Official party status
Official party status refers to the Canadian practice of recognizing political parties.
There are two forms of recognition.
Recognition by Elections Canada allows parties (even if they have no parliamentary seats) to participate in federal elections and to benefit from electoral financing laws.
Recognition in the House of Commons allows parties certain parliamentary privileges. Generally official party status is dependent on winning on minimum number of seats (that is, the number of MPs or MLAs elected).
In the federal parliament, a party must have at least twelve seats to be recognized as an official party. Recognition means that the party will get time to ask questions during question period (proportional to the number of seats) and money for research and staff (also proportional to the number of seats).
The provincial governments also award official party status:
- In British Columbia, a party must have at least four seats. Premier Gordon Campbell was criticized for his decision not to grant the B.C. NDP official party status; it was the only opposition party in the legislature, but it had only won two seats in the last election.
- In Saskatchewan, a party must win at least two seats.
- In Ontario, a party must win eight seats. In 1999 Ontario's then-Premier Mike Harris lowered the number of seats required from 12 to eight after reducing the number of seats in the legislature from 130 to 103. In 2003, the NDP won only 7 seats, but Andrea Horwath's by-election win in May 2004 regained official party status for the NDP.
- In Quebec, a party must win 5 seats, or capture 20% of the popular vote.
- In Manitoba, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, only a single seat is required.
