Handout: The Ontario Government

• Ontario's government sits at Queen's Park in downtown Toronto.
  
  
• The leader of the provincial government is the Premier of Ontario. After a general election the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario (The Queen/King's Representative) asks the leader of the party with the most votes or elected member to become Premier and have his party form the government.
  
  
• Ontario holds provincial elections at least every five years.
  
  
• The three major parties in Ontario are : the Liberal Party, the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Progressive Conservative Party.
  
  
• There are 103 seats in the Ontario government.
  
  
• There is one seat for each riding.
  
  
• The boundaries for each riding in the provincial parliament are the sameas the federal parliament's boundaries.
  
  
• If no party has a majority of seats, then the party which has the "confidence of the House" or support from the members of other parties forms the government (this is called a minority government).
  
  
• With a minority government, the opposition members can defeat the government on important voting/passing of bills.
  
  
• The Official Opposition is the party that has the second most elected seats.
  
  
• Members of Provincial Parliament or MPPs of the political parties that are not from the elected party are called members of the opposition.
  
  
• Once a Premier is elected, he then chooses an executive council from his party.
  
  
• The members of this council are called ministers.