Currently the PM doesn’t have a seat in the house. If he visited the house, he’d have to go to the visitor’s gallery.
It’s an interesting situation. The PM is the leader of the federal liberal party, but he’s not a member of parliament. But, does he need to be? Is the PM sitting in the house of commons just a tradition that nobody has challenged yet? Could the PM delegate things inside the house of commons to their deputy-PM and then do things like give speeches, attend diplomatic functions, etc.?
The US has a very different system where the president isn’t part of the legislative branch at all. But, typically presidents don’t twiddle their thumbs waiting for something to do. Being the head of state keeps most presidents busy. It makes me wonder if technically Carney could choose not to run for office, and just spend his time doing head-of-state things rather than legislative things.
I think in the short term he’ll just keep the status quo, if for no other reason than there’s a shit ton of stuff that needs to taken care of NOW.
When the writ drops and a timeline is established he’ll run in the federal election, after most of the planning is already completed.
I know what he’ll probably do, but it’s interesting to think that it’s not strictly necessary that he actually becomes an MP.