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How is the Prime Minister of Canada Elected?

As explained in more detail in the Parliamentary system chapter, during听a Canadian federal election听voters across Canada elect members to fill the 338 seats in the House of Commons. The leader of the political party who wins the most seats is then 听summoned by the governor general and sworn in as prime minister shortly after the election concludes. He or she can keep getting re-elected in this manner forever, or they can lose office once a different party wins the majority of seats instead.

Parties generally have high standards for who they are willing to make their leaders, so most Canadian prime ministers are accomplished politicians who have been involved in national politics for quite some time. Usually, they鈥檒l be a former cabinet minister (see below) who had some track record of accomplishment serving in the administration of a prior PM. Less commonly, they may be figures who earned their fame听outside elected politics, in a field such as business, law, academia, the civil service or diplomacy. Many听prime ministers are some combination of both.

Powers of the Prime Minister of Canada

To best understand the powers of the Canadian prime minister, it may be most useful听to think of the PM as a person听who wears several different hats and plays several different roles within the Canadian political system. A large part of the reason why the prime minister’s office is so powerful is precisely because the PM鈥檚 authority extends into many different areas of government听and is not subject to many limitations on his ability to make decisions.

Leader听of the Largest Party in Parliament

All Canadian prime ministers are also members of parliament, and the prime minister of Canada sits and votes in听the House of Commons just like the other 337 members. As leader of parliament’s largest political party, however, he maintains tight control over all members of his parliamentary caucus听(party members) and directs and oversees听the entire parliamentary process, including deciding which bills are introduced and which laws are passed.

As mentioned in the political parties chapter, party discipline in Canada is quite rigid and hierarchical, meaning individual members of听parliament听have听little political independence and generally听just vote with their party leader the vast majority of the time. Since the PM is the most powerful party leader in parliament, the House of Commons (and the Senate) is thus very deferential to the prime minister鈥檚 agenda, and virtually no laws are passed in Canada unless the PM has had at least some hand in creating them. Exceptions only occur in rare cases when parliament is very closely听divided among听three or more parties and the听PM鈥檚 party controls only a narrow plurality of seats in the House (a situation known as a 鈥�minority government鈥�). In such circumstances, the prime minister will have to rely on the votes of at least one other political party in order to get anything passed, meaning successful bills will have to be the result of some degree of multi-party compromise.

Head听of the Executive Branch

Under the British traditions that Canada’s political system is based on, the prime minister, as the elected head of government, exercises the powers that used to be granted to the king or queen back in the old days. And since monarchs used to be quite powerful, so is the prime minister today. These sorts of powers 鈥� the powers听associated with ruling or running the country on a day-to-day basis, are known as executive powers, and the prime minister is head of the executive branch of the Canadian government.

The prime minister听is responsible for making the sort of everyday decisions that are required听to manage the large Canadian government, including decisions involving the hiring of other government officials (see below),听assigning听projects to听the various听departments of the bureaucracy, and representing the government of Canada in its interaction with provincial and local governments, as well as the governments of other countries.

To help with these tasks, the prime minister appoints a cabinet of other members of parliament. Each cabinet minister has authority in a different specific realm of government, known as a portfolio, such as finance, foreign relations, healthcare, and so on. The prime minister’s cabinet is quite big these days, usually 30 people or more, so the cabinet is also split into many smaller cabinet committees to deal with overlapping areas of concern. The cabinet as a collective is also constitutionally required to make certain decisions, though in practice it鈥檚 the PM who decides 鈥渨hat cabinet has decided.鈥澨齀n addition to their formal cabinet, most PMs will also have a large staff of advisers听who often hold just as much 鈥� if not more 鈥� power over the PM鈥檚 agenda. Staffers of this sort, who run what is known as the Prime Minister’s Office, or PMO, include people like the prime minister鈥檚 chief of staff, press secretary, communications advisers, lawyers, and other non-politicians who have earned his loyalty and trust.

The Prime Minister’s Cabinet

Here are eight听of the current government鈥檚 most high-profile and influential cabinet ministers. Most of these people sit on the cabinet committee for听Agenda, Results and Communications, which has the largest influence on the overall priorities of the government. These days, prime ministers tend to place particular priority on ensuring the cabinet has a good balance of men and women and racial minorities, as well as ministers coming from a variety of different geographic regions of the country. Every so often, prime ministers will do what is known as a cabinet shuffle in which all the cabinet ministers are rotated around and given new portfolios. Many of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s (b. 1965) cabinet ministers are holdovers from the former administration of Justin Trudeau (b. 1971).

