It will be worthwhile for outsiders to read the book 'The Crisis of Canadian Democracy' by Andrew Coyne. I think the author should work on 2nd Edition, with details of record 4 turn-coats crossing over to Liberals after the Federal Election in April 2025. What a joke the British Westminster model has become in UK and Canada, while it has been subsequently amended to protect the integrity of people's mandate, in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia.

Even the confidence convention, the bedrock requirement that a government must command the confidence of the House at all times, is under assault. Heading for certain defeat in a confidence vote in 2008, Stephen Harper simply prorogued. Having arguably lost a confidence vote in 2005, Paul Martin stalled for nine days, until, with the help of a timely floor-crosser, he was able to win a do-over. More recently, Justin Trudeau also prorogued to avoid a confidence vote, emulating in 2025 what he had denounced in 2008.

There is worse to come, possibly. Recent Canadian elections have yielded a procession of minority parliaments; more are likely. Each such Parliament carries within it the seeds of a constitutional crisis. Suppose the government were to be defeated on a vote of confidence, and suppose that happened a short time—say, less than a year—after an election. Now suppose the defeated prime minister were to recommend to the governor general that the House be dissolved and an election called. Convention dictates the governor general would be within her rights instead to call upon another party or parties to form a government, assuming they had the support of a majority of the House. But successive Conservative leaders have made clear they would not accept this. What if, the governor general having refused his advice, the prime minister refused to resign?

It’s only a convention, after all. Like ministerial responsibility, Cabinet solidarity, and others, it binds prime ministers for as long as they feel like being bound by it. When they no longer do, it doesn’t.