Parliament Hill in Ottawa on March 20.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Civil servants will still work, employment insurance benefits will still be issued and transfer payments remain in place, but the federal government is now in caretaker mode until Canadians vote on April 28.
There is a political convention that the government holds back from major matters while politicians are out on the hustings. However this election campaign is not routine, unfolding in the face of unrelenting hostility from the White House.
Nevertheless, experts say Prime Minister Mark Carney has the necessary tools to deal with tariffs-related emergencies, although the limits on those powers rely on good will and guidelines that leave room for interpretation.
What is the caretaker convention?
It is the practice guiding the government after Parliament has been dissolved for an election. The main principle is to stick to non-controversial or urgent businesses, since the executive is no longer answering to legislators.
Other key aspects are to avoid activities that might give unfair visibility to incumbent ministers, and to consult with the opposition on major decisions.
“It’s a constant exercise of judgment,” said Michael Wernick, the Jarislowsky chair in public sector management at the University of Ottawa. He is a former clerk of the Privy Council, the senior civil servant who advises prime ministers.
“You should use powers with restraint, and you should strive for a greater separation of the use of government resources. Airplanes, buildings, advertising, communications have to be kept as separate as possible from partisan politics.”
The current Privy Council Office guidelines also say there shouldn’t be binding actions that a new government can’t reverse without undue cost or disruption.
“It’s effectively a practice that the executive imposes on itself at the moment,” said Philippe Lagassé, the Barton chair at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. ”We rely on honourable behaviour on the part of the prime minister and ministers.”
What if there’s a crisis – such as the trade war with the U.S.?
Restraint doesn’t mean paralysis. A caretaker government can still manage urgent issues.
“The government is still there and it has all of its executive powers. The executive powers are derived from hundreds of laws passed by Parliament, and those laws and the regulations under them are in force during an election,” Mr. Wernick said.
The one thing that can’t be done is passing a new law. Otherwise, the government can deal with matters such as spending to support businesses and workers, or imposing new retaliatory tariffs.
“The bottom line is I don’t think this is going to be fettering in any way, in terms of dealing with Trump or terrorists or the economic situation,” he said.
Less clear-cut is travel abroad for government business, such as attending the summit that French President Emmanuel Macron wants to convene for countries supporting Ukraine.
“It’s a judgment that Mr. Carney or his ministers will have to make, whether an empty chair at a meeting in Paris is a problem or not … he can go personally, he can send a representative or he can have an observer, have an empty chair. It’s case by case,” Mr. Wernick said.
How was restraint applied in the past?
Like common law, the caretaker principles aren’t codified but can be informed by past precedents.
In a paper last year in the Saskatchewan Law Review, co-authors David M. Brock and J.W.J. Bowden recall that the departing prime minister in 1896, Charles Tupper, wanted to appoint senators and civil servants after he lost an election to Wilfrid Laurier. His plan was blocked by the governor-general, Lord Aberdeen.
Other previous events mentioned in paper, dealing with government contracts, are interesting in light of the decision by Mr. Carney’s government to order a review of the $19-billion order of F-35 fighter planes.
In 1979, after Joe Clark’s government was defeated in the Commons, he postponed the decision to purchase a new fighter aircraft for the Canadian Forces until after the general election.
Conversely, Kim Campbell’s government finalized a deal to privatize terminals at Toronto’s Pearson airport in 1993 after the writs had been issued. Weeks later, Jean Chrétien’s Liberals took power and cancelled the contract.
“It would not be in keeping with the caretaker convention to cancel that [F-35] contract during a dissolution of Parliament. You can do it after, you can promise to do it, but actually cancelling the contract during the election would not be exercising restraint,” Prof. Lagassé said.
More recently, Ontario Premier Doug Ford was criticized for blurring the lines during the provincial election campaign in February. He continued to chair the premiers’ Council of the Federation and travelled with them to Washington, though his party paid the travel costs.
How has the caretaker convention evolved?
Prof. Lagassé said modern caretaker guidelines emerged after New Zealand’s 1984 election. The austral country was in the midst of an exchange rate crisis, and prime minister Robert Muldoon insisted he was still in power and could make currency decisions without consulting the incoming government.
The current Canadian guidelines were drafted in 2021 and still mention the possibility of urgent decisions owing to COVID-19. Prof. Lagassé noted an ambiguity in the version, which says that the caretaker period ends when “a new government is sworn-in, or when an election result returning an incumbent government is clear.”
If the results are tight and the Liberals don’t win a plurality of seats but still try to stay in power, “then the questions arise as to whether or not they’re still bound by the caretaker” convention, he said.
Prof. Lagassé said he expects an updated version to be out soon.
Send us your questions about the federal election
Between a trade war, threats of annexation and a rookie Liberal Leader, it’s shaping up to be a historic election. Globe and Mail journalists are covering every twist and turn of the campaign from across the country, and we want to know what questions you have. Wondering how to vote, which party has the best platform on a certain issue, or what different results could mean for Canada? Ask us your questions in the form below or email us at audience@globeandmail.com. with “Election question” in the subject line.