Our Form of Government

Manitoba has a Parliamentary style of government, inherited from our British founders. This form of government sees the senior members of the executive branch (government leaders) drawn from the group or party that has won the most seats in the house of assembly (called the Legislative Assembly in Manitoba) in the general election. In this form of government, there is no clear separation of powers between the executive and legislative branch of the government.

Manitoba has what is called a "unicameral" (one chamber) style of government - that is, there is only one chamber of assembly, called the "Legislative Assembly". A strength of just one house of assembly is the efficiency of law-making - there is simply no other group that could potentially block or prevent a bill from becoming law.

On the other side of the argument, in our system there is no check on the authority of the lawmakers, so theoretically there is no restraint on the majority, especially considering that the leaders of the majority party in the Legislature also form the executive branch of the government.