Transcript
Friday, October 8, 2026
8:19 minutes (audio)
[00:00:00]
Amanda Cupido: Welcome to ON Parliament, a podcast highlighting the history, processes, and people that shape Ontario. I'm Amanda Cupido from the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Did you know that many people use the terms government and parliament interchangeably? In reality, they are not the same thing. In this episode, we're digging into the roles and responsibilities of Ontario's legislative body and how it compares to the executive body.
We've got a great guest to explain it all, Meghan Stenson. She is the Clerk of Procedural Services and a Table Officer. So, let's begin with a simple one-sentence description of the difference between government and Parliament.
[00:00:50]
Meghan Stenson: The simplest answer in one sentence is that they are two different branches of government. If we want to do a little more detail than that, I'd say that government is responsible for developing public policy and delivering public services, whereas Parliament or the legislature is responsible for scrutinizing the work of the government and holding it to account, and also approving elements of that work, like proposed changes to the law.
[00:01:14]
Amanda Cupido: Now, these get mixed up quite often. Why do you think that's the case?
[00:01:20]
Meghan Stenson: I think it's naturally confusing because in our parliamentary system, those two branches of government actually overlap. So the Executive Council, which is what we commonly refer to as the government, is composed of, in this case, the Premier and the Cabinet Ministers, and each of them, they are one of the 124 MPPs.
So they each have a seat in the legislature like every other member. I think the election part is simple enough. On election day, we all go to the polls, and we vote to elect our local representatives, who are the MPPs. But on election day, we're not actually directly choosing the government, so we're not choosing the Premier on that day.
We're electing the Legislative Assembly, and then the makeup of the Legislative Assembly actually determines who will form the government, and who will be the Premier and the rest of the Executive Council. This overlap between the two branches is actually a really important feature of our parliamentary system, and it's a big part of what makes our system of government different from some others, like for example, the American presidential system.
So the Executive Council or the government is answerable to or responsible to the Legislative Assembly or Parliament. Any time they want to spend public money or impose a tax or pass a new law, they actually need the approval of the Legislature in order to do that.
[00:02:31]
Amanda Cupido: And who does the Parliament report into?
[00:02:35]
Meghan Stenson: The people through elections.
[00:02:37]
Amanda Cupido: There you go. Very cyclical. You talk about the lawmaking, so let's dive into that more. Who has the power to make laws?
[00:02:50]
Meghan Stenson: That's Parliament. So making laws is one of the three main functions of Parliament or of the Legislative Assembly. The other two would be approving the expenditure of public money, sometimes called granting supply, and then scrutinizing or overseeing the actions of the government.
[00:03:01]
Amanda Cupido: Okay, but if the government does want to pass a law, what role would Parliament play?
[00:02:10]
Meghan Stenson: Well, the government can't pass a law without Parliament. So proposed laws are called bills, and when the government wants to pass a new law, either the Premier or one of the Cabinet Ministers is required to introduce a bill in the House and moves that it be read the first time, and then the House has to vote from there on whether or not to allow it.
In order for a bill to become a law, it has to receive three readings, and there's a vote at each of those stages. So in order for the government to create a new law, it actually has to be approved at three stages, on three votes in the Legislature. And at different stages, there's also opportunity for the House to debate the bill.
So members can make arguments either for or against the bill, and can even suggest changes to it.
[00:03:47]
Amanda Cupido: And we have a whole episode about how a bill becomes a law, so if you wanna learn more about that process, tune in to our other episode you can find on our feed. But I really wanna drill down on how does Parliament stop the government from doing something that they don't agree with?
[00:04:02]
Meghan Stenson: Parliament can say no to the government by voting down its proposals any time, essentially. So this could include the government's proposed laws, and proposals for spending money, and lots of other kinds of measures as well. It's just as simple as a majority vote in the House. And Parliament can even remove the government completely by defeating it on certain particular votes that are called confidence votes.
[00:04:22]
Amanda Cupido: Has that ever happened?
[00:04:24]
Meghan Stenson: It has, yeah, a few times.
[00:04:27]
Amanda Cupido: Wow. Why does all of this matter? I mean, some of it might feel overwhelming for someone to try to wrap their head around, but I know it's an important part of our process here in the province, but why do you see it as an important thing to even understand that distinction?
[00:04:41]
Meghan Stenson: I think really the better everyone understands the way our system works, the better they'll be able to participate in our democracy. So just to give you a specific example, I think knowing that relationship, understanding the relationship between Parliament and government, tells us that there are ways to influence the government all the time and not just through elections, you know, every four or five years.
So you can actually contact your MPP any time and tell them what your priorities are and what you think about different measures that are before the House, and how you think they should vote on, you know, bills and other motions that are before the House, and that can make a real difference in the outcome.
[00:05:14]
Amanda Cupido: Before I let you go, I wanna know a little bit about you. Like, how did you even get into this?
[00:05:21]
Meghan Stenson: Well, I kind of just found myself here and loved it and stayed. My education is in political science. I have a bachelor's and master's degree in poli sci, and when I was finishing up school, I thought that I might end up working in the executive branch of government doing policy work.
But you know, I was looking for a job, and I found a great entry-level role here, and sort of blew my mind that I could be a public servant in the legislative branch of government. I didn't really know that that was a career option, and it's kind of a magical place, and I fell in love with the work that we do here and stuck it out, and here I am.
It's been almost 18 years.
[00:05:55]
Amanda Cupido: It's incredible. And just so people can paint a picture in their mind, tell us about what is your professional outfit, and where are you in the Chamber? Like, when you are doing your job, where are you seated?
[00:06:07]
Meghan Stenson: Yeah, so I'm a Table Officer. Part of my role is that I'm a Table Officer, and so that means that I work at the table in the Chamber, which is right on the floor of the House in front of the Speaker.
So if you picture the House or the Chamber, it's government on one side, opposition on the other side, Speaker in the middle, and right on the floor in front of the Speaker is a big, long table full of people. In the Chamber, we wear robes, we call them. So it's basically a black suit with long robes or gowns and white tabs, and we wear, tricorn hats sometimes even as well.
[00:06:40]
Amanda Cupido: When you're not in the Chamber, what are your days like?
[00:06:44]
Meghan Stenson: When I'm not in the Chamber, I am doing my day job, which is the Clerk of Procedural Services. So I oversee a branch of staff that offers procedural and administrative and operational support to both the House and to the Standing Committees, which are smaller working groups of MPPs that report into the house.
[00:07:09]
Amanda Cupido: Time's up on the interview, but I'll leave you with a fun fact. The Chamber in Ontario's Legislative Building is decorated in green. That's just like Canada's House of Commons in Ottawa and at Westminster in London, England. Why green? Well, in Westminster-style parliaments, the tradition of using green in the Lower House is often understood as symbolizing the countryside, archers, and the village, so commoners or the people.
This is in contrast to red, which was seen as the colour to represent authority, nobility, and the elite. To learn more about parliament and government, head on over to ola.org and click on Visit and Learn. Thank you for listening to ON Parliament. This podcast is produced by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
I'm Amanda Cupido. Did you learn something new today? I hope so. And if you enjoyed it, we'd appreciate it if you share it with somebody else who will find it enjoyable as well. We got more episodes where this came from. Stay tuned.