CHV2O: Canadian Civics
Mr. Liu
Name: ___________________
Minority, Majority and Coalition Governments
The party that wins the largest number of seats in a general election forms the government. Its leader is
asked by the Governor General to become Prime Minister. If the winning party comes out of the
election with more than half the total seats in the House of Commons it is known as a majority
government. By using party discipline (MPs must vote to support their leader), it can easily pass its bills
into law because it can depend upon support from more than half of the Members of Parliament.
In some cases, however, no single political party has a clear majority of MPs in the House. The political
party with the most MPs, nevertheless, may decide to form the government on its own. This is called a
minority government because the governing political party only has a “minority” of MPs in the
legislature. A minority government governs much differently than majority ones: because it does not
have a clear majority in the House, the government cannot simply use party discipline to guarantee
support in the legislature. Instead, it must negotiate with opposition parties to gain their support for
government legislation. This is usually done on a legislation-by-legislation basis. The government may,
for example, strike a deal with one opposition party to gain the support it needs for one piece of
legislation, and then negotiate with a different political party on another piece of legislation.
Like a minority government, coalition government occurs when no party has a majority of the seats in
Parliament. In a coalition government, however, two or more parties join together to form a
government. The leader of one of these parties is asked to form the next government. He or she
becomes the next prime minister and selects a cabinet from MPs of the parties involved in the coalition.
In a coalition government, the involved parties make a long-term agreement to work and vote together.
This is different than a minority government, where the governing party tries to find support from the
other parties on a case-by-case basis.
Province / Territory
CON
NDP
LIB
Alberta
27
1
British Columbia
21
12
2
Manitoba
11
2
1
14
New Brunswick
8
1
1
10
Newfoundland and Labrador
1
2
4
7
Nova Scotia
4
3
4
11
Nunavut
1
Ontario
73
Prince Edward Island
1
Quebec
5
Saskatchewan
13
Green
Vacant
1
36
1
21
11
1
3
59
7
4
75
1
14
1
166
106
4
1
1
TOTAL
Total
28
Northwest Territories
Yukon
Bloc
1
102
34
4
1
1
308
V2
1. How many seats are there in the House of Commons? Which party has the most seats? (1)
2. How many seats do you need to have a majority government? (Hint - you need half of the total
plus one.) Is there a political party which currently has the required number of seats? (1)
3. Examine the total number of seats in each province. Why do you think the numbers are
distributed in this way? (1)
4. Explain the differences between a minority government and a coalition government. (1)
5. In your opinion, which government type (majority, minority, coalition) is best for the
democratic process? In which type of government can the interest of more Canadians be
addressed? Explain your answer. (2)
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