When can an MP be removed from office?

An elected Member of Parliament (MP) in Ontario can be removed from office for a limited number of reasons in between elections, including:

• expulsion from the House of Commons by fellow MPs
• disqualification from holding office for legal reasons
• resignation

Once a person is elected to the House of Commons, there are no constitutional provisions and few statutory provisions for removal of that Member from office. The statutory provisions rendering a Member ineligible to sit or vote do not automatically cause the seat of that Member to become vacant. Indeed, the laying of a criminal charge against a Member has no effect on his or her eligibility to remain in office.

House of Commons Procedure and Practice (2000)

Unlike provincial legislatures in British Columbia and Alberta, there is no federal “recall” legislation that allows residents to start a petition to remove an MP. British Columbia’s Recall and Initiative Act, 1995 and Alberta’s Recall Act, 2021 allow voters to start petitions to remove Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) or local representatives and initiate a by-election to elect someone else. In 2025, Alberta’s legislation is actively being used to recall many of the members of the party that passed the legislation in a grassroots movement called Operation Total Recall.

Expulsion by House of Commons (Parliamentary Privilege)

The House of Commons itself has the power to expel a member for serious misconduct. A majority of MPs must vote to expel the member.

Parliamentary privilege holds members responsible for acting in character with the function they fulfill as elected representatives. Disobedience to orders of the House and actions such as making threats, offering or taking bribes, or intimidation are offences for which members can be reprimanded, suspended or even expelled. The Constitution endows the House with the power to suspend or expel a member.  A serious matter, expulsion has a twofold purpose as explained in May:

The purpose of expulsion is not so much disciplinary as remedial, not so much to punish Members as to rid the House of persons who are unfit for membership. It may justly be regarded as an example of the House’s power to regulate its own constitution. But it is more convenient to treat it among the methods of punishment at the disposal of the House. 

Even this most drastic power, however, has its limits, as noted in Bourinot:

The right of a legislative body to suspend or expel a member for what is sufficient cause in its own judgement is undoubted. Such a power is absolutely necessary to the conservation of the dignity and usefulness of a body. Yet expulsion, though it vacates the seat of a member, does not create any disability to serve again in parliament. 

The House may expel a member for offences committed outside their role as an elected representative or outside a session of Parliament. As Maingot explains, it “extends to all cases where the offence is such as, in the judgment of the House, to render the Member unfit for parliamentary duties.”  Between 1874 and 1947, the House expelled members on four occasions for refusing to comply with an order of the House, being charged with criminal offences or being sentenced to imprisonment.

Rights of the House as a Collectivity

While expulsion voids the seat, it doesn’t automatically bar a member from running for re-election, and some expelled members have successfully returned. Processes vary but generally involve a vote by the House, often after a conviction or finding of serious wrongdoing, and are subject to constitutional challenges under rights like the Charter.

The House of Commons has expelled members on 4 occasions:

Since Confederation, there have been four cases where Members of the House of Commons were expelled for having committed serious offences. Three cases involved criminal convictions: Louis Riel (Provencher) was expelled twice, in 1874 and in 1875, for being a fugitive from justice; and Fred Rose (Cartier) was expelled in 1947 after having been found guilty of conspiracy under the Official Secrets Act. In 1891, Thomas McGreevy (Quebec West) was expelled after having been found guilty of contempt of the authority of the House.

Vacancies in Representation – House of Commons Procedure and Practice (2000)

Removal from party (caucus) doesn’t remove them from office

It is common to hear about an MP being “kicked out” of their party. MPs are typically removed from caucus for conduct that is deemed damaging to the party, such as:

• breaking caucus confidentiality
• ethical violations
• criminal charges
• severe disagreements with the party leader

In Canada’s parliamentary system, voters technically elect the person, not the party, so the MP holds the seat until the next election, regardless of their relationship with the party leader.

If a party leader removes an MP from their caucus the MPP remains in office. They sit as an Independent MP for the remainder of their term, with all the same voting rights and salary as before.

Examples include:

• Derek Sloan was expelled from Conservative Party after after accepting a donation from a known white nationalist and comments on LGBTQ+ issues and public health officials.
• Helena Guergis was expelled from Conservative Party after allegations regarding her husband (Rahim Jaffer) and potential criminal conduct. The RCMP later cleared her of criminal wrongdoing, but she was not readmitted.
• Jody Wilson-Raybould was expelled from Liberal Party by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after her testimony that she was pressured to intervene in the SNC-Lavalin affair
• Yasmin Ratansi resigned from Liberal Party caucus (facing imminent expulsion) after admitting she had employed her sister in her constituency office for years, violating parliamentary rules.
• Pierre Nantel was expelled from NDP after it was revealed he was in talks to run for the Green Party in the upcoming election.

