responsible government

Confidence Votes, Explained: What Counts, What Doesn't, and What Actually Happens When a Government Loses One.

The confidence convention is the core rule of responsible government: a ministry may govern only while it commands the confidence of the elected House. No law defines which votes engage confidence. By convention, three categories reliably count: explicit motions of confidence or non-confidence; votes on the budget and on supply (the granting of money, including the main and supplementary estimates and interim supply); and the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne. Beyond those, a government may declare any vote a matter of confidence — a tool routinely used to discipline its own caucus and pressure opposition parties in minority Parliaments. Losing a confidence vote obliges the Prime Minister either to resign (allowing the Governor General to invite another leader to attempt to govern) or to advise dissolution and an election. Since 1979 three federal governments have been defeated on confidence: Joe Clark's on a budget sub-amendment in December 1979 (139-133), Paul Martin's on an explicit non-confidence motion in November 2005 (171-133), and Stephen Harper's in March 2011 (156-145) — the only defeat in Commonwealth history on a finding that the government was in contempt of Parliament.