Politics of Ontario

The politics of Ontario functions within a framework of parliamentary democracy and a federal system of parliamentary government with strong democratic traditions. As a province within federation, Ontario's eligible voters elect their representatives to the federal government and to the provincial government separately. The two governments exercise authorities in different subject areas as assigned by the Constitution Act, 1867. On matters that are within provincial justification, the Government of Ontario exercises its authorities independently and is not subject to restrain by the federal government.

As former colonies of the United Kingdom, the politics of Ontario and the politics of Canada both operate with a multi-party system in which many of its legislative practices derive from the unwritten conventions of and precedents from the Westminster system of the parliament of the United Kingdom. While the monarch is the ceremonial head for both Canada and Ontario, in practice executive power is exercised by the respective cabinets that are accountable to their respective parliaments, the House of Commons of Canada and the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, frequently referred to by its colloquial name, Queen's Park.

The political party that wins the largest number of seats in the Ontario legislature normally forms the government, and the party's leader becomes premier of the province, i.e., the head of the government. Four political parties currently have representation in the Queen's Park:

While they are legally separate and distinct from their federal namesake, all four provincial parties have deep ties and collaborate extensively with their federal counterparts, (and in the case of the NDP, formal connection and structural overlap) with few crossover of provincial and federal party memberships. While only two dominant political parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives, have formed governments at the federal level, their alternation in Ontario government has been interrupted in Ontario in two occasions, once between 1919 and 1923 by the United Farmers, and more recently between 1990 and 1995 by the New Democrats.