A few of the potential candidates to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau do not currently have a seat in the House of Commons — but that would not prevent them from being sworn in if they win the Liberal leadership race.
Former governor of the Bank of Canada Mark Carney is expected to formally announce a bid for leadership this week while Frank Baylis — a businessman and former Montreal MP — announced his candidacy last week.
Former B.C. premier Christy Clark had been considering putting her name forward but announced Tuesday that she wouldn’t be running.
Even though they don’t currently hold a seat in the House, that wouldn’t prevent them from taking the prime minister’s chair should they win the leadership.
There have been a number of instances in the past where a prime minister didn’t hold a seat in the House of Commons and there are also recent comparisons to be made at the provincial level.
John Turner
When John Turner walked into the House of Commons for the first time as the leader of the governing Liberals in 1984, he had to sit in the visitors’ gallery.
Turner had previously been an MP and minister in the governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau. But after a falling out with Trudeau, Turner vacated his seat in 1976 to go work in the private sector.
It was a long time coming, but John Turner has become leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Turner didn’t have a seat when he ran for and won the Liberal leadership in 1984. He would be sworn in as prime minister in June of that year — but he never sat in the House of Commons as prime minister.
Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives would win an election just a few months after Turner became prime minister. Turner would win a seat in that election and remain Opposition leader until he retired in 1990.
William Lyon Mackenzie King
Former prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King holds the record for being Canada’s longest-serving prime minister — but he wasn’t always an MP during that time.
Twice King lost his seat in elections where his Liberals were able to form government and he ran in byelections to re-enter the House in both cases.
Even though the Conservatives won the most seats in the 1925 election, King was able to form a minority government with the backing of the Progressive party.
One of the seats the Conservatives won in that election was King’s riding of North York. The then-prime minister ran in and won a byelection in the Saskatchewan riding of Prince Albert a few months later.
King also lost his seat in the 1945 election, his last as prime minister. He would again have to run in a byelection as the sitting prime minister in order to regain a seat in the House.
Recent provincial examples
Two current premiers had to win a seat in their respective legislatures after being sworn in to their premiership.
N.L. Premier Andrew Furey won the Liberal leadership in August 2020 and was sworn in as premier later that month.
But Furey wasn’t an MHA at the time and wouldn’t hold a seat in the legislature until he won a byelection in October of that year.
Similarly, Danielle Smith became Alberta’s premier in October 2022 after winning the leadership of the United Conservative Party. She had to contest a byelection roughly a month later in order to become an MLA.
Prime ministers from the Senate
In the early days of confederation, Canada had two prime ministers from Parliament’s upper chamber.
John Abbott, a senator from Quebec, became prime minister following the death of John A. Macdonald in 1891. He was given the role as one of the more senior members of the Conservative Party at the time, but would only hold office for about a year.
Similarly, MacKenzie Bowell — a senator for Ontario — became prime minister in 1894 when Abbott’s successor, John Thompson, also died while in office. Bowell would serve as prime minister until he resigned in 1896.
