The transition period and the date for the transfer of office are negotiated by the incoming and the outgoing prime ministers.Ī prime minister who holds office in consecutive parliaments is not re-appointed as prime minister for each parliament, but rather serves one continuous term. An incoming prime minister will normally take office a few weeks after the election, and an outgoing prime minister will usually stay in office for a few weeks after losing the election. A prime minister takes office after winning an election, and resigns after losing an election, but the term in office does not match up directly to the term of the Parliament. The prime ministerial term is not tied directly to the term of the House of Commons, which the Constitution sets as a maximum of five years from the most recent general election.

Theoretically, the Governor General can dismiss a prime minister, but that has never happened. All others have resigned, either after losing an election or upon retirement. Two prime ministers have died in office (Macdonald and Sir John Thompson ). A prime minister stays in office until they resign, die or are dismissed by the Governor General. The prime minister's term begins upon appointment by the Governor General of Canada, usually after winning a general election, but sometimes after succeeding an outgoing prime minister of the same party. Under this system, Prime Minister Mackenzie King was Canada's longest-serving prime minister, holding office in three non-consecutive terms for a total of twenty-one years and one hundred fifty-four days. Instead, they can stay in office as long as their government has the confidence of a majority in the House of Commons of Canada under the system of responsible government. It includes all prime ministers since then, up to the current prime minister, nor do they have term limits. The list starts with Confederation on July 1, 1867, and the first prime minister, Sir John A. This article is a list of the prime ministers of Canada by their time in office.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the longest consecutively serving prime minister

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