Parliament

Overview of Parliamentarism: Responsible Government

Responsible government is a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability which is the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Governments in Westminster democracies are responsible to Parliament (and more specifically to the lower, popularly-representative, house) rather than to the monarch, or, in the colonial context, to the imperial government.

Responsible government and the principle of parliamentary accountability manifests itself in several ways. Ministers must firstly account to Parliament for their policy decisions and for the performance of their departments. This requirement to make announcements and to answer questions in Parliament means that ministers have to be members of either house of Parliament.

Secondly, although ministers are officially appointed by the head of state and can theoretically be dismissed at pleasure, they retain office subject to their holding the confidence of the lower house of Parliament. Once the lower house has passed a motion of no confidence in the government, the government must immediately resign or submit itself to the electorate in a new general election.

Evolution of Responsible Government in Canada

In Canadian history, responsible government was a major plank of the programme of development towards independence in Canada and other settler colonies in Australasia and South Africa. The concept of responsible government is associated in Canada more with self-government than with parliamentary accountability: hence the notion that Newfoundland "gave up responsible government" when it surrendered its dominion status, even though it continued to have a democratic government in the Westminster tradition.

In the aftermath of the American Revolution, the British government was sensitive to unrest in its remaining colonies with large populations of British colonists. After William Lyon Mackenzie's abortive Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837 and Louis-Joseph Papineau's matching Lower Canada Rebellion in Lower Canada that lasted through the next year, Lord Durham was appointed governor general of Upper Canada (now Ontario) and given the task of examining the issues and determining how to defuse tensions. In his report, one of his recommendations was that colonies which were sufficiently developed should be granted "responsible government," a term which specifically meant the policy of British-appointed governors bowing to the will of elected colonial assemblies.

The first instance of responsible government in the British Empire was achieved by the colony of Nova Scotia in January-February 1848 through the efforts of Joseph Howe. In the Province of Canada responsible government was put to the test in 1849 when Reformers in the legislature passed the Rebellion Losses Bill, a law that provided compensation to French-Canadians who suffered losses in the 1837-38 rebellions. Many English-Canadians were outraged and saw the bill as compensation to traitors. The Governor, Lord Elgin, had serious misgivings about the bill, but nonetheless signed it into law in spite of demands from the Tories that he refuse assent. Elgin was physically assaulted by an English-speaking mob for this, and the Montreal Parliament building was burned to the ground in the ensuing riots. Nonetheless, the Rebellion Losses Bill helped entrench responsible government into Canadian politics.

In time, the granting of responsible government became the first step on the road to complete independence. In contrast to the American experience, Canada (for example) gradually gained greater and greater autonomy over a considerable period of time through inter imperial and commonwealth diplomacy, including 1867's British North America Act, 1931's Statute of Westminster, and even as late as the patriation of the British North America Act in 1982 (see Constitution of Canada).

Responsible Government in Canada Today

As discussed above, responsible government is the term used to describe a political system where the executive government, the Cabinet and Ministry, is drawn from, and accountable to, the legislative branch.

In practise, this means that elections to the Parliament are the means by which we decide who shall govern.

In Canada, as in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and other parliamentary systems, the election outcome in the lower house, the House of Commons, determines the composition of the government. The same system applies in all 10 provinces and three territories as well.

For example, Paul Martin's Liberal party remained in office after the June 2004 elections because they won 135 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons. The Liberal government survived a key confidence vote on a money bill thanks to the support of the New Democratic Party and two of the three Independents in the House of Commons. The vote still ended in a tie, which was broken by the vote of the Speaker of the House. However, on November 28, 2005, the minority Liberal government lost a confidence vote because the Conservatives, NDP and Bloc Québécois voted against the government. Because they had lost the confidence of the House, the government was defeated, and an election called.

More recently, following the October 2008 election, the Conservative party led by Stephen Harper again formed a minority government, with 143 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons. However, mere weeks after Parliament opened, the government introduced a fiscal update that none of the opposition parties were willing to support. It became clear that the government would lose the vote, a confidence vote, on the fiscal update. Two of the three opposition parties, the Official opposition Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party, agreed to form a coalition government, supported by the Bloc Québécois, which would not be a formal part of the coalition. The opposition parties agreed to go to the Governor General should the Conservative government be defeated on the budget vote, to ask her to call on them to form the government instead. In light of this development, Prime Minister Harper postponed the vote on the fiscal update and instead asked the Governor General to prorogue Parliament. The Governor General agreed to the prorogation, thus suspending Parliament until January 26, 2009.

Note: The term Responsible Government should not be confused with the everyday meaning of responsible. The term is a political concept and has nothing to do with the idea of governments behaving in a correct, proper or responsible manner when making decisions.