Government 101: How does Canada's federal government work?

The further you get from your last social studies course, the more likely you are to vote. And let’s face it, it’s been a long time since many of us were given a breakdown of how exactly the Canadian government worked.

With a federal election coming up in less than two weeks, it’s worth spending a little time to refresh our memories on what, exactly, Canada’s federal government can—and can’t—do.

So let’s get into it.

How does government work?

In Canada, there are three core levels* of government: municipal/local, provincial/territorial, and federal.

The federal government is primarily responsible for issues that impact the entire nation. The feds are solely responsible for national defence, creating criminal laws, international relations and international trade, and country-wide social services, like employment insurance and federal pensions. The government also plays a role in matters technically out of its jurisdiction through the provision of federal funds. The Canada Health Act, for example, requires provinces to provide universal health care in order to receive the billions of dollars they need to operate hospitals and pay doctors.

The federal government includes thousands of civil servants and is run by the party that controls Parliament. The leader of the party with the support of the majority of Members of Parliament is the Prime Minister. (The process is explained in more detail below.)

Provincial and territorial governments are in charge of building infrastructure and delivering services within their defined boundaries. Like Parliament, BC’s provincial government is comprised of independently elected Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). The Premier is the head of the party with the support of the majority of legislators.

The provincial government is responsible for delivering and funding most social services. Health care, education, university funding, and other services are all provincial responsibilities. The province is also (mostly) in charge of highways, transportation, policing, and disaster prevention, although local governments often also play a role. Sometimes the federal government provides funding to the provinces in exchange for a say in how services are delivered. That’s especially the case when it comes to health care but also applies to other areas, including the creation of transportation and infrastructure projects.

Municipal and other local government bodies are in charge of most things that happen at street level, including how often roads get plowed during snowstorms and where new houses can be built.

Municipal governments often work with higher levels of government to achieve common goals. For example, municipalities zone areas for school use while provinces provide the funds to build and operate schools. (School boards, yet another level of local government, are in charge of allocating school funding.) Municipalities are responsible for building local recreation centres, but provincial and federal infrastructure grants often help make those happen—especially in smaller communities. (The District of Kent is partially using federal money to build its new aquatic centre.)

Because cities are created by provincial legislation, a provincial government can also expand or restrict their powers. BC’s provincial government, for instance, has recently limited cities’ zoning abilities in an attempt to make it easier to build more homes.

RCMP officers are another example of shared jurisdiction between all three levels of government. RCMP officers are federal employees, but detachments in large communities have their funding provided by municipalities. The province helps support smaller departments, such as the one in the District of Kent.

In short, it’s a little messy. There are few areas where only one level of government has complete control.

*Underscoring the complexity of Canada’s governments are the status of the country’s hundreds of First Nations. As governmental entities, First Nations have powers resembling municipalities. But while municipalities are generally subservient to the provinces, First Nations fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government and are subject to federal court rulings. First Nations also have a variety of formal and informal powers, some of which have now been enshrined in constitutional law following court rulings, while others continue to evolve as the country wrestles with matters of Indigenous sovereignty and historical rights.

Who makes up the federal government?

The foundation of the federal government are its legions of public servants. They are divided between the government’s many departments, and include managers, bureaucrats, and consultants, as well as engineers, accountants, postal employees, national park attendants, RCMP officers, plane crash investigators, and archivists.

In the Fraser Valley, federal government employees include correctional officers at Kent Institution and Mission Institution, scientists at the Agassiz Research Centre and the Cultus Lake Salmon Research Lab, academics working as Canada Research Chairs at the University of the Fraser Valley, inspectors and veterinarians at the Canada Food Inspection Agency, and fisheries enforcement officers working out of the DFO office in Chilliwack.

Although these people do the actual work of the federal government, they are not the ones making the largest decisions for the country. That is left up to politicians.

