Talk:Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada)

Leader of the Official Opposition
I don't think Bordan and Laurier were knighted unti *after* they became PM.

Brown could not have been leader of the opposition since he was never in the federal house of commons being defeated in 1867 in his attempt to win a seat. According to parl.gc.ca he was never an MP.

ok newbie

The article on Alexander Mackenzie says there was no clear leader of the opposition when the Macdonald government fell so why is Mackenzie listed as leader of the opposition in 1873? Formeruser-83 11:18, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * As is the case with most positions in the Government, they are Members of Parliament or Senators by convention; however, there is no legal precedent that would bar a Leader of the Opposition from being unelected or unappointed in either of the Houses. FiveParadox 04:13, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

I thought the title was Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. - Montrealais -Formally it is "The Leader of Her/His Majesty's Loyal Opposition", but infromally it is just "the leader of the Opposition", or "Opposition Leader" Keeperoftheseal 02:00, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

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BetacommandBot 05:40, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Move to Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada)
I have moved this page from Leader of the Opposition (Canada) to Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada), for the reason that the lack of the word Official in the article's title implies a bipartisan political landscape, which is not the case in Canada. There are currently three different parties in opposition at present, all of which are part of "the opposition" but not part of the "Official Opposition".

I don't believe any references to this effect are required in the article. However, please see this Canadian Government page if you feel such references are warranted. -- Todeswalzer | Talk 13:05, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Jack Layton
Wait a sec, doesn't Layton only become Opposition leader when the 41st Parliament begins? GoodDay (talk) 15:14, 3 May 2011 (UTC)
 * That's right. Parliament must be summoned and the MPs take their oaths to the Queen. -- Ħ   MIESIANIACAL  16:56, 3 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I made the bit in the lead a little more vague because it wasn't true. The 41st Parliament has already been summoned, so that can't the magic moment. The Oath doesn't seem quite right either since they don't even take it until they've elected a Speaker and have already begun exercising privileges of their offices. I'm not sure that there really is a hyper-technical beginning date, so we may not get a firm date. When Stephen Harper became Prime Minister in 2006, Bill Graham became Leader of the Official Opposition. The date was February 6, but the Return of Writs (the latest date the Commons Clerk would receive the returned writs) was February 13, and the first session convened in April. The closest parallel to the current situation was 1997, when the Liberals remained in government, but the Reform Party displaced the Bloc as the Official Opposition. According to Parliament's website, Preston Manning took over the office on election day. As such, I think we should be careful about casting Layton as not being the Official Opposition Leader, and keep an eye out for reliable sources calling him the Leader of the OO. -Rrius (talk) 09:06, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

Justin Trudeau
With the election today, it looks like the following scenario is possible: Harper's Tories lose their majority and have a plurality of less than a dozen seats while the Grits get more votes nationwide. Harper decides to keep on as PM while the NDP is in diserray after Mulcair resigns in disgrace. However, whomever is the temporary NDP leader says that his/her caucus will vote against the Throne speech, which would be enough to vote it down...

Would Justin Trudeau be Leader of the Opposition from tomorrow until the Throne speech, or just for a day or two?YoursT (talk) 14:02, 19 October 2015 (UTC)


 * We should do whatever our source does. In this case, that would be the Parliament of Canada website. —Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 18:17, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

