Originally Posted by EonBlue

We vote for an MP (member of parliament). The party who gets the most MPs elected gets to form the government. The leader of the winning party becomes the Prime Minister.

Only two parties in Canada have ever formed the government - the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party (formerly Progressive Conservatives before merging with the Canadian Alliance (formerly Reform Party)).

Two other minor parties always get MPs elected, but never enough to win - the New Democrat Party, and the Bloc Quebecois (Quebec only separatist party).

Then there are a ton of fringe parties that run but never get anyone elected - the Green Party, Marijuana Party, Communist Party, and a bunch of others. There are also independents who don't belong to any party and some have even been elected before. Anybody can get their name on the ballot if they want to run.