What is responsible government?

Responsible government is the core constitutional principle of Canadian Westminster democracy: the executive branch (the Prime Minister and Cabinet) must maintain the confidence of the elected House of Commons to remain in office. If the House of Commons votes to express non-confidence in the government, either through an explicit confidence motion or by defeating a central government bill (such as a budget), the government must either resign or advise the Governor General to dissolve Parliament for a new election.

The principle traces to the British struggle between Crown and Parliament in the 17th and 18th centuries. In Canada, responsible government was won through the reform movements of the 1830s and 1840s, with Lord Durham's Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) recommending its introduction. Responsible government was first achieved in Nova Scotia (January 1848 under Joseph Howe), followed by the Province of Canada (March 1848 under Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine), and the other British North American colonies in subsequent years. The principle was embedded in the Constitution Act, 1867 by the preamble's reference to a Constitution similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom.

The confidence convention has several practical implications. First, the Prime Minister must be a member of the House of Commons (or, very rarely, the Senate) and must command the confidence of the House. Second, ministers are accountable to the House for their departments and must be members of Parliament. Third, the government must resign if it loses a confidence vote on a central piece of legislation. Fourth, in a minority government, the governing party must work with opposition parties to maintain confidence on important votes. Fifth, dissolution and new elections are triggered when the government can no longer command confidence.

Notable confidence-vote losses in Canadian history include the 1926 King-Byng Affair (Prime Minister Mackenzie King lost a confidence vote and was refused dissolution by Lord Byng, leading to Arthur Meighen's brief Conservative government and a constitutional crisis), the 1979 defeat of Joe Clark's Conservative government on its first budget (after only six months in office), the 2005 defeat of Paul Martin's Liberal government, and the 2011 defeat of Stephen Harper's Conservative minority on a contempt of Parliament motion. The 2008 prorogation crisis (Prime Minister Stephen Harper's request to prorogue Parliament to avoid a confidence vote that the Liberal-NDP-Bloc coalition was likely to win) tested but did not break the convention.