page_title: Federal minority governments in Canada
hierarchical_section_title: Federal minority governments in Canada
context_page_description: During the history of Canadian politics, twelve minority governments have been elected at the federal level. There have also been two minority governments resulting from governments being replaced between elections, for a total of fourteen federal minority governments in twelve separate minority parliaments. There have been historical cases where the governing party had fewer than half of the seats but had the support of independents who called themselves members of the party; these cases are not included, as there was never any serious chance of the government falling.
  In a minority situation, governments must rely on the support of other parties to stay in power, providing less stability than a majority government. At the federal level, no minority government has lasted a standard four-year term. Most minority governments have lasted less than two years. The average duration of completed minorities in Canada is 479 days or approximately 1 year, 140 days counting only that part of the 14th Parliament that was a minority, or 1 year, 207 days counting the entire duration of it.
context_section_description: During the history of Canadian politics, twelve  minority governments have been elected at the federal level. There have also been two minority governments resulting from governments being replaced between elections, for a total of fourteen federal minority governments in twelve separate minority parliaments. There have been historical cases where the governing party had fewer than half of the seats but had the support of independents who called themselves members of the party; these cases are not included, as there was never any serious chance of the government falling.
  In a minority situation, governments must rely on the support of other parties to stay in power, providing less stability than a majority government. At the federal level, no minority government (excepting the odd case of the 14th) has lasted a standard four-year term. Most minority governments have lasted less than two years. The average duration of completed minorities in Canada is 479 days or approximately 1 year, 140 days counting only that part of the 14th Parliament that was a minority, or 1 year, 207 days counting the entire duration of it.
  In addition to the minorities below, the 2nd Canadian Parliament was a minority for 56 days under prime minister Alexander Mackenzie after he took power from Sir John A. Macdonald following the Pacific Scandal. However, this event is generally not noted because Parliament was never in session while Mackenzie was in power. The fourteenth federal minority parliament was elected in the 2019 election.
  In the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world, minority governments are referred to as hung parliaments.
caption: The House of Commons after the 2019 election, resulting in a Liberal minority government (in red)