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 |  |
45 | Total (seats): 343 Threshold: 12 seats |
✓
✓
✓
|
LPC
CPC
BQ
NDP
GPC
|
169
144
22
7
1
|
101
118
17
3
0
|
68
26
5
4
1
|
0
0
0
0
0
|
||
| 8 | BC |  |
43 | Total (seats): 93 Threshold: 2 seats |
✓
✓
✓
✓
|
NDP
CPBC
GPBC
1BC
IND
|
47
40
2
2
2
|
16
24
2
0
1
|
31
16
0
2
1
|
0
0
0
0
0
|
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
|
47
38
2
|
35
18
2
|
12
20
0
|
0
0
0
|
n/a
|
|
| 10 | SK |  |
30 | 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
|
34
27
|
26
14
|
8
13
|
0
0
|
||
| 11 | MB |  |
43 | Total (seats): 57 Threshold: 4 seats |
✓
✓
|
NDP
PCM
MLP
IND
|
34
21
1
1
|
19
16
0
1
|
14
5
1
0
|
1
0
0
0
|
n/a
|
|
| 6 | ON |  |
44 | Total (seats): 124 Threshold: Currently set to 12 seats, as the rule calls for 10% of the total number of seats in the assembly. |
✓
✓
✓
|
PCO
NDP
OLP
GPO
IND
|
79
27
14
2
2
|
59
10
7
1
1
|
20
15
7
1
1
|
0
2
0
0
0
|
n/a
|
|
| 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
VAC
|
83
20
12
6
3
1
|
45
8
8
5
2
—
|
38
12
4
1
1
—
|
0
0
0
0
0
—
|
n/a
n/a
|
|
| 3 | NB |  |
61 | Total (seats): 49 Threshold: 5 seats or 20% of the popular vote. |
✓
✓
|
NBLP
PCNB
NBGP
|
31
16
2
|
20
10
1
|
11
6
1
|
0
0
0
|
||
| 2 | NS |  |
65 | 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. |
✓
✓
✓
|
NSPC
NDP
NSLP
IND
|
43
9
2
1
|
31
2
2
0
|
12
6
0
1
|
0
1
0
0
|
n/a
|
|
| 4 | PE |  |
67 | Total (seats): 27 Threshold: There is no official rule but precedent shows that only one seat is required. |
✓
✓
✓
|
PCPE
LPPE
GPPE
|
20
4
3
|
15
3
2
|
5
1
1
|
0
0
0
|
||
| 7 | NL |  |
51 | Total (seats): 40 Threshold: 2 seats |
✓
✓
✓
|
LPNL
PCNL
NDP
IND
VAC
|
0
0
0
0
40
|
—
—
—
—
—
|
—
—
—
—
—
|
—
—
—
—
—
|
n/a
n/a
|
|
| 12 | YT |  |
35 | Total (seats): 21 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. |
✓
✓
✓
|
YLP
YP
NDP
VAC
|
0
0
0
21
|
—
—
—
—
|
—
—
—
—
|
—
—
—
—
|
n/a
|
|
