Traditionally in Westminster-style parliaments, the only non-governmental member other than the speaker with a recognised status is the Leader of the Opposition.
As political parties became more formalized in the 20th century, some Westminster parliaments (particularly in Canada, but also elsewhere) began to recognize opposition political party caucuses as having a distinct role, where they would have their own opportunities to ask questions during parliamentary debates and have their own organizational budgets and offices within the parliament buildings.
At the federal level in Canada, the idea of recognizing parties for official status started in 1963.
Therefore, the members of a legislature may, if they choose, pass a motion to dispense with the rules and grant official status to parties that would otherwise fail to qualify.
Sometimes, the requirements for official party status are set out either in a law or in the parliament's Rules of Procedure.
Under the Canadian War Service Voting Regulations, 1944,[9] membership standings in the House of Commons of eight or more were used to qualify leaders to appoint scrutineers for the special returning offices.
Since the early 1950s,[10] parties other than the government and official opposition had been granted limited rights by a series of rulings in the House of Commons.
[10] In 2001, the Speaker, Peter Milliken, ruled against full party recognition for the Progressive Conservative/Democratic Representative (PC/DR) Coalition, which had been formed by the 12 members of the recognized PC Party and 8 independent members of the Democratic Representative Caucus, who had left the larger Canadian Alliance caucus.
Milliken identified the features of a recognized party as having 12 or more members, appointing slate of House officers as official spokespeople, and working as a cohesive unit under the same banner but noted the practice related to the recognition of parties rather than parliamentary groups.
In the 2019 fall economic statement, Doug Ford's government changed the rules to 10% of the total number of seats in the Assembly, so it is currently set at 12.
The PCs' Bill Murdoch also considered joining the NDP caucus to help them make official status.
However, when ADQ merged into the newly formed Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) and the seven former ADQ MNAs joined with two former Parti Québécois (PQ) members in January 2012 to form the CAQ caucus, the governing Liberals and opposition PQ refused to grant any status to the new party, requiring all nine members to sit as independents.
[26][27] Québec solidaire (QS) rose from 3 to 10 seats but did not reach the threshold of 12 to gain official party status.
A political party (even if it has no parliamentary seats) may register with Elections Canada or a provincial electoral authority.
Doing so allows the political party to run candidates for office during elections, have their candidates' party affiliation identified on the ballot, issue tax receipts for donations, and spend money on advertising and campaigning during election campaigns.