LEGISLATIVE INSTITUTIONS

Date of last elections and anticipated end of current legislative terms, October 2012

* Fixed-date elections.
Sources: Legislative Assembly Websites.

In British-style parliamentary systems, the choice of the date of general elections is traditionally the prerogative of the prime minister. The head of government fixes this date pursuant to section 4 de la Constitution Act, 1982, which set a maximum term of legislatures of five years, plus the pre-election period. Notwithstanding the sizeable influence of British heritage on the workings of their democratic institutions, eight provinces (British Columbia, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta) have amended their electoral legislation in order to hold elections on a fixed date(1). In 2001, British Columbia was the first province to make this change, with the result that it was the scene of Canada’s first fixed-date elections on May 17, 2005. In 2004, the provinces of Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador both amended their electoral laws in order to integrate the principle of fixed-date elections. In June 2007, the government of New Brunswick also decided, in response to the proceedings of the New Brunswick Commission on Legislative Democracy, to hold the next general elections on a fixed date. Furthermore, the Canada Elections Act was amended in November 2006 so that general elections would be held “each general election must be held on the third Monday of October in the fourth calendar year following polling day for the last general election.” However, as stated in the law, this provision does not affect the “powers of the Governor General, including the power to dissolve Parliament at the Governor General’s discretion.”

(1) In Canada, fixed date elections do not have the same scope as in United States. Thus, at federal level and in the provinces cited above, the General Governor and the Lieutenant Governors still have the power to dissolve the Legislative Assembly before the scheduled date for the next election.

Party representation in provincial legislative assemblies

Breakdown of seats among provincial political parties, July 2012

	NFL	PEI	NS	NB	QC	ON	MB	SK	AB	BC
Liberal Party	6	22	13	13	64	53	1	0	5	46
Progressive Conservative Party	37	5	7	42	NR	36	19	0	61	NR
New Democratic Party	5	0	31	0	NR	17	37	9	4	36
Parti Québécois	NR	NR	NR	NR	47	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Saskatchewan Party	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	49	NR	NR
Coalition avenir Québec	NR	NR	NR	NR	9	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Québec solidaire	NR	NR	NR	NR	1	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Option nationale	NR	NR	NR	NR	1	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Wild Rose alliance Party	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	17	NR
Independents	0	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	3
Vacants	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0
Total	48	27	52	55	125	107	57	58	87	85

Source : Legislative Assembly Websites.
In bold: the government party / NR: not represented

In 5 of Canada’s 10 provinces (Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador), the relationship of power is marked by a division between Liberals and Conservatives. In Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, a major feature of the partisan dynamics consists in the longstanding support of a major fraction of the electorate for its province’s New Democratic Party (NDP). In Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nova Scotia, moreover, the popularity of the provincial NDP goes hand in hand with the relative weakness of the provincial Liberal Party.

Furthermore, it is worth emphasizing the existence in all provinces of a strong feeling of membership in, and identification with, the provincial political space – which translates into a highlighting of this space in the political discourse of all provincial political discourses, regardless of whether or not the province’s name figures in their appellation, as is the case in Quebec (Parti Québécois) or Saskatchewan (Saskatchewan Party). In addition, while a number of provincial Liberal and Conservative parties – notably in Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador and Ontario – do not tout themselves as being regionalist have, nevertheless, considerably participated in the phenomenon known as “province-building,” which consists in strengthening the political and administrative capacities of their respective provinces.

The number of provincial legislative assembly members since 1980

Quebec is the province whose legislature has the highest number of assembly members. The expansion of the legislative body stems from a desire to more fully represent the regions of Quebec, a function filled primarily by the former Legislative Council until 1968. Elsewhere in Canada, it is increases in population that have driven growth in the number of assembly members, particularly in British Columbia. In contrast, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and Ontario reduced the size of their legislatures during the 1990s, primarily for reasons of ideology and budget cuts. In Ontario, the elimination of more than a quarter of seats at the Legislative Assembly in 1999 is the outcome of the implementation of Conservative Premier Mike Harris’ “Common Sense Revolution,” a program designed to downsize the provincial government. Saskatchewan also shrank its Legislative Assembly, in 2003. Only Nova Scotia and Manitoba have kept their legislatures at their current size since 1980.

Number of provincial legislative assembly members between 1980 and 2012

Year	NFL	PEI	NS	NB	QC	ON	MB	SK	AB	BC
1980	52	32	52	58	110	125	57	61	79	57
1981	52	32	52	58	122	125	57	61	79	57
1982	52	32	52	58	122	125	57	64	79	57
1983	52	32	52	58	122	125	57	64	79	57
1984	52	32	52	58	122	125	57	64	79	57
1985	52	32	52	58	122	125	57	64	79	57
1986	52	32	52	58	122	125	57	64	83	57
1987	52	32	52	58	122	125	57	64	83	69
1988	52	32	52	58	122	130	57	64	83	69
1989	52	32	52	58	122	130	57	64	83	69
1990	52	32	52	58	125	130	57	64	83	69
1991	52	32	52	58	125	130	57	64	83	75
1992	52	32	52	58	125	130	57	64	83	75
1993	52	32	52	58	125	130	57	64	83	75
1994	52	32	52	58	125	130	57	66	83	75
1995	52	32	52	55	125	130	57	66	83	75
1996	48	27	52	55	125	130	57	66	83	75
1997	48	27	52	55	125	130	57	66	83	75
1998	48	27	52	55	125	130	57	66	83	75
1999	48	27	52	55	125	103	57	66	83	79
2000	48	27	52	55	125	103	57	66	83	79
2001	48	27	52	55	125	103	57	66	83	79
2002	48	27	52	55	125	103	57	66	83	79
2003	48	27	52	55	125	103	57	58	83	79
2004	48	27	52	55	125	103	57	58	83	79
2005	48	27	52	55	125	103	57	58	83	79
2006	48	27	52	55	125	103	57	58	83	79
2007	48	27	52	55	125	107	57	58	83	79
2008	48	27	52	55	125	107	57	58	83	79
2009	48	27	52	55	125	107	57	58	83	85
2010	48	27	52	55	125	107	57	58	83	85
2011	48	27	52	55	125	107	57	58	83	85
2012	48	27	52	55	125	107	57	58	87	85

Sources: Graham White, "Comparing Provincial Legislatures," p. 174, for data from 1980 to 1995; Legislative Assembly Websites for data from 1996 to 2012.

Average number of inhabitants per legislative assembly member, Provinces, 2011

Sources : Legislative Assemblies websites and Institut de la statistique du Québec.

When the number of legislative assembly members is placed in relationship to the population represented by them, it appears that the assembly members of the provinces with the smallest populations (the Atlantic provinces in particular, but also Saskatchewan) represent fewer inhabitants than do the more heavily populated provinces. Thus there is a direct relationship between the size of a province in terms of a population and the average number of inhabitants per assembly member: the smaller the population of a province is, the more that province’s average number of inhabitants per assembly member tends to be smaller too. The overall pattern emerging from an analysis of the average number of inhabitants per legislative member in the Canadian provinces is of particular value, for it presents a reliable indication of the degree to which a province’s legislative assembly members are close to the population they represent.

Percentage of women provincial legislative assembly members, July 2012

Calculations based on data available of Legislative Assemblies websites.