!world@lemmy.world mods once again proving their incapacity to host a space for “world” news.
Terminology citation
Under Canada's Westminster-style parliamentary democracy, the terms government and Government of Canada refer specifically to the prime minister, Cabinet, and other members of the governing party inside the House of Commons, but typically includes the federal public service and federal departments and agencies when used elsewhere.[7] This differs from the United States, where the executive branch is referred to as an administration and the federal government encompasses executive, legislative, and judicial powers, similar to the Canadian Crown.
Emphasis mine. In particular I note that capitalization is not a factor. The fact that Voroxpete didn’t specify “capital G Government” doesn’t make a difference as I originally thought when reading.
Not Canadian, but the Canadian terminology described above is common in other parliamentary democracies as well.
In Sweden, where I live, members of parliament (ledamöter) will be said to be part of government if they are a member of one of the governing parties (these parties will have ministers in the government/cabinet), a supporting party if they voted in favour of the government (these parties do not have ministers in government but generally vote in favour of government propositions) and opposition if they abstained or voted against (these parties usually vote against government propositions).
Generally, MPs not member of the ruling parties will not be called "members of government", particularly members of the opposition.
I think the issue here is simply not being familiar with politics & governance outside the US.
Indeed, similar with the other democracies I'm familiar with (France, Spain)
Same in Australia, they would be part of the Shadow Ministry/Shadow Cabinet.
We’d call them politicians, but not government.