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In 1867, the British North America Act (BNA Act), the Constitution of Canada, united three British colonies: the Province of Canada (comprising Upper Canada, which is now Ontario, and Lower Canada, which is now Quebec), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The BNA Act made Canada a constitutional monarchy, whose sovereign is the reigning monarch of […]
Who Governs Canada?
Constitutionally, Canada’s head of state is Queen Elizabeth II. She is represented by a governor general at the federal level and by 10 lieutenant governors, one per province. The three territories each have a commissioner representing the Queen. They mainly have a ceremonial role. The governor general, or his representative, grants royal assent to bills […]
The Opposition
According to tradition, the party with the second most seats becomes the Official Opposition. Its head becomes the leader of the Opposition. To have official party status in the Commons and obtain funding for research, a party must win at least 12 seats. During each fiscal year, certain days are set aside for the Opposition […]
Majority or Minority Government
Tradition dictates that the party winning the most seats forms the government. If a party ends up with more than half the seats in the House of Commons, a majority government forms and has control over the House. But if the party winning the most seats still has fewer than half the total seats, it […]
How Are MPs Elected?
In Canada, MPs are elected in a system known as first past the post. Electors vote for the candidate of their choice in their riding (also called an electoral district or constituency). The candidate with the most votes becomes the member for the riding. The party winning the most ridings forms the government. The voting […]
Who May Run?
All Canadian citizens aged 18 or over may run in an election unless they are convicted of a crime under the Canada Elections Act or detained in a penitentiary. Some public office holders are also ineligible (senators, members of provincial or territorial legislatures, the chief and assistant chief electoral officers, returning officers and some judges). […]
Who May Vote?
All Canadian citizens aged 18 or older are eligible to vote (even inmates thanks to a Supreme Court decision rendered on October 31, 2002). Only some public office holders, like the chief and assistant chief electoral officers, are ineligible. Electors can register on the list of electors drawn up from the National Register of Electors. […]
Political Financing
The current Elections Act was amended considerably in the wake of the sponsorship scandal, which tarnished the governing Liberals in the mid-2000s. Today, the financing of political parties comes from two sources: individual contributions and public funding. Two series of amendments have tightened rules for private funding. The first, which stemmed from Bill C-24, came […]
Cost of an Election
Though we say that democracy has no price, the reality is that organizing and conducting a general election, which is a principle expression of democracy, necessarily implies major costs. Among such election expenses are the salaries paid to the thousands of citizens hired prior and during elections to ensure that voting proceeds smoothly and fairly […]
Past Elections
An important amendment to Canada’s Election Act became law in 2007. Under the amended Elections Act, elections must be called for the third Monday in October, four years after the previous general election. As the last general election was on October 19, 2015, the next federal election will be held on the third Monday in […]
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
In Ottawa on April 17, 1982, Queen Elizabeth II signed the Canada Act, 1982 into law, thereby ending the British Parliament’s power to amend the Canadian Constitution. This proclamation meant that Canada had become master of its own destiny on constitutional matters. Canada had, in a word, “patriated” its Constitution. One key feature of the […]
Saga of Canada’s Constitution
In 1981, Canada reached a milestone in its political history: the House of Commons and Senate issued a joint statement to Queen Elizabeth II requesting the patriation of the Constitution of Canada. This move, which was both symbolic and political, enabled Canada to achieve full independence from the British monarchy after a political and legal […]