answer:Well in the most basic of ways, Canadians vote for a parliamentary representative (known as member of parliament or MP) for their geographical region (called a riding). MPs are elected by having the largest number of votes in an election and don’t need a majority. MPs are all members of registered political parties and after all the MPs have been elected, the party with the greatest number of elected members is the governing party. The head of this party is then declared Prime Minister. Of course, this doesn’t mean they have absolute power (though Stephen Harper might argue differently). When there is a situation where the governing party does not control more than 50% of the seats in parliament it is known as a minority government (like the current one under Harper). Minority governments cannot pass legislation on their own and must rely on other parties to vote along with them in order to have majority consensus. I’d suggest reading up on the Wikipedia article on the Canadian Electoral System – it is probably much more in-depth that what I know.