Legislative Assembly of Ontario

The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (French: Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is the unicameral legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Along with the sovereign (represented by the lieutenant governor), who grants royal assent to bills passed by its members—known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs)—the body comprises the Legislature of Ontario or Parliament of Ontario.[1][2][3] The assembly meets at the Ontario Legislative Building at Queen's Park in the provincial capital of Toronto.

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Legislative Assembly of Ontario Assemblée législative de l'Ontario
43rd Parliament of Ontario
Coat of Arms
Type
Type	Unicameral house of the Parliament of Ontario
History
Founded	July 1, 1867 (1867-07-01)
Preceded by	Legislature of the Province of Canada (pre-confederation) Legislature of Upper Canada (pre-union)
Leadership
Lieutenant Governor	Elizabeth Dowdeswell since September 23, 2014
Speaker	Ted Arnott, PC since July 11, 2018
Premier	Doug Ford, PC since June 29, 2018
Leader of the Official Opposition	Andrea Horwath, NDP since June 7, 2018
Government House Leader	Paul Calandra, PC since June 20, 2019
Opposition House Leader	Peggy Sattler, NDP since February 3, 2021
Structure
Seats	124
Political groups	Her Majesty's Government   Progressive Conservative (83) Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition   New Democratic (31) Other parties   Liberal (8)   Green (1)   Independent (1)
Elections
Voting system	First-past-the-post
Last election	June 2, 2022
Next election	2026
Meeting place
Ontario Legislative Building, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Website
www.ola.org

Ontario uses a Westminster-style parliamentary government in which members are elected to the Legislative Assembly through general elections using a "first-past-the-post" system. The premier of Ontario (the province's head of government) holds office by virtue of their ability to command the confidence of the Legislative Assembly, typically sitting as an MPP themselves and lead the largest party or a coalition in the Legislative Assembly. The largest party not forming the government is known as the Official Opposition, its leader being recognized as leader of the Opposition.

The Ontario Legislature is sometimes referred to as the "Ontario Provincial Parliament". Members of the assembly refer to themselves as "Members of the Provincial Parliament" MPPs as opposed to "Members of the Legislative Assembly" (MLAs) as in many other provinces. Ontario is the only province to do so, in accordance with a resolution passed in the Assembly on April 7, 1938. However, the Legislative Assembly Act refers only to "members of the Assembly". The Legislative Assembly is the second largest Canadian provincial deliberative assembly by number of members after the National Assembly of Quebec.

The current assembly was elected on June 2, 2022, as part of the 43rd Parliament of Ontario.

Owing to the location of the Legislative Building on the grounds of Queen's Park, the metonym "Queen's Park" is often used to refer to both the provincial government and the Legislative Assembly.[4]