40th Canadian Parliament

40th Parliament of Canada
Minority parliament
18 November 2008 – 26 March 2011
Parliament leaders
Prime Minister	Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper 6 Feb 2006 – 4 Nov 2015
Cabinet	28th Canadian Ministry
Leader of the Opposition	Hon. Stéphane Dion December 2, 2006 – December 10, 2008
	Hon. Michael Ignatieff December 10, 2008 – May 2, 2011
Party caucuses
Government	Conservative Party
Opposition	Liberal Party
Recognized	Bloc Québécois
	New Democratic Party
Unrecognized	Progressive Conservative*
* Only in the Senate.
House of Commons
Seating arrangements of the House of Commons
Speaker of the Commons	Hon. Peter Milliken January 29, 2001 – June 2, 2011
Government House Leader	Hon. Jay Hill October 3, 2008 – August 6, 2010
	Hon. John Baird August 6, 2010 – May 2, 2011
Opposition House Leader	Hon. Ralph Goodale February 10, 2006 – September 10, 2010
	David McGuinty September 10, 2010 – May 26, 2011
Members	308 seats MP seats List of members
Senate
Seating arrangements of the Senate
Speaker of the Senate	Hon. Noël A. Kinsella February 8, 2006 – November 26, 2014
Government Senate Leader	Hon. Marjory LeBreton February 6, 2006 - July 14, 2013
Opposition Senate Leader	Hon. Jim Cowan November 3, 2008 – November 5, 2015
Senators	105 seats senator seats List of senators
Sovereign
Monarch	Elizabeth II February 6, 1952 – 8 September 2022
Governor General	Rt. Hon. Michaëlle Jean September 27, 2005 – October 1, 2010
	Rt. Hon. David Johnston October 1, 2010 – October 2, 2017
Sessions
1st session November 18, 2008 – December 4, 2008
2nd session January 26, 2009 – December 30, 2009
3rd session March 3, 2010 – March 26, 2011
← 39th → 41st

The 40th Canadian Parliament was in session from November 18, 2008 to March 26, 2011. It was the last Parliament of the longest-running minority government in Canadian history that began with the previous Parliament. The membership of its House of Commons was determined by the results of the 2008 federal election held on October 14, 2008. Its first session was then prorogued by the Governor General on December 4, 2008, at the request of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was facing a likely no-confidence motion and a coalition agreement between the Liberal party and the New Democratic Party with the support of the Bloc Québécois (2008–2009 Canadian parliamentary dispute). Of the 308 MPs elected at the October 14, 2008 general election, 64 were new to Parliament and three sat in Parliaments previous to the 39th: John Duncan, Jack Harris and Roger Pomerleau.

There were three sessions of the 40th Parliament. On March 25, 2011, the House of Commons passed a Liberal motion of non-confidence by a vote of 156 to 145, finding the Conservative Cabinet in contempt of parliament, an unprecedented finding in Canadian and Commonwealth parliamentary history.^[1] On March 26, 2011, Prime Minister Stephen Harper subsequently asked Governor General David Johnston to dissolve parliament and issue a writ of election.^[2]