Nova Scotia Shows a Better Way
In February, I outlined a government bill tabled by Tim Houston, Premier of Nova Scotia, which contained a line to repeal the province’s fixed-date elections law, amongst other things. The omnibus Government Organization and Administration Act received Royal Assent on 26 March 2025, and thus makes Nova Scotia both the last province to have adopted a fixed-date elections law and the first province to have repealed it outright.
Election of 2025
On 28 April 2025, we returned yet another minority parliament in the 45th federal general election. Elections Canada’s preliminary results show that this general election brought out the highest voterturnout since 1993, at 68.7% compared to 69.6% thirty-two years ago. The fervent proponents of proportional representation should take heart that the Bloc Quebecois won 6.3% of the vote and 6.4% of the seats and that the Conservatives won 41.3% of the votes and 42.0% of the seats, though they will lament that the New Democrats suffered from an inefficient vote, winning 6.3% of the popular vote but only 2.0% of the seats, and will curse that the Liberals won 49.3% of the seats from 43.7% of the popular vote.
But the Age of Minority Parliaments continues despite the enormous turnout and engagement. While the Conservatives increased their share of the popular vote from 33.74% in 2021 to 41.3% in 2025, the Liberals increased theirs from 33.62% to 43.7% and came within only 3 seats of winning a bare majority (or 4 counting a Liberal Speaker), returning 169 MPs opposite 144 Conservatives, 22 Blocists, 7 New Democrats, and 1 Green.[1] Both Jagmeet Singh, the outgoing leader of the New Democratic Party, and Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party, lost their own seats. Not only did Mark Carney immediately reverse two years of precipitous decline almost lead the Liberals to an outright majority, but the Liberals will soon face an official opposition without its leader, a demoralised rump of seven New Democrats who have lost their status as an official party in the House of Commons (which, incidentally, means that they need not hold any votes on whether to apply the Reform Act to themselves), a diminished Bloc Quebecois, and the perennial but septuagenarian Elizabeth May withering on the vine of the Green Party. If Poilievre had retained his own seat in Carleton, the Conservatives would almost certainly keep him as leader. But his humiliating defeat and pending absence from the new House of Commons might make some Conservative MPs look elsewhere. The Reform Act might give them the instrument to oust yet another leader.
The Ministry Depends on the Prime Minister
The Governor General’s first constitutional duty is to appoint a Prime Minister and ensure the continuity of government. The Governor General usually appoints the leader of the political party which has either an outright majority or a plurality of MPs in the House of Commons, or barring that, the leader who can command a majority of the House of Commons at the time (like Alexander Mackenzie in November 1873), and only appoints a Prime Minister when the incumbent resigns, dies, or is dismissed from office. The tenure of the Prime Minister determines the tenure of the ministry as a whole; therefore, the Prime Minister’s resignation or death automatically forces the resignation of the entire ministry at once.[1] A single ministry can therefore span multiple parliaments, and a single parliament could include multiple ministries.[2] For instance, Stephen Harper’s 28th Ministry remained in office continuously from 6 February 2006 to 4 November 2015 and spanned the 39th, 40th, and 41st Parliaments elected in 2006, 2008, and 2011, respectively.[3] Alternatively, a single parliament might overlap with multiple ministries. The 2nd Parliament elected from July to October 1872, for instance, included two ministries because Sir John A. Macdonald resigned over the Pacific Scandal and Governor General Lord Dufferin appointed Alexander Mackenzie as the next Prime Minister in November 1873.[4] More recently, the 37th Parliament elected in 2000 saw an intra-party transition of power between the 26th and 27th Ministries of Chretien and Martin in December 2003.[5]
The 15th Snap Election Notwithstanding a Fixed-Date Elections Law
Ontarians last went to the polls during the pandemic on 2 June 2022 in accordance with section 9 of the Election Act:
General elections at four-year intervals
Powers of Lieutenant Governor
9 (1) Nothing in this section affects the powers of the Lieutenant Governor, including the power to dissolve the Legislature, by proclamation in Her Majesty’s name, when the Lieutenant Governor sees fit. 2005, c. 35, s. 1 (3).
First Thursday in June
(2) Subject to the powers of the Lieutenant Governor referred to in subsection (1), general elections shall be held on the first Thursday in June in the fourth calendar year following polling day in the most recent general election. 2016, c. 33, s. 7.[1]
They would have gone again on 4 June 2026, but Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario, decided otherwise. He made this speculation official on 24 January 2025 at a press conference in Brampton, and he formally requested that Lieutenant Governor Edith Dumont dissolve the 43rd Legislature on 28 January. However, Her Honour could not issue the writs of election until 29 January because “a writ for an election shall be dated on a Wednesday” under section 9.1(3) of the Election Act[2] for an election on 27 February 2025, the “fifth Thursday after the date of the writ.”[3] The writ period in Ontario therefore lasts 29 days.
Tim Houston, Premier of Nova Scotia and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, decided on 27 October 2024 to advise the Lieutenant Governor to dissolve the legislature for a snap election 7 months early instead of allowing the general election to take place on 15 July 2025 based on the legislation that he himself had introduced in 2021. His gambit paid off. Houston’s Progressive Conservatives won 43 out of 55 seats in the election held on 26 November 2024 on 52.49% of the popular vote, compared to 31 seats on 38.55% of the vote on 17 August 2021.
In my previous post on this subject, I predicted that Houston would introduce legislation to change the schedule of fixed-date elections from the ridiculous Third Tuesday in July every four years as of 2025 to a date every fourth early June, like in Ontario. But Houston has exceeded my expectations and instead tabled a bill on 18 February 2025 to repeal Nova Scotia’s fixed-date elections law outright! Nova Scotia became the last province or territory to enact one of these futile and redundant laws on 5 November 2021, and it now seems poised to become the first province to repeal its fixed-date elections as well.
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