Let’s back up for a minute. Canada is headed by a monarch—currently King Charles III. The King is represented by the Governor General, who is in charge of the constitutional tasks of calling an election, swearing in a new Prime Minister, and granting Royal Assent to bills (which is what officially makes them law).

When a Prime Minister steps down or loses a major confidence vote in the House of Commons, the Governor General is tasked with either inviting another political leader to attempt to form government by gaining the house’s confidence (i.e. winning a “confidence” vote in Parliament) or calling an election.

Certain votes in Parliament are defined as “confidence” matters that help define whether a Prime Minister has—or doesn’t have—the support of a majority of MPs. Opposition parties can call for votes of non-confidence that can topple the governing party. The Conservative Party put forward three non-confidence votes in 2024 in an attempt to end Justin Trudeau’s minority Liberal government, but failed each time.

Unlike the United States, Canada’s Prime Minister is not the head of state. That title is reserved for the monarch. In Canada, the Prime Minister is the head of government.

The monarch plays an important symbolic role—he or she is the personal manifestation of Canada as a nation. But in Canada, the monarch has little real power and is subservient to, and takes orders from, Parliament. Although the monarch, through the Governor General, technically appoints cabinet ministers, it is the Prime Minister who recommends the individuals for those appointments. In modern times, the Governor General always goes with the recommendation of the Prime Minister.

(The last time the Governor General refused to follow the advice of the Prime Minister was during 1926’s “King-Byng” affair, when then-PM William Lyon Mackenzie King asked to dissolve Parliament and call an election. Governor General Lord Byng refused, and Mackenzie King resigned. The Governor General asked the leader of the Official Opposition to try to form a government. That attempt failed, and Mackenzie King won the ensuing election.)

In addition to his cabinet, a Prime Minister also appoints senators and senior judges (from lists created by an independent body), and determines the agenda of cabinet meetings. The Prime Minister is also often a member of the House of Commons—although not always.

The Prime Minister used to be described as the first among equals. That has not really been the case for many years, however. Constitutional expert Eugene Foresy wrote back in 1980 that the Prime Minister “is now incomparably more powerful than any colleague.”

Although the Prime Minister is not head of state, like the US president, their power is in some ways greater than their southern colleague. Many US presidents must deal with a Congress—the Americans’ legislative branch—controlled by an opposing party. A Prime Minister, by definition, is always in charge of both the legislative and executive branches. (The Prime Minister also plays a role, albeit a recently reduced one, in the shape of the third branch of Canada’s government: the judiciary.)

The legislature

Canada’s Parliament includes both the House of Commons and the Senate, and is responsible for actually creating the laws that govern Canadians. (Because he is involved in the law-making process, the King is also technically part of Parliament.) Parliament also determines tax levels and authorizes government spending.

In general, when Canadians speak of Parliament, they’re talking about the House of Commons, the body in which elected representatives convene and debate would-be laws—or legislation known as “bills.” Most bills come from cabinet ministers, although individual MPs can bring forward private members’ bills and motions on issues that are important to them. (They rarely ever actually become law.) After being proposed, a law is usually subject to hearings by smaller committees of MPs, before MPs as a whole debate and vote on it.

The Senate, on the other hand, is much smaller, and made up of non-elected Senators. The Senate must approve legislation before it can officially become law. Potential Senators are recommended by an independent advisory board, chosen by the Prime Minister, and officially appointed by the Governor General. (Senators must retire at 75.)

The Senate is called the “upper house” and was created in the form of the United Kingdom’s House of Lords. Its non-elected members are intended to be less beholden to the momentary whims of the voting public. Its role has traditionally been seen as a place of “sober second thought” that can independently examine potential laws, consider potential problems, and send them back to the House of Commons for reconsideration. Although the Senate technically has the ability to block a law, Canada’s senate almost never does so and usually cedes to the wishes of the House of Commons.

Once the Senate and the House of Commons sign off on a bill, the Governor General gives Royal Assent.