Powers of Appointment

In addition to the cabinet, the prime minister has the power to听appoint a vast assortment of other officials in the Canadian government. This includes the governor general,听all Canadian appeals court听judges, including judges of the Supreme Court of Canada, heads of most departments and boards of the federal bureaucracy, the speaker听and leaders of the Senate of Canada, as well as individual senators themselves, ambassadors, the heads of the Canadian armed forces, and a host of other senior officials in the Canadian government, such as the head of the federal election commission and the leader of the country’s central bank, the Bank of Canada.

Of course, in practice, even the most busybody听prime minister doesn’t have the time to听hire听every single one of these individuals听single-handedly. As a result, the less consequential a position is, the more likely the prime minister is to delegate the appointment to some other official more closely involved with the position in question, usually a cabinet minister or non-partisan hiring听board.

Head of Foreign Policy and the Military

Foreign policy is the exclusive realm of Canada’s听executive branch, and it is the prime minister of Canada, along with his foreign minister, who negotiates Canada’s relationship with other countries. At any important meeting of world leaders, such as a NATO summit or a meeting at the United Nations, it is the prime minister who represents and speaks for Canada.

and the decision to send the Canadian military听to war is the sole prerogative of the prime minister. Though the controversial nature of military action means a vote of Parliament will often听be taken to provide legitimacy and accountability to an overseas troop deployment, prime ministers are still the ultimate decider of where Canada’s听soldiers are sent and which foreign army听is attacked. Most of Canada鈥檚 senior military hierarchy is likewise appointed by the prime minister, including the Chief of Defence Staff, who serves as Canada鈥檚 top soldier.

Symbol of the Country

As the country’s leader, the prime minister is often called on to represent and embody the entire country, and听听perform a lot of miscellaneous, symbolic duties in addition to his political ones. Though technically the governor general and King are supposed to perform most of the country’s figurehead duties, these days the prime minister of Canada does most of the important ones. This includes sending messages of holiday greetings, meeting with accomplished Canadians like athletes or contest winners, touring hospitals to visit with sick or injured Canadians after a tragedy, formally opening a new, important building, and that sort of thing.

Most Canadian schoolchildren are taught from a young age to view the prime ministership of Canada as one of the most important symbols of their country, and appreciate the importance of men like John A. MacDonald (1815-1891) and Wilfrid Laurier (1841-1919) 鈥� even before they can understand politics. All but one of Canada’s banknotes features the portrait of a former prime minister, and across Canada there are a vast array of schools, parks, airports, and other buildings named in honour of the country’s past PMs.

Leaving Office

As discussed, the prime minister is the leader of the party who wins the most seats in the House of Commons following a Canadian parliamentary election. A prime minister can be voted out of power if enough Canadians vote out enough of his members of parliament in the next election.

But what happens if a prime minister dies or resigns before an election? In extreme situations, such as an assassination or terrorist attack, the government of Canada maintains an to the prime minister鈥檚 office that ranks every member of the prime minister鈥檚 cabinet. Currently, the deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland (b. 1968) is first in line, though it should be noted that the idea of having a deputy prime minister is fairly recent. The position was only created in 1977 and abolished from 2006 to 2019.听If it鈥檚 less of an emergency, the parliamentary caucus of the prime minister鈥檚 political party, which is to say, all its sitting members in the House and Senate, will assemble and elect one of their own to serve as acting prime minister. If there鈥檚 a longer window of opportunity 鈥� say, if the prime minister announces his planned date of resignation months听in advance 鈥� the party will hold a formal national convention to pick a new leader, and all party members across the country will get to have a say.

Since the office of prime minister has no term limit and since Canadian elections are not held on fixed dates, prime ministerial resignations are common, and around half of all Canadian PMs have obtained听the job via the party appointment process mentioned above. This is not without controversy, however. A PM who was installed by a small group of party insiders, rather than elected by the Canadian people, will often have his right to听rule questioned if he stays in office too long. Luckily, the prime minister has the ability to call a federal election to seek a fresh mandate, and most party-appointed PMs chose to do this quite soon after their inauguration.

List of Prime Ministers

To learn more about the prime ministers of Canada, check out the prime minister biographies听chapter in the history section. Or the chart听of prime ministers in the data section.