Requested move 1 June 2017

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: Discussion closed ...proposal by banned user and clearly not going there way Moxy (talk) 15:31, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada) → Leader of the Official Opposition – Leader of the Official Opposition already redirects here, and Canada is the only country that uses that exact title, so it seems a bit redundant to have Canada in parentheses following the page title. Charles lindberg (talk) 18:40, 1 June 2017 (UTC) Charles lindberg (talk) 18:40, 1 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Oppose - not listing the country makes it impossible to tell which article is about the Canadian leader of the opposition in Category:Opposition leaders and so will make it more difficult for readers to find the article they're looking for, so i think having (Canada) is necessary for disambiguation reasons. In any case, the official title is actually "Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition". Perhaps what makes most sense is to change the title back to Leader of the Opposition (Canada) (which is what it was until a few years ago) in order to make it consistent with the same position in other Commonwealth country. See the list provided in Leader of the Opposition. I think the argument used to justify the earlier change is flawed since most Westminster parliaments and legislatures are actually multi-party so Canada's is not unique in that sense. Hungarian Phrasebook (talk) 18:46, 1 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Oppose, there's many parliamentary countries which have opposition leaders. We need each one to have the 'country' shown, to differentiate. GoodDay (talk) 02:01, 2 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Oppose - normally I dislike disambiguation for disambiguation's sake. However, in this case it makes sense to leave it as-is. The other commenters are right, this way you know it's about Canada when searching. Me-123567-Me (talk) 15:50, 2 June 2017 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Merger proposal
I propose that List of Leaders of the Official Opposition (Canada) be merged into this page (main space). I leads of the two articles share a lot of information as both articles are very small in size. Leader of the Official Opposition (Ontario) already has the list in it. – BrandonXLF   (t@lk)  04:04, 15 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Support: makes sense to me! AdA&D  ☆ 23:10, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Support - no reason to not merge schetm (talk) 03:38, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 19:52, 20 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Andrew Scheer portrait hanging (crop1).jpg

Official Opposition vs Loyal Opposition
Why isn't this page titled 'The Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition'? It is what the title has historically been called and it partly avoids confusion with ' Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons'. --Wilson (talk) 03:04, 19 February 2020 (UTC)
 * My guess is, "The Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition" has become archaic. GoodDay (talk) 03:45, 17 October 2021 (UTC)
 * I have deleted references to the "Loyal Opposition", as I have not found any official federal government website which uses that term:
 * Library of Parliament: Leaders of the Official Opposition
 * Parliament of Canada: THE HONOURABLE CANDICE BERGEN
 * House of Commons Practice and Procedure: LEADERS OF THE OFFICIAL OPPOSITION IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS SINCE 1873
 * Gonna have to disagree with omitting references to loyal opposition.
 * Here are some examples of it being used in a tweet by Leona Alleslev, former leader Rona Ambrose referenced it in her last speech to the house, and it has shown up in a press release by the GG's office. — WildComet talk 04:05, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
 * This issue has come up again. I am objecting to the phrase "formally known as the leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition", as no reliable source is cited to support that statement.  I have provided citations to the Parliament of Canada Act and the Standing Orders of the House of Commons which use the terms "Leader of the Opposition" and "Official Opposition".  The fact that the term might be used on occasion does not mean that is the formal name.  The Act and the Standing Orders govern. Mr Serjeant Buzfuz (talk) 18:14, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Note that Mr Poilievre's House of Commons web-page refers to him as the "Leader of the Opposition". Presumably, the people who run the House of Commons web-page are familiar with the formal name for the position:  https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/pierre-poilievre(25524) Mr Serjeant Buzfuz (talk) 18:40, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I think you misunderstand what the purpose of the Parliament of Canada Act is. It does not create the officers of leader, speaker, etc. It simply acknowledges those institutions which already exist through convention and sets up a procedural framework, not a constitutional one.
 * The official opposition exists more than simply a definition. The concept of the "loyal opposition" is an important concept in Westminster parliamentary democracies and reflects the fact that while they oppose the government, they are loyal to the Crown.
 * You'll note that legislation, the parliamentary procedures, and governor general's office variously refers to the office as leader of "the Opposition", "the Official Opposition" and "HM Loyal Opposition". They each refer to the institution, there is no single correct title as it is a position that has evolved gradually.
 * For the purposes of that specific statute, that's what the position is called. For the purposes of protocol however, HM Loyal Opposition is the formal term and thus what is used by the governor general's office. — WildComet talk 19:11, 13 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I agree that there is no single correct title. Given that "official opposition" is used in legislation, Hansard, and the Library of Parliament, I'm inclined to call that the common name and use it as the page title. But the article should mention that "loyal opposition" is used by viceroys and in formal ceremonies. —Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 19:48, 13 September 2022 (UTC)