Legislative Assembly of Ontario

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Legislative Assembly of Ontario Assemblée législative de l'Ontario
43rd Parliament of Ontario
Coat of arms
Type
Type	Unicameral house of the Parliament of Ontario
Sovereign	The lieutenant governor (acting in the name of the King of Canada)
History
Founded	July 1, 1867 (1867-07-01)
Preceded by	Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada (pre-confederation) Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada (pre-union)
Leadership
Speaker	Ted Arnott, PC since July 11, 2018
Premier	Doug Ford, PC since June 29, 2018
Leader of the Official Opposition	Marit Stiles, NDP since February 4, 2023
Government House Leader	Paul Calandra, PC since June 20, 2019
Opposition House Leader	John Vanthof, NDP since February 3, 2021
Structure
Seats	124
Political groups	His Majesty's Government   Progressive Conservative (78) His Majesty's Loyal Opposition   New Democratic (28) Other parties   Liberal (9)   Green (2)   Independent (5) Vacant (2)
Elections
Voting system	First-past-the-post
Last election	June 2, 2022
Next election	2026
Meeting place
Ontario Legislative Building, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Website
www.ola.org

The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA; French: Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly are given royal assent by the lieutenant governor of Ontario to become law. Together, the Legislative Assembly and Lieutenant Governor make up the unicameral Legislature of Ontario or Parliament of Ontario.^[1][2][3] The assembly meets at the Ontario Legislative Building at Queen's Park in the provincial capital of Toronto.

Ontario uses a Westminster-style parliamentary government in which members are elected to the Legislative Assembly through general elections using a "first-past-the-post" system. The premier of Ontario (the province's head of government) holds office by virtue of their ability to command the confidence of the Legislative Assembly, typically sitting as an MPP themselves and lead the largest party or a coalition in the Legislative Assembly. The largest party not forming the government is known as the Official Opposition, its leader being recognized as leader of the Opposition.

The Ontario Legislature is sometimes referred to as the "Ontario Provincial Parliament". Members of the assembly refer to themselves as "Members of the Provincial Parliament" MPPs as opposed to "Members of the Legislative Assembly" (MLAs) as in many other provinces. Ontario is the only province to do so, in accordance with a resolution passed in the Assembly on April 7, 1938. However, the Legislative Assembly Act refers only to "members of the Assembly". The Legislative Assembly is the second largest Canadian provincial deliberative assembly by number of members after the National Assembly of Quebec.

The current assembly was elected on June 2, 2022, as part of the 43rd Parliament of Ontario.

Owing to the location of the Legislative Building on the grounds of Queen's Park, the metonym "Queen's Park" is often used to refer to both the provincial government and the Legislative Assembly.^[4]