The cabinet

The executive branch is separate from the House of Commons and Senate. It includes the Prime Minister and his or her fellow cabinet ministers. The cabinet ministers are chosen by the Prime Minister and are responsible for different departments within the federal government. Together, cabinet members are responsible for setting the direction of foreign policy, developing new legislation to be introduced to the House of Commons, and deploying Canadian forces.

Judicial branch

The judicial branch includes the Supreme Court of Canada and the lower courts, and is responsible for interpreting Canada’s laws and settling questions about legal issues. (There are provincial courts that are not part of the federal government, although they are beholden to Supreme Court rulings.)

The judicial branch is not elected, and—aside from their members being confirmed by the Prime Minister—is independent of the legislative and executive branches of government. (Under a process laid out in 2016, an independent board identifies qualified candidates for judicial appointments; the Prime Minister then selects the individual from the resulting shortlist.)

Still a little confusing? The Parliament of Canada website has a graphic that helps break it all down.

What are we really voting for?

The federal election campaign that is currently underway may seem like it is a single campaign for control of the country. But really, Canada’s federal elections are a collection of mini campaigns in more than 300 different ridings, with candidates typically coming together under party banners.

In each riding, the candidate with the most votes wins a seat in Parliament in Ottawa.

Usually, but not necessarily, the party with the largest number of seats will form government, and the party with the next highest number of seats will be the Official Opposition. But that’s not always the case in a Parliamentary democracy like Canada’s. (The same process takes place following provincial elections.)

The person who is Prime Minister before the election remains Prime Minister after all votes are cast on election day. After the results in Canada’s hundreds of ridings become clear, the Prime Minister can attempt to gain the confidence of the House of Commons through a vote. If their party has a clear majority of Parliament’s 343 seats, it’s a pretty simple process. If another party has a majority of seats, the Prime Minister will stand aside, and the Governor General will invite that party’s leader to form government.

If no party has a majority of seats, things can become much more complicated.

The Prime Minister can negotiate with other parties, or even individual MPs, to attempt to cobble together enough votes in the House of Commons. If they can’t, the Governor General can invite another party leader to attempt to form government.

(You can see a visual of how a party could form government based on different seat distributions here.)

Usually the process is relatively quick, but as British Columbians experienced in 2017, it can also take weeks or months to resolve. That year, the BC Liberals won 43 of 87 seats, one shy of a majority, in an election on May 9. The NDP won 41 seats. Christy Clark remained Premier until late June, when her speech from the throne was rejected by the legislature. NDP leader John Horgan was then invited to try to form a government. He was able to do so with the assistance of the Green Party.

The moral of the story is that the votes of each individual Member of Parliament determine who forms government. Having been elected by their local constituents, MPs are not beholden to their party’s interests and can vote as they see fit.

In general, if the winning party has more than 172 of the 343 seats, they will form a majority government, which means their leader will become Prime Minister, and their cabinet will be able to pass laws without the support of MPs from other parties. (Narrow majorities can be subject to the changing whims—or health—of individual MPs.)

A governing party with fewer than 172 seats can form a minority government. They will need the support of other parties to get laws passed. Although minority governments were rare in Canada during the 1900s, they have become relatively common over the last two decades. In 2021, when the Liberals won with 160 seats, the NDP agreed to support the Liberals and vote in favour of certain Liberal bills (and help the party retain the confidence of the House of Commons) in exchange for the Liberal Party undertaking certain NDP goals.

We hope you found that brief reintroduction to Canadian federal governance useful. You can find more details about the upcoming federal election in our general election hub, as well as our riding-specific hubs: Langley | Abbotsford & Mission | Chilliwack & the Eastern Fraser Valley

If you want to learn more about Canada’s federal government, the Parliament of Canada website is a great resource.

Do you think others would find this article helpful? If so, just copy this link— https://fvcurrent.com/p/canada-government-safeguards — to share it with with family or friends on your preferred social media channel.