Building and maintaining legislative support: coalition aversion and strategies of minority governance in Canada

Minority parliaments are increasingly the norm, as multiparty competition routinely prevents any party from forming a single-party majority government. While many political parties secure legislative majorities through coalitions, Canadian parties have largely avoided them. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with senior parliamentary officials from three federal parties (Liberals, Conservatives, and New Democrats), this paper explores recent Liberal (2019, 2021) and Conservative (2006, 2008) minority governments. In doing so, this paper addresses two main questions: (1) What are Canadian elites’ attitudes towards coalitions? and (2) What strategies have recent minority governments used to secure the necessary legislative support? Our analysis shows that the single member plurality electoral system facilitates a ‘winner takes it all’ political culture, which combined with regionalism, hinders formal government coalitions. Instead, minority governments in Canada typically make use of three broad strategies: (a) aggressive, majority-like, tactics; (b) ad hoc and case-by-case negotiations; and more recently (c) explicit confidence and supply agreements.