George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016, revealed on his podcast Political Currency on 29 May 2025 that Mark Carney had first asked His Majesty the King to open the 45th Parliament as King of Canada back on 17 March 2025. Osborne claimed that Carney had told him about all this directly during the same visit to London in mid-March 2025, shortly after his appointment as prime minister but before the dissolution of parliament for a general election. Osborne said in full:
In The Crisis of Canadian Democracy, Andrew Coyne repeats the same refrain that has made the rounds for decades but presents his polemic as if it were original. His superficial assertions seem like profound arguments at first glance, and an inescapable implication weaves throughout his narrative: if only everyone thought as Andrew Coyne does, then so many of our problems would solve themselves. I risk giving Coyne too much attention and legitimacy by reviewing this book at all, but the bulk of this book merits a thorough refutation because he seems to have garnered such a following, especially from the credulous at The Hub, The Agenda with Steve Paikin, and the Monk Centre.
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thus makes Nova Scotia both the last province to have adopted a fixed-date elections law and the first province to have repealed it outright.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]
