8 seats are needed to keep official party status in ontario.
8 seats are needed to keep official party status in ontario.
how many seats to keep official party status in ontario?
8
under the rules of the legislative assembly, a party would receive official party status, and the resources and privileges accorded to officially recognized parties, if it had 12 or more seats; thus, it initially appeared the ndp would lose caucus funding and the ability to ask questions in the house. however, the governing progressive conservatives changed the rules after the election to lower the threshold for party status from 12 seats to 8. the progressive conservatives had reduced the size of the legislature, so provincial ridings now had the same boundaries as the federal ones, and so the official party status threshold was lowered. some suggested that the tories helped the ndp so they could continue to split the vote with the liberals, although the progressive conservatives had stated before the election campaign even began that reducing official party status to eight seats was part of the seat reduction plan from the very beginning.
ontario new democratic party
in the 2003 election, the new democrats won only seven seats in the ontario legislative assembly. the new liberal government refused to accord official party status to the ndp, with premier dalton mcguinty instead offering the ndp additional funding in return for accepting their status as independents; ndp leader howard hampton refused and disrupted the throne speech in protest. mpp marilyn churley threatened to change her surname legally to "churley-ndp" so that the speaker would be forced to say ndp when recognizing her in the house (a non-official party loses the right to have its members addressed in the legislature by party affiliation). the pcs' bill murdoch also considered joining the ndp caucus to help them make official status. andrea horwath's by-election win in may 2004 regained official party status for the ndp.
official party status