20th Canadian Parliament

20th Parliament of Canada
Minority parliament
6 September 1945 – 30 April 1949
Parliament leaders
Prime Minister	William Lyon Mackenzie King 23 October 1935 – 15 November 1948
	Louis St. Laurent 15 November 1948 – 21 June 1957
Cabinets	16th Canadian Ministry 17th Canadian Ministry
Leader of the Opposition	John Bracken 11 June 1945 – 20 July 1948
	George A. Drew 2 October 1948 – 1 November 1954
Party caucuses
Government	Liberal Party
Opposition	Progressive Conservative Party
Crossbench	Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
	Social Credit Party
	Bloc populaire
	Labor-Progressive Party
House of Commons
Seating arrangements of the House of Commons
Speaker of the Commons	Gaspard Fauteux 6 September 1945 – 14 September 1949
Government House Leader	Ian Alistair Mackenzie 14 October 1944 – 30 April 1948
	Alphonse Fournier 1 May 1948 – 9 May 1953
Members	245 MP seats List of members
Senate
Speaker of the Senate	James Horace King 24 August 1945 – 2 August 1949
Government Senate Leader	Wishart McLea Robertson 24 August 1945 – 14 October 1953
Opposition Senate Leader	Charles Colquhoun Ballantyne 16 January 1942 – 11 September 1945
	John Thomas Haig 12 September 1945 – 20 June 1957
Sovereign
Monarch	George VI 11 December 1936 – 6 February 1952
Governor General	Alexander Cambridge 21 June 1940 – 12 April 1946
	Harold Alexander 12 April 1946 – 28 January 1952
Sessions
1st session 6 September 1945 – 18 December 1945
2nd session 14 March 1946 – 31 August 1946
3rd session 30 January 1947 – 17 July 1947
4th session 5 December 1947 – 30 June 1948
5th session 29 January 1949 – 30 April 1949
← 19th → 21st

The 20th Canadian Parliament was in session from 6 September 1945, until 30 April 1949. The membership was set by the 1945 federal election on 11 June 1945, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was dissolved prior to the 1949 election.

It was controlled by a Liberal Party minority first under Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and the 16th Canadian Ministry, and later a majority under Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent and the 17th Canadian Ministry. The Official Opposition was the newly named Progressive Conservative Party, led first by John Bracken and later by George Drew.

The Speaker was Gaspard Fauteux. See also List of Canadian electoral districts 1933-1947 for a list of the ridings in this parliament.

In this parliament, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, led by M. J. Coldwell, overtook the Social Credit as third largest party.

There were five sessions of the 20th Parliament.