Provincial and Territorial Governments

Each province appoints a Queen's representative, known as a Lieutenant Governor. This office is like the office of the Governor General at the national level. The Lieutenant Governor is appointed by the Queen or King of England on the recommendation of the provincial government leader.

In all provinces, the leader of the party that wins the most constituencies in a provincial election is called the Premier. He or she forms the provincial government, which sits in the Legislative Assembly. This house is like the federal House of Commons. Although some provinces originally had a Legislative Council, which operated like the federal Senate, no province has a Legislative Council or Senate today.

Some of the political parties that are represented in the federal government also contest provincial/territorial elections. However, some are unique to one or the other level of government. For example, the Canadian Alliance (formerly, the Reform Party of Canada) is active only at the federal level. By contrast, the Saskatchewan Party runs candidates for election only in the Province of Saskatchewan provincial elections.

Those citizens of the province of Québec with aspirations to separation from Canada have different parties at the two levels of government. In provincial politics, it is the Parti Québecois, and at the federal level it is the Bloc Québecois.

As with the federal government, so in the provincial governments, the ruling party's leader, serving as Premier, forms a Cabinet of other elected MLAs from his/her party. They propose bills of legislation, which they present as Motions in the Legislative Assembly. They are then debated by all elected members of the Legislative Assembly and either passed or defeated. If passed, a bill then goes to the Lieutenant Governor for approval of the Crown. In theory, the Lieutenant Governor can withhold or reserve a bill for consideration by the federal government. However, in practice, the conventions of responsible government make it all but impossible for the Lieutenant Governor to exercise such power.