An early election or a return to the House of Commons?

Photo: Contributed

Central Okanagan-Similakmeen-Nicola MP Dan Albas

A common question I've heard lately concerns when the House of Commons will sit again.

In early January, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament to allow the Liberal Party time to select his replacement as party leader. Many have asked if the new Liberal Party leader will automatically become the next Canadian Prime Minister, despite not being elected to that position in a general election. The short answer is yes—unless Trudeau asks the Governor General to dissolve Parliament before a new Liberal leader is selected.

Another related question is , if the next Liberal Party leader is not currently an MP, can they still become prime minister? The short answer is also yes. Under our Westminster Parliamentary system, a prime minister can serve without being an MP, though that situation is rare.

Here's how this works. In 1984, John Turner, a former Liberal MP, was elected to lead the governing Liberal Party and subsequently became prime minister. Because Turner was not an MP, he could not sit on the House of Commons floor or perform the typical Parliamentary duties of a prime minister who holds a seat in Parliament. So his only option was to sit in the guest gallery as an observer.

Obviously, that is not an ideal situation and it resulted in Turner calling a general election that the Liberal Party would lose to the Progressive Conservatives, led by Brian Mulroney, just a few months later. It should be noted Turner was successful in winning a seat to become an MP and became the leader of the official Opposition.

Returning to the original question of when will the House of Commons sit again, the House is currently scheduled to resume sitting on March 24. However, the outcome of the Liberal Party leadership race to replace Trudeau may alter that timeline.

For example, the next Liberal Party leader (and by extension the next prime minister) might call an immediate election, which would prevent the House of Commons from resuming sitting on March 24.

Under Elections Canada rules, the election campaign (writ period) must last between 37 and 51 days. If an election were called in mid-March, Canadians could have a new government by late April or early May, depending on the campaign length chosen by the prime minister.

The timing of when a new government would reconvene the House of Commons after an election would lie solely with the newly elected prime minister.

Alternatively, the winner of the Liberal leadership race, the new prime minister, may choose to let the House of Commons reconvene as scheduled on March 24 for a potential throne speech and other Parliamentary proceedings.

The Liberal Party of Canada will announce its new leader March 9, less than two weeks from now. Theoretically, the writ for our next general election could be dropped within days of that announcement.

My question this week:

Do you support a new Liberal prime minister calling an immediate election or do you believe Parliament should first resume as scheduled?

I can be reached at [email protected] or call toll-free 1-800-665-8711.

Dan Albas is the Conservative MP for Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.