dissolution of parliament and call a new general election. A precedent, however, was set in 1968, when the government of Lester B. Pearson unexpectedly lost a confidence vote but was allowed to remain in power with the mutual consent of the leaders of the other parties.

In practice, the House of Commons' scrutiny of the government is very weak. With the plurality voting system used in parliamentary elections tending to provide the governing party with a large majority, and a party system that gives leaders strict control over their caucus (to the point that MPs may be expelled from their parties for voting against the instructions of party leaders), there is often limited need to compromise with other parties. Thus, defeats of majority governments on issues of confidence are very rare. In contrast, a minority government is more volatile, and is more likely to fall due to loss of confidence. The last prime minister to lose a confidence vote was Stephen Harper in 2011, prior to which was Paul Martin in 2005 and Joe Clark in 1979. All these occurrences involved minority governments.