Leader of the Official Opposition

The Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition is the leader of the party with the second greatest number of seats in the House of Commons. Their task is to keep the government of the day responsible by asking questions of cabinet members of their latest program initiatives. The Leader of the Official Opposition is 8th on the Canadian Order of Precedence.

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Duties

The party with the greatest number of elected representatives outside the governing party becomes Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. This party takes the lead in holding the Government accountable for its policies and actions. The leader of this party becomes the Leader of the Official Opposition, sitting directly across from the Prime Minister in the House of Commons. The duty of the Official Opposition and other opposition parties is to "oppose," criticizing government policies and suggesting improvements, and presenting an alternative to the current Government's policy agenda.

Opposition members have various opportunities to influence the formulation of laws and policies including the daily Question Period in the House of Commons. The opposition is allocated 20 "Opposition Days" or "Supply Days" each calendar year, during which it can propose a motion for debate in the House of Commons and criticize the Government on issues of broad national policy. Members of opposition parties also serve on parliamentary committees in both the Senate and the House of Commons.

Twice at the provincial level, there has been no official opposition. The elections in Prince Edward Island in 1935 and New Brunswick in 1987 brought only one party to their respective legislatures. This situation has never occurred in the House of Commons.

The Honourable Stéphane Dion

Stéphane Dion, who was born in 1955, is married and has one daughter. He is the Member of Parliament for Saint-Laurent/Cartierville. He was first elected to the House of Commons on March 25, 1996 by-election, and re-elected in the June 2, 1997 and November 27, 2000 general elections.

After obtaining a bachelors degree and a masters degree in political science from Université Laval in 1977 and 1979 respectively and a doctorate in sociology from the Institut d’études politiques de Paris, Stéphane Dion taught political science at the Université de Moncton in 1984 and the Université de Montréal from 1984 to January 1996. He specialized in the study of public administration and organization analysis and theory.

The Honourable Stéphane Dion

During the same period, Stéphane Dion was also a visiting professor at the Laboratoire d’économie publique in Paris, senior research fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., co-director of the Canadian Journal of Political Science, and research fellow with the Canadian Centre for Management Development. Between 1987 and 1995, he published a number of books and articles on political science, public administration and management.

Stéphane Dion was sworn in as President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs on January 25, 1996, positions he held until December 12, 2003. In that capacity, to supported the Prime Minister of Canada, federal ministers, and the provincial and territorial governments in working together in a manner that is mindful of their respective responsibilities, to serve Canadians.

To this end, he was invoved in the making of numerous federal-provincial agreements. Mr. Dion played a key role in the signing of the Social Union Framework Agreement on February 4, 1999. The Framework Agreement encourages greater federal-provincial cooperation on social policy.

As Minister, Mr. Dion sponsored two constitutional amendments, one pertaining to school boards in Quebec (April 22, 1997) and the other regarding school boards in Newfoundland and Labrador (October 27, 1997).

He also helped to develop closer relations between Canada and other federations, including the signing of agreements with Mexico and Russia. In October 1999, he created the Forum of Federations, an organization that helps federations to learn from one another.

Between April 2001 and December 2003, Mr. Dion was the Minister responsible for Official Languages. He is the author of the Action Plan for Official Languages, through which the government intends to strengthen its language policy by adapting it to the realities of the 21st century.

Lastly, Mr. Dion helped to strengthen Canadian unity, in particular, by clarifying the stakes. He played a key role in the series of clarification initiatives that resulted in the Supreme Court of Canada’s opinion on Quebec secession, on August 20, 1998, and the Clarity Act, which was passed by the House of Commons on March 15, 2000.

Mr. Dion was named as Minister of the Environment on July 20th 2004, and the succeeded in winning the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada upon Paul Martin's defeat in the 2006 general election.

SOURCES: Library of Parliament and Liberal Party of Canada.