What are majority and minority governments?

In Canada, the Federal government must maintain the confidence of the House of Commons (support from a majority of Members of Parliament) to stay in power. Following a general election, there are generally two outcomes: the formation of a majority or minority government. Canada’s federal elections use a first-past-the-post or simple plurality system, where the winner is the person who receives the most votes. Voters elect individuals to the House of Commons. Based on Parliamentary convention, the party with the most elected members gets the first opportunity to form government.

Majority governments are formed when one party has more elected members to the House of Commons than others and also has more Members of Parliament than all other parties and independent members combined. Meanwhile, minority governments are formed when one party has won the most seats but has less than all others combined.

Under a majority government, power is concentrated in the governing party. Since proposed laws require a majority of votes to be adopted, majority governments can easily pass legislation if members of the governing party all vote the same way. They can also reject laws introduced by other parties or laws by members of their party.

While governing with a majority is fairly straightforward, minority governments can take many shapes. In minority governments, power is shared among the various parties. Passing legislation is more challenging under a minority government situation, depending on how close the governing party is to securing enough votes. In some cases, a party may elect to govern by negotiating with other parties to get enough support to pass specific legislation, sometimes on a bill-by-bill basis or a series of bills and in other cases, there may be a formal agreement between parties to guarantee passage of specific types of legislation in exchange for support over a agreed upon timeframe such as the deal the Liberals and New Democratic Party reached following the 2021 general election.

The charts below use results from the 2011 and 2025 federal elections to illustrate the makeup of the House of Commons in majority and minority government situations.

How many majority and minority governments has Canada had?

Since Confederation in 1867, Canada has held 45 general elections, of which 31 produced majority governments and 14 resulted in minority governments. The average tenure of a minority government in Canada has been 569 days or around 19 months. Meanwhile, the average duration of a majority government is more than twice as long, at 1,417 days or around 47 months.

Data for this article is sourced from the Parliament of Canada.