About Term Limits Canada

Term Limits Canada is a non-partisan advocacy and reference site making the case for term limits in Canadian politics — starting with the office of Prime Minister, where no law or constitutional rule caps how long one person can govern.

What we advocate

A defined limit on how many consecutive terms one person may serve as Prime Minister or as an MP, so that leadership changes on a schedule voters can see coming. Of the four Prime Ministers whose tenures ended in the past 30 years, three served more than two terms, and the longest unbroken tenure ran 15 years and 87 days (Wilfrid Laurier, 1896–1911).

The core facts

• No Canadian federal law or constitutional provision limits how many terms a Prime Minister or MP may serve — none has existed since Confederation in 1867.
• Of the four Prime Ministers whose tenures ended in the past 30 years, three (75%) served more than two terms.
• Longest unbroken PM tenure: Wilfrid Laurier, 15 years 87 days (1896–1911). Longest cumulative: William Lyon Mackenzie King, 21 years 154 days across three stints (1921–1930, 1935–1948).
• US presidents have been capped at two terms since 1951 (22nd Amendment); France caps presidents at two consecutive terms. Canada imposes no limit federally.
• Amending the Constitution for term limits requires federal approval and, for formulas in sections 41–42 of the Constitution Act, 1982, provincial consent.
• Canada has criticized Belarus (2004), Burundi (2015), Uganda (2017), and Côte d'Ivoire (2020) for weakening presidential term limits — while having none itself.

Non-partisan by design

Term limits strengthen democracy; they don't favor any political party. The argument on this site is systemic, not partisan: whatever your politics, no one should be able to hold power indefinitely.

Who runs Term Limits Canada

The site is run by a Canadian citizen and developed in the open on GitHub under webuildstuffio. Corrections and feedback are welcome at contact@termlimits.ca.

Learn more

Explore the sourced tenure data on the Multi-Term Prime Ministers page, read the FAQ on the homepage, or reach us through the contact page.