Disqualification for legal reasons

Ineligible to hold office

Individuals who lose Canadian citizenship or hold the following jobs are ineligible to sit as an MP:

• Senator
• Member of a Provincial Legislature (MPP/MLA)
• Paid positions under the Crown (Office of Profit)

Except as specially provided in this Division,

• (a) no person accepting or holding any office, commission or employment, permanent or temporary, in the service of the Government of Canada, at the nomination of the Crown or at the nomination of any of the officers of the Government of Canada, to which any salary, fee, wages, allowance, emolument or profit of any kind is attached, and
• (b) no sheriff, registrar of deeds, clerk of the peace or county crown attorney in any of the provinces,

is eligible to be a member of the House of Commons or shall sit or vote therein.

Section 32 of the Parliament of Canada Act

The following persons are not eligible to be a candidate:

• (a) a person who is not qualified as an elector on the date on which his or her nomination paper is filed;
• (b) a person who is disentitled under paragraph 502(3)(a) while they are so disentitled; [see below]
• (c) a member of the legislative assembly of a province;
• (d) [Repealed, 2018, c. 31, s. 52]
• (e) the Chief Electoral Officer;
• (f) a judge appointed by the Governor in Council, other than a citizenship judge appointed under the Citizenship Act;
• (g) a person who is imprisoned in a correctional institution;
• (h) an election officer; and
• (i) a person who was a candidate in a previous election and for whom a return, report, document or declaration has not been provided under subsection 477.59(1), if the time and any extension for providing it have expired.

Section 65 of the Canada Elections Act

502(3)(a): convicted of an illegal or corrupt practice

Individuals are disqualified from sitting in the House of Commons if they are convicted of an illegal practice listed in section 502(1) (eg. knowingly exceeding the election expenses limit) or a corrupt practice listed in section 502(2) (eg. making a false statement to have a person deleted from the Register of Electors) becomes ineligible to sit in the House of Commons for five years (in the case of an illegal practice) or seven years (in the case of a corrupt practice).

Any person who is convicted of having committed an offence that is an illegal practice or a corrupt practice under this Act shall, in addition to any other punishment for that offence prescribed by this Act, in the case of an illegal practice, during the next five years or, in the case of a corrupt practice, during the next seven years, after the date of their being so convicted, not be entitled to

(b) hold any office in the nomination of the Crown or of the Governor in Council.

(a) be elected to or sit in the House of Commons; or

Section 502(3)(a) of the Canada Elections Act Act

Sentenced to imprisonment for 2 or more years

If an MP is convicted of an indictable offence and sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more they are disqualified from holding a seat:

(1) Where a person is convicted of an indictable offence for which the person is sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more and holds, at the time that person is convicted, an office under the Crown or other public employment, the office or employment forthwith becomes vacant.

(2) A person to whom subsection (1) applies is, until undergoing the punishment imposed on the person or the punishment substituted therefor by competent authority or receives a free pardon from Her Majesty, incapable of holding any office under the Crown or other public employment, or of being elected or sitting or voting as a member of Parliament or of a legislature or of exercising any right of suffrage.

Section 750 of the Criminal Code of Canada

This has only happened once, in 1946 after MP Fred Rose was convicted and sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment, the House declared his seat vacant and order a new election.

Major conflict of interest breach?

Resignation

An MP may voluntarily choose to resign from office. This is the most common reason a seat becomes vacant between elections.

MPs may resign from federal office due to health reasons, or following a scandal where they face intense pressure to quit.

It can be done in two ways:

1. Verbally declaring their intention to resign in the House of Commons
2. Written declaration of intention to resign

Any person holding a seat in the House of Commons may resign the seat

(a) by giving, in that person’s place in the House, notice of intention to resign, in which case the Speaker of the House shall, immediately after entry of that notice by the Clerk of the House on the journals thereof, address a warrant under the hand and seal of the Speaker to the Chief Electoral Officer for the issue of a writ for the election of a new member in the place of that person; or

(b) by addressing and causing to be delivered to the Speaker of the House, either during a session of Parliament or in the interval between two sessions thereof, a declaration of intention to resign made in writing under the hand and seal of that person before two witnesses, in which case the Speaker shall, on receiving the declaration, forthwith address a warrant under the hand and seal of the Speaker to the Chief Electoral Officer for the issue of a writ for the election of a new member in the place of that person.

Section 25 of the Parliament of Canada Act

Crossing the floor

In Canada’s parliamentary system, voters technically elect the person, not the party, so an MP holds the seat until the next election, regardless of their relationship with the party leader. An MP may join another party (“cross the floor”) without losing their seat or triggering a by-election.