Lesson 2 — Activity 2: The Prime Minister

There are two different methods of selecting a prime minister: an election, where the voters choose, or a an internal appointment, where the ruling party chooses. As explained earlier, in a Canadian federal election, voters elect members to fill the 338 seats in the Canadian House of Commons. The leader of the political party who wins the most of those seats then becomes the prime minister. He can keep getting re-elected in this manner forever, or he can lose office once a different party wins the majority of seats instead.

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You learned about political parties in L1—A2. Canadian citizens 18 years and older are able to buy memberships in political parties of their choice. Political parties hold what are called leadership elections, and all paid members of the party are able to vote for the person they think should lead their party into the next election.

You learned that at the federal level, the leader of the party that wins the election automatically becomes the prime minister. The leader of the party that comes in second is referred to as the leader of the opposition. When federal political parties elect leaders, they do so on the belief that their party will win the next federal election and their leader will be the prime minister.

With this in mind, there are some basic qualities that members seek. Obviously, they want a person who will give them the best chance of winning the next election. They want someone who they believe is a strong leader and will support the beliefs and policies of the party. The media has also impacted the selection in that the leader should be someone who presents well to the cameras. Although it is not stated as a rule, because Canada is officially a bilingual country with just over seven million French-speaking citizens (about 21% of our population), the prime minister is preferred to be bilingual. A prime minister should hold a seat in the House of Commons.

So what are the duties of the prime minister?

The prime minister:

• holds the most powerful role in Canadian politics
  
• provides leadership and direction to government with the support of a cabinet
  
• chooses MPs to serve as ministers in the cabinet
• appoints ministers to portfolios such as immigration, defence, etc.
• appoints senators from across Canada
• represents Canada at international events

In dealing with government policy and decisions in the House of Commons, the prime minister has one vote just the same as any other member of Parliament. A prime minister's power occurs behind the scenes within the political party and especially within cabinet, which you will learn about in the next lesson.

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