this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
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Can you even become Prime Minister without a security clearance?
He'll get it when he's Prime Minister, because then he'll be done complaining about the Prime Minister.
Well the contemporary prime minister at least... he'll never stop bitching about Trudeau.
I thought he got one when he was a cabinet minister. How can you be part of a cabinet if you don't even have security clearance? It would be a major blunder in Harper's part if he didn't have one at the start.
There doesn't seem to be a specific list of qualifications for the PM (technically you don't even have to be an MP), so presumably yes.
How? Itβs just the MP that receives the most votes from other MPs
There are no official requirements to be prime minister, just that they must lead with the confidence of the House. The government general could technically appoint whoever the hell they want, but by convention a prime minister should be an MP (or at least will soon to be an MP) who leads the leading party or coalition and it would be a complete political shitshow that'd likely lead to a constitutional crisis were it egregiously broken.
Edit: also to specify, the PM isn't elected by parliament, it's an appointed position by the governor general
It isn't required that they be an MP, only that they lead the party, have the approval of the governor, and have the confidence of Parliament. In this case, though, they can't vote on any laws, since they haven't been elected. The usual solution is for an elected MP of the party in a riding that is strong for that party to step down, triggering a by-election with the PM runs in. This has happened before, and will doubtless happen again.
That is convention, but is not a requirement. Canada's political system makes no special consideration for parties. It is entirely based on individuals. Freedom of association allows for individuals to belong to a party, of course, but that membership is only relevant to the worker who belong to it.
After all, political parties are just the labour unions of the political workers. It really wouldn't make any sense to involve union membership as a requirement in the hiring process. From the employer point of view, who cares what union a worker belongs to? It matters to the worker, but nobody else. If it were any other organization, you wouldn't think "Oh, this applicant must be better because he is a member of Unifor and not UAW." You are going to look at the qualities of the individual and what they can do for you as your employee. Government is no different.
But it stands to reason that the workers of a given union will prefer to see their union boss as Prime Minister as they already have a special relationship, so if a given union has control of the House they are going to push for that boss to be PM. Hence the convention that has been established.
The Prime Minster is the leader of the political party with the most MPs. William Lyon McKenzie King in 1925 and John Turner in 1984 both briefly acted as Prime Minster without being Members of Parliament.
Exactly. Historically, there have also been a couple of cases of Senators succeeding to the post when the incumbent PM died (for example, John Abbott ).
I'm not sure there's even any formal legal barrier to the Governor General picking someone off the street at random; it's just never done.
There's no legal barrier given the prime minister is barely legally recognized at all, however they would almost certainly not be leading with the confidence of the house and doing so would likely result in a constitutional crisis.
The MPs can vote for someone who isnβt leader/in their party but thanks