section_path: Qualifications and selection
section_name: Qualifications and selection
paragraph_text: Qualifications and selection
  
  In 2008, a public opinion survey showed that 51 per cent of Canadians believed they voted to directly elect the prime minister. In fact, the prime minister, along with the other ministers in Cabinet, is appointed by the governor general on behalf of the monarch. By the conventions of responsible government, the foundation of parliamentary democracy, the governor general will call to form a government the individual most likely to receive the support, or confidence, of a majority of the directly elected members of the House of Commons; as a practical matter, this is often the leader of the party, or a coalition of parties, whose members form a majority, or a very large plurality, of seats in the House of Commons. No document is needed to begin the appointment; both the invitation and acceptance are usually oral.
  
  A prime minister who has given intention to resign may advise the governor general on whom to appoint as the next prime minister. However, if the prime minister is resigning because he has lost the confidence of the House of Commons, the viceroy is not obligated to follow that advice. If the leader of the opposition is unable or unwilling to form a government, the governor general can consult whomever they wish.
  
  While there is no legal requirement for the prime minister to be an MP, for practical and political reasons the prime minister is expected to win a seat very promptly. However, in rare circumstances individuals who are not sitting members of the House of Commons have been appointed to the position of prime minister. Two former prime ministers— John Joseph Caldwell Abbott and Mackenzie Bowell —served in the 1890s while members of the Senate. Both, in their roles as government leader in the Senate, succeeded prime ministers who had died in office— John A. Macdonald in 1891 and John Sparrow David Thompson in 1894.
  
  Prime ministers who are not MPs upon their appointment (or who lose their seats while in office) have since been expected to seek election to the House of Commons as soon as possible. For example, William Lyon Mackenzie King, after losing his seat in the 1925 federal election and again in the 1945 Canadian federal election (despite his party being elected government both times), briefly governed without a seat in the House of Commons on both occasions before winning a by-election a few weeks later. Similarly, John Turner replaced Pierre Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party in 1984 and subsequently was appointed prime minister while not holding a seat in the House of Commons; Turner won a riding in the next election but the Liberal Party was swept from power.
  
  When a prime minister loses their seat in the legislature, or should a new prime minister be appointed without holding a seat, the typical process that follows is that a member in the governing political party will resign to allow the prime minister to run in the resulting by-election. A safe seat is usually chosen; while the Liberal and Conservative parties generally observed a practice of not running a candidate against another party's new leader in the by-election, the New Democratic Party and smaller political parties typically do not follow the same practice. However, if the governing party selects a new leader shortly before an election is due, and that new leader is not a member of the legislature, they will normally await the upcoming election before running for a seat in Parliament.