Canadian Government
Election Process
Forming the Government
Canada had 308 electoral districts (ridings), candidates then put their name forward from different political parties. The party with the most votes and the leader of the party with the most seats becomes the Prime Minster, the Governor General then asks them to form a government. Then the Prime Minster picks which MPs will get positions in the Executive Branch Government. The party that has the second largest party then becomes the official opposition. There is also Majority and Minority government. Majority government is when it has the the largest party has most on the seats in the House of Commons. Minority Government is created when no single party has majority. There is also a coalition government when two smaller parties unify to form majority.
Electing MPs
Federal elections happen every four years. Canada's electoral system is known as "first- past-the- post" system, can also be refereed to as "single member plurality". This system is known as "first past the post" because the winner takes all. Each district (riding) elects a candidates, the candidate that wins is a representative as a Member of Parliament.
Canada had 308 electoral districts (ridings), candidates then put their name forward from different political parties. The party with the most votes and the leader of the party with the most seats becomes the Prime Minster, the Governor General then asks them to form a government. Then the Prime Minster picks which MPs will get positions in the Executive Branch Government. The party that has the second largest party then becomes the official opposition. There is also Majority and Minority government. Majority government is when it has the the largest party has most on the seats in the House of Commons. Minority Government is created when no single party has majority. There is also a coalition government when two smaller parties unify to form majority.
Electing MPs
Federal elections happen every four years. Canada's electoral system is known as "first- past-the- post" system, can also be refereed to as "single member plurality". This system is known as "first past the post" because the winner takes all. Each district (riding) elects a candidates, the candidate that wins is a representative as a Member of Parliament.
House of CommonsThe House of Commons has 308 members (MPs). All the members all elected as the same time every three to four years in a federal election. These members can be re-elected unlimitedly. The Prime Minster and his party are all members of The House of Commons. The House of Commons has the power to pass a vote of non-confidence. The also they deal with new laws, make changes to laws that already exist and sanction laws.
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Senate
The original senate was created in 1867 only having 72 seats now it has 105 seats. Members are known as senators and are appointed by the prime minster. Senators can serve until they want to retire or age 75. Senators cannot be fired.The Senate was created to make sure there was an equalize representation by population in the House of Commons. The Senate has represented groups in Parliament that have had insufficient representation such as Aboriginal peoples, visible minority (a person or group visibly not one of the majority race in a given population) , and women. The Senate also has the chance to asses bills before they are passed. Senators are allowed to pass bills, make changes to the bills or vote against the bill.
How the Government Operates
Canada is a constitutional monarchy. A Constitutional monarchy is when the king or queen acts as Head of State. The Prime Minster is head of the Government. Canada has a federal system of parliamentary government. This system divides powers between federal parliament and country’s provincial governments. The federal, provincial, and territorial governments all share responsibilities.
Executive This Branch is made up of the Monarch, Prime Minister, Cabinet and Bureaucrats (civil servants). They adminster, carry out, enforce laws and plans for the government. Legislative Made up of Members of House of Commons and Senators. In Legislative branch they are responsible for creating, changing, and repealing laws and regulations. Judicial Members of this branch are the courts (supreme, provincial, small claims and families) and judges. They interpret laws, decide who has broken the law and assign appropriate penalties. |
Party Discipline
All the MP’s in a political party are expected to vote all the same way and to do this all the time. A party for example will either vote unanimously for something or unanimously against something. The leader of the party decides how members vote on certain issues. If an MP votes against his leader it can result in being expelled from the party cacus, they have to be independent, speaking privileges can be temporarily revoked and may be excluded from under another party in the next election.
Passing a bill
First the government introduces the bill then the First reading takes place. This is any new idea for a new law or makes change to a current law. After the First reading is the Second reading where parliament discuss the ideas of the bill. If the House votes for the bill it then moves on to the Committee stage. The bill is studied in more depth and members hold special meetings. People have the opportunity to make comments about the bill. After the Committee stage is the Report stage. The bill is given back to the House then they debate and can make changes then the bill moves onto the Third reading. People in parliament then can discuss again, makes changes and if it passes the bill goes to the other house and goes through the same stages. Once the Senate and House of Commons have passed the bill is given to the Governor General finalizes it and it becomes a law.
Confidence voting
Any member in the House of Commons can vote the confidence motion. The confidence motion is put in to place when a member of House of Commons has lost their confidence in the Government. This in acts an emergency parliamentary election.
Function of the Government
In Canada there is Federal and Provincial government. The Federal government is responsible for national and international matters. They take care of defence, foreign policy, interprovincial trade and communications, currency, criminal law and citizenship. The provinces are in responsible for municipal government, education and health. They also share power, which are agriculture and environment.
How can Canada improve long term?
- In the Canadian Parliament the Senate should be elected with fixed terms rather than appointed by the Prime Minister. The Senate will just pass whatever bills the government passes unless the opposition passes a bill that the government doesn't want then the Senate does not really serve a purpose.
- The Prime Minister should not have the ability to prorogue (stopping parliament; meaning that all bills that are on the table are discontinued) parliament early in order to prevent a bill from passing. If the parliament need be prorogued early this should be voted on by the House of Commons and then the Senate rather than simply done by the government.
- There should be systems set in place to prevent gerrymandering; the adjustment of the boundaries of electoral districts to try to sway the results of elections. This defeats democracy and districts should be separated based on enumeration only, based on how many voters are in and area. Then districts would be separated mathematically without political influence. This is idealistic however it is important in maintaining democracy.
- Instead of calling an emergency election when the confident motion is put in place, the minority government should have a set amount of time, for example: a year to sort issues out instead of any member of parliament losing confidence and then having to have an election and start all over again.
- Party Discipline shouldn't be as strict, for example, if an MP belonging to a certain party disagrees with the leader of the party they often have to serve punishments. The MP shouldn't be punished if they didn't believe in what their party was voting for.