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In the United States, the oath taken by every president has him swear to “preserve, protect and defend the constitution.” In Canada, the prime minister takes an oath to the Queen, which the courts have determined is also an oath to Canada and its Constitution.

Like the oath, Canada’s written Constitution makes it seem like this country is run by the Queen. That is because Canada is a monarchy created in colonial times. It is the unwritten “constitutional conventions” that make it a democracy.

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One of the unwritten constitutional rules is that a prime minister must abide by the “caretaker convention” once an election is triggered. With Parliament dissolved, the government is no longer legitimate. The prime minister and his ministers are simply the caretakers of power while the Canadian people pass judgment on who should sit in Parliament and who should form the next government.

This convention requires the government to not do anything that would bind a future government. In an emergency, the caretaker government can consult with the opposition parties to get consensus on how to respond to that crisis.