by Maurice Y. Michaud (he/him)
Winning a seat in a partisan assembly is often not sufficient to get full parliamentary privileges. The type of recognition and threshold needed to obtain it varies from one jurisdiction to another, with the most coveted privileges being funding for party research offices and the right to ask questions (and how many) during Question Period.
However, given that this determination is governed by internal legislative rules, the members of an assembly can pass a motion to dispense with the rules and grant the status to parties that would otherwise fail to qualify — something that has already occurred on several occasions. It goes without saying that the independents do not form a party in themselves, and that non partisan assemblies are excluded from this list.
| Legend } | N: Current assembly | ✓ Officially recognized party (R) PAR Party T Total |
† Not in office (n) Current age |
|||||||||
| Jurisdiction | Rule / Threshold | Parties | Leadership role | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | PAR | T | ♂ | ♀ | ⚥ | |||||||
| 1 | CA |  |
44 | Total (seats): 338 Threshold: 12 seats |
✓
✓
✓
✓
|
LIB
CPC
BQ
NDP
GRN
IND
VAC
|
156
118
32
24
2
3
3
|
99
97
20
13
1
3
—
|
57
21
12
11
1
0
—
|
0
0
0
0
0
0
—
|
n/a
n/a
|
|
| 9 | AB |  |
31 | Total (seats): 87 Threshold: 4 seats, although status has been granted to parties with only 2 seats a number of times. |
✓
✓
|
UCP
NDP
IND
|
48
38
1
|
38
16
0
|
10
22
1
|
0
0
0
|
n/a
|
|
| 8 | BC |  |
42 | Total (seats): 87 Threshold: 2 seats |
✓
✓
✓
✓
|
NDP
BCU
GRN
CONS
IND
|
55
26
2
2
2
|
27
19
1
2
1
|
28
7
1
0
1
|
0
0
0
0
0
|
n/a
|
|
| 11 | MB |  |
43 | Total (seats): 57 Threshold: 4 seats |
✓
✓
|
NDP
PC
LIB
|
34
22
1
|
21
17
0
|
12
5
1
|
1
0
0
|
||
| 3 | NB |  |
60 | Total (seats): 49 Threshold: 5 seats or 20% of the popular vote. |
✓
✓
|
PC
LIB
GRN
IND
VAC
|
28
16
3
1
1
|
19
13
2
1
—
|
9
3
1
0
—
|
0
0
0
0
—
|
n/a
n/a
|
|
| 7 | NL |  |
50 | Total (seats): 40 Threshold: 2 seats (adjust standings -1 PC +1 Vac 29 Dec 2023) |
✓
✓
✓
|
LIB
PC
NDP
IND
VAC
|
22
12
3
2
1
|
15
11
2
2
—
|
7
1
1
0
—
|
0
0
0
0
—
|
n/a
n/a
|
|
| 2 | NS |  |
64 | Total (seats): 55 Threshold: 2 seats and, with the exception of the official opposition, in the last election the party must have run candidates in three-quarters of the ridings and received at least 10% of the vote. |
✓
✓
✓
|
PC
LIB
NDP
IND
VAC
|
32
15
6
1
1
|
23
11
1
0
—
|
9
4
4
1
—
|
0
0
1
0
—
|
n/a
n/a
|
|
| 6 | ON |  |
43 | Total (seats): 124 Threshold: Currently set to 12 seats, as the rule calls for 10% of the total number of seats in the assembly. |
✓
✓
|
PC
NDP
LIB
GRN
IND
VAC
|
78
28
9
2
5
2
|
56
11
4
1
3
—
|
22
16
5
1
2
—
|
0
1
0
0
0
—
|
n/a
n/a
|
|
| 4 | PE |  |
67 | Total (seats): 27 Threshold: There is no official rule but precedent shows that only one seat is required. |
✓
✓
✓
|
PC
LIB
GRN
|
21
3
3
|
15
3
2
|
6
0
1
|
0
0
0
|
||
| 5 | QC |  |
43 | Total (seats): 125 Threshold: 12 seats or 20% of the popular vote, but exceptions were made in 2018 and 2022 to grant the status to the PQ and QS despite not reaching that threshold. |
✓
✓
✓
✓
|
CAQ
QLP
QS
PQ
IND
|
88
19
12
4
2
|
48
8
8
4
1
|
40
11
4
0
1
|
0
0
0
0
0
|
n/a
|
|
| 10 | SK |  |
29 | Total (seats): 61 Threshold: 2 seats, but an exception was made in December 2022 when the Saskatchewan United Party was recognized by Elections Sasktachewan. |
✓
✓
✓
|
SKP
NDP
SUP
IND
|
44
14
1
2
|
36
6
0
2
|
8
8
1
0
|
0
0
0
0
|
n/a
|
|
| 12 | YT |  |
35 | Total (seats): 19 Threshold: 1 seat and the party must be registered with Elections Yukon, which requires it to have run candidates in at least two ridings in the previous election. |
✓
✓
✓
|
LIB
YP
NDP
|
8
8
3
|
6
5
0
|
2
3
2
|
0
0
1
|
||