Minority governments in Canada

In Canada's parliamentary system of responsible government, minority governments occur when no party has a majority of seats in the legislature. Typically, but not necessarily, the party with a plurality of seats forms the government. In a minority situation, governments must rely on the support of other parties to stay in power, so are less stable than a majority government.

In Canada, most of the time political parties stand on their own, live or die, and rarely form official coalition governments to form a majority. But it has happened, such as Manitoba in 1941 as discussed below.

Canada's plurality voting system means that minority governments are relatively rare^{[clarification needed]} in comparison with countries that have a proportional representation voting system. However, minority governments have become more common at the federal level. As of 2022, five of the last seven governments have been minority governments at the federal level. Nine of Canada's 10 provinces, all but Alberta, have experienced minority governments as well, mostly produced by first-past-the-post elections.