After serving as Canadian Prime Minister for nearly a decade, Justin Trudeau announced his resignation in early January 2025. This announcement triggered an internal Liberal Party leadership race. While a number of party members tossed their hats into the ring, on March 9, 2025, Mark Carney was voted in as the new Liberal leader set to replace Trudeau. Last Friday, Carney was sworn in by Governor General Mary Simon at a ceremony held at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. Prime Minister Carney is now Canada’s 24^th Prime Minister – despite never having been elected by Canadians in any federal or provincial election.

            Soon after news of Carney’s initial victory broke, posts and comments appeared on social media from individuals claiming that they are “against an unelected Prime Minister.” Admittedly, my initial reaction to such comments and criticisms was to sigh and roll my eyes. As a political scientist, however, I recognize that such comments raise interesting questions about civic and politico-historical knowledge amongst Canadians. As so, it may be valuable to briefly discuss why Canada’s democracy allows for these seemingly undemocratic practices.

            Canadian federal democracy operates through of a blend of unwritten and formal laws contained mainly within the two Constitution Acts, 1867 and 1982, and the Canada Elections Act. As per the Canadian Constitution, federal elections must be held every five years, though exceptions can be made in times of war, invasion, or civil strife. Section 56.1(2) of the Canada Elections Act also specifies that elections must be “held on the third Monday of October in the fourth calendar year following polling day for the last general election.” Legally, therefore, the next federal election in Canada must be held no later than October 20, 2025. This statutorily mandated specificity, however, does not preclude an earlier election. In this case, if, as expected, Prime Minister Carney wished to hold an earlier election, the Governor General would approve the Prime Minister’s request to dissolve Parliament and call an election (as per s. 56.1(1) of the Elections Act).

            Following a federal election, the Governor General will ask the leader of the political party securing the largest number of seats in the House of Commons to form the government. In doing so, that party leader will also become the Prime Minister of Canada. In the usual ordering of affairs, therefore, the Canadian Prime Minister is chosen after an election and is an individual holding a seat in the House of Commons. Our leaders, in sum, are typically individuals with three separate jobs: Prime Minister, Member of Parliament, and leader of their political party.

            This usual ordering of affairs, however, is a matter of unwritten convention. As a peculiar quirk of our Westminster-style democracy, the Canadian Prime Minister is not technically required to be a Member of Parliament because it is an unelected position. (Canadians, unlike our American neighbours with their republican system of governance, are never given ballots allowing us to choose our Prime Minister.)

            This undemocratic quirk may seem strange on its face, but it does serve a practical function. In cases where the Prime Minister chooses to step down, just as former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did, the party leader selected to replace them (i.e., Mark Carney) is able to step in quickly and efficiently to continue the business of governance, thereby minimizing the disruption potentially caused by a general election. In cases where the new party leader is not a sitting Member of Parliament, conventional practice is that the new leader will take immediate steps to secure a seat for themselves. This can be done through a by-election or, sometimes, a general election. The conventional logic maintains that if the Prime Minister also holds a seat in Parliament, they are also accountable to it. This accountability is treated as the remedy to any concerns raised by the unelected nature of the office.

            Therefore, any uproar about Prime Minister Carney’s status as an unelected leader not only fails to grasp the technical point that no Prime Minister in Canadian history has ever been popularly elected but also demands a very short political memory. Indeed, Carney’s rise to the office of Prime Minister is not totally unprecedented. In 1984, for example, John Turner defeated Jean Chrétien in the Liberal Party leadership race, becoming the successor to exiting Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. While he had held political office previously, Turner was not a sitting Member of Parliament at the time and became a Prime Minister without a seat in Parliament. (Recall, though, that Turner’s tenure as Prime Minister was short lived as the Liberal Party suffered a crushing defeat in the 1985 federal election at the hands of Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives.)

            And just as Turner spurred a federal election shortly after assuming office, political commentators have speculated that Carney will follow suit and call an election before the end of March 2025. Should an election be called in the coming days, Canadians could be headed to the polls as early as late April or early May 2025 to decide whether the Mark Carney will meet a political fate similar to that of John Turner or whether the Liberal Party, under his leadership, will be given a renewed mandate to continue governing.