Photo Michel Gibert, photograph used for reference only. Zulma editions. Valid in Canada from October 19-27, 2019, cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.BROSSARD-CALGARY-LAVAL-MONTRÉAL-QUÉBEC-TORONTO-VANCOUVEREXCEPTIONALONCE-A-YEAROFFERSONALLCOLLECTIONS.SATURDAY,OCTOBER19,2019 | THEGLOBEANDMAILO NEWS | A
H
ow do you know if a minor-
ity government is illegiti-
mate? It gets defeated.
It is that simple. There are lots
of problems with minority gov-
ernments: It can be hard to hold
them accountable, or get them to
think long-term. But democratic
legitimacy isn’t the problem, and
nor is figuring who gets the first
“turn” at forminga government.
If the current, close polls are
right, we can expect a minority
government after Monday’s elec-
tion, and it’s possible that two
parties, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals
and Andrew Scheer’s Conserva-
tives, will still be arguing over
who shouldgovern. And if those
polls are right, it could be the first
time since Confederation that
neither has mustered even a third
of the votes cast. But the rules are
clear. And the good news is they
don’t allow any prime minister to
stay in power very long without
the support of a majority of MPs
in the House of Commons.
Of course there is spin about
the rules. It’s aimed at influencing
your vote now, and possibly at in-
fluencing the political atmo-
sphere after voting day.
Mr. Scheer spent a couple of
days this week arguing that the
party with the most seats gets the
first crack at forming thegovern-
ment. He’s wrong. Mr. Trudeau
said something like it in 2015 – be-
fore conceding he was wrong. But
it’s not up to them.
First, the legal rules. The prime
minister always gets the first
crack at forming a minority gov-
ernment. Guy Giorno, who served
as chief of staff to former prime
minister Stephen Harper and is
now a lawyer with Fasken,
penned a piece this week about
the “realities and myths” of form-
ing government in Canada that
concluded there isn’t any confu-
sion about that question.
“Justin Trudeau remains the
prime minister until he resigns,
dies, or is dismissed,” Mr. Giorno
wrote. Of course, if another party- say Mr. Scheer’s Conservatives –
wins a majority, then Mr. Trudeau
would be expected to resign. A
prime minister needs a majority
in the House of
Commons to ex-
press confidence in
them. And a Conser-
vative majority
could be relied upon
to give Mr. Trudeau
the boot.
If no party has a
majority, however,
Mr. Trudeau can re-
main prime minis-
ter. “Contrary to
popular belief, an
incumbent prime
minister does not
need to resign just
because another
party obtains a plurality of seats
in the House,” Mr. Giorno wrote.
In addition, Mr. Scheer argued
that there is some sort of political
convention that makes prime
ministers resign when another
leader garners a larger number of
seats. There isn’t. Of course, if Mr.
Scheer does win the most seats,
he’d like people to feel that Mr.
Trudeau has no right to stay on –
but wishing doesn’t make a con-
vention.
It’s true that since 1925 all
prime ministers who finished sec-
ond resigned, but they were usu-
ally a number of seats behind, and
would have had a hard time win-
ning a confidence vote. Liberal
PM Louis St. Laurent resigned in
1957 when he finished seven seats
behind John Diefenbaker, but he
knew the other parties were out
to defeat him. Provincial premiers
that finished second have tried to
form a government: Just last year,
then-New Brunswick premier
Brian Gallant finished one seat
behind Progressive Conservative
Blaine Higgs, but he tried to form
a government anyway.
If you think that’s unfair, don’t
worry. Everyone has to meet the
same test in the end. It takes a ma-
jority vote in the legislature.
Mr. Gallant couldn’t pass that
test, so Mr. Higgs is Premier. B.C.
premier Christy Clark’s party won
more seats in the 2017 provincial
election than John Horgan’s NDP
did, but the Liberal
Leader couldn’t win
the support of the
Green Party, so she
was ousted.
If Canadians
elect a hung Parlia-
ment this time,
they will be leaving
it up to MPs. On rare
occasions, that can
be a coalition.
Sometimes there is
an agreement
where a smaller
party supports a
larger one on key
votes. Usually, a mi-
nority government lives vote to
vote. Some hope minority Parlia-
ments foster co-operation be-
tween parties, but recent history
suggests it can be mistrustful, and
secretly negotiated co-operation,
like an alliance on the reality-TV
showSurvivor.
All parties keep an eye out for
the next election. Some will try to
delay one because they are broke.
Minority governments make
deals that weren’t part of their
platform. But hung Parliaments
can also keep a PM on a short
leash. After a campaign in which
no leader has sparked broad en-
thusiasm, that may be what Cana-
dians want.Despitewhatsomesay,therules
ofaminoritygovernmentareclear
Monday’selectionmay
wellbethefirsttime
sinceConfederationthat
neithertheLiberalsnor
theTorieshaswoneven
athirdofvotescast
It’struethatsince
1925allprime
ministerswho
finishedsecond
resigned,butthey
wereusuallya
numberofseats
behind,andwould
havehadahardtime
winninga
confidencevote.CAMPBELL
CLARK
OPINIONOTTAWA
Thousands of Maritimers were still without power Friday af-
ter a powerful fall storm swept through the region Thursday,
bringing downpours, strong gusts and downed trees.
By mid-morning, more than 4,400 customers remained off
the grid in New Brunswick.
NB Power spokesman Marc
Belliveau said the main issue was
damage caused by trees making
contact with power lines.
“There were still a lot of leaves
on trees, and high winds and rain
and branches making contact
with our wires,” he said.
Mr. Belliveau said the utility
wants to have conversations with
municipalities, the Department
of Transportation and other part-
ners about expanding rights of way near its wires. “That
would be the best solution to future outages,” he said. He said
the utility used to budget $2.5-million a year for storm resto-
ration, but recently increased that to $16.5-million annually.
Mr. Belliveau said crews expected to have most, if not all,
customers reconnected by the end of the day.
Nova Scotia suffered the largest number of outages at the
storm’s peak, but only about 1,000 customers were still with-
out power by mid-morning Friday.
Sustained winds of about 60 km/h hit parts of Nova Scotia,
PEI and New Brunswick, with some coastal gusts reaching 90
km/h. Trees were toppled in historic King’s Square in Saint
John and along main streets in Halifax.THECANADIANPRESSWaveslaptheshoreinEasternPassage,N.S.,onFriday,aday
afteramajorfallstorm.ANDREWVAUGHAN/THECANADIANPRESSCrewsbusyrestoring
electricityafterviolent
stormrakesMaritimes
KEVINBISSETTFREDERICTONSustainedwindsof
about60km/hhit
partsofNovaScotia,
PEIandNew
Brunswick,with
somecoastalgusts
reaching90km/h.