If Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney does not have a seat in Parliament, can he still become Canada’s next prime minister?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s replacement will be announced after a leadership vote on March 9. A former Bank of Canada governor, Carney remains a frontrunner. His chief rival is former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland, who still holds her seat in Parliament after quitting Trudeau’s cabinet in December. Former Liberal House leader Karina Gould is also an MP while businessman Frank Baylis served as a Montreal MP from 2015 to 2019.
Although incredibly rare, it is possible to become prime minister without having a seat in the House of Commons. Out of Canada’s 23 prime ministers, just five have done so.
The most recent example is Liberal John Turner, who replaced Trudeau’s father in 1984 only to lead one of the shortest-lived governments in Canadian history.
John Turner
Turner first won a seat in Parliament for the Liberals in 1962 and eventually became a cabinet minister for Lester B. Pearson, then Pierre Trudeau. After Turner broke with Trudeau and left politics in 1976, he returned to run for Liberal leader following Trudeau’s 1984 resignation.
Turner had lost to Trudeau in the 1968 Liberal leadership race, but won 16 years later in 1984. No longer an MP, he had to sit in the public gallery the first time he visited the House of Commons as leader of the governing Liberals.
Turner’s term as prime minister lasted just 79 days, the second shortest in Canadian history. Although he won a seat again in the 1984 federal election, his party lost badly to Progressive Conservative Brian Mulroney. Turner remained Liberal opposition leader until 1990.
William Lyon Mackenzie King and Arthur Meighen
Canada’s longest-serving prime minister was Liberal William Lyon Mackenzie King, who governed for more than 21 years in three non-consecutive terms between 1921 and 1948.
King lost his seat in the House of Commons in both the 1925 and 1945 federal elections, despite his party forming government. Each time, he quickly returned to the House of Commons after elbowing out Liberal MPs and calling byelections in safe ridings.
Conservative Arthur Meighen also served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister in 1920-1921 and 1926. He was without a seat during his brief 1926 government, which only lasted for 88 days.
John Abbott and MacKenzie Bowell
Way back in the 1890s, two Conservative senators served short terms as prime minister.
Quebec senator John Abbott was appointed to the role in 1891 after the death of John A. Macdonald, who was Canada’s first prime minister. Abbott resigned the following year for health reasons and was succeeded by John Thompson, who died in office in 1894.
Ontario senator Mackenzie Bowell was then appointed to replace Thompson and remained prime minister for two years. Bowell and Abbott both kept their senate seats while holding Canada’s top job.
Bowell was eventually replaced by Charles Tupper, who spent only 68 days as prime minister, the shortest tenure in Canadian history.
Lessons from the past
If Carney wins the Liberal leadership race, he will also stand out as someone who has never served as a politician.
“The precedent is for a leader to get a seat right away in another riding,” Trent University Canadian studies professor Christopher Dummitt told CTVNews.ca. “It’s not sustainable to govern without being in the House for anything more than the bare minimum amount of time… He would have to either run in a by-election ASAP or call a general election.”
Carleton University political management professor Stephen Azzi says parties rarely change leaders while in government, and when they do, they usually opt for a cabinet minister who is already an MP. Azzi also sees parallels between Carney and Turnner’s short-lived government.
“In both cases, an unpopular Liberal party changed leaders shortly before an election, and (if Carney wins the leadership, as I assume he will) in both cases Liberals chose someone from outside government who could revitalize the party,” Azzi told CTVNews.ca. “I guess the important points are that there is no statutory requirement for the prime minister to hold a seat in Parliament, but there is a constitutional convention that the prime minister obtain a parliamentary seat soon after taking office.”
University of Guelph history professor Matthew Hayday says there are also examples of provincial party leaders and federal opposition leaders, who did not initially hold seats in the legislature, but quickly gained one by having a colleague step aside to hold a byelection.
“In the past few decades, that includes future Prime Ministers Brian Mulroney, Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper – plus Stockwell Day,” Hayday told CTVNews.ca. “Those leaders and their parties considered it critical to have their leader in Parliament gain the media visibility that comes from active participation in Parliamentary debates and Question Period – and also to prove, prior to a general election, that voters in a riding would indeed elect their leader.”
