What happens if the other party wins

This would mean Trudeau, who would still be the prime minister, reconvening MPs for a new session of Parliament. In a minority there is no formal power-sharing agreement and the governing party just needs to ensure they secure enough votes on key issues or bills to stay alive. If they are given a chance to govern as a minority, it would roll along in the same way described for the Liberals above.

A coalition was attempted, unsuccessfully, just weeks after the election by the Liberals, Bloc, and NDP, and was largely seen as a power-grab. It would be in this kind of a situation where Governor General Julie Payette might play a bigger role.

While the talk of the last few days has been about a coalition forming, the experts CTV News spoke with say it remains a very unlikely outcome. If the situation is unstable enough that no one manages to hold together a government, or that all attempts are futile, then it may be back to the polls in hopes of a more decisive result. And, of course, keep in mind that party standings can fluctuate. If a member is removed from caucus for one reason or another, resigns their seat, or dies, then the balance of who holds the firmest grip on power could fluctuate.

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Truth Tracker: Keeping tabs on campaign misinformation. What happens if no party wins a majority of seats? Minority possibilities, explained.

Party platforms: Promises made by major party leaders. And Trudeau has pointed out that Alberta, run by a Conservative provincial government, is in crisis. Kenney apologized for the dire situation and is now reluctantly introducing a vaccine passport and imposing a mandatory work-from-home order two months after lifting nearly all restrictions. He and the Liberals won the election but lost the prize they were seeking.

Wiseman said the Conservatives were hurt by the situation in Alberta. A Conservative win would have represented a rebuke of Trudeau against a politician with a fraction of his name recognition. The son of a long-time politician has faced criticism he will say and do anything to get elected. He noted provincial elections have also happened during the pandemic. Parties form more loose arrangements where legislation moves through the House on a case-by-case basis, as happened in and again in and The former politician likened it to a "dance" in which the government leads but needs a partner willing to follow in order to make it work.

But as the MacLellan government learned in , when it tried a business-as-usual approach to choose its own Speaker, the opposition parties can use its majority of votes to its advantage. Deveaux, who was NDP House leader from to , was a central figure in shepherding legislation through the House during two minority governments.

We needed to make this work. One tangible difference during a minority House is the makeup of the legislature's six standing committees. When the opposition parties have more seats combined than the party in power, they control those committees. Since returning to power in , the governing liberals have used their majority to limit the scope of the once-powerful public accounts committee, and government MLAs have repeatedly rejected topics and witnesses opposition MLAs have put forward to appear before the other standing committees.

That means a minority legislature could see the public accounts committee mandate restored and the topics handled by the other committees dictated by opposition politicians rather than restricted to only government-approved topics or witnesses.

Although critics of minority governments claim they are inefficient or make governing more precarious or difficult, Deveaux disagrees.