Basic Lesson in Canadian Federal Politics
As has been pointed out to me, I might need to give a short lesson in Canadian politics if I'm going to be talking about politics at all in the next month with the upcoming election. Really, I'm not big into politics - I just am really concerned with the direction our country is going in relation to the role of the family and the sanctity of human life, which brings me into the sphere of political concern.
Anyways, here is a crash course in Canadian politics:
The Canadian political system is very similar to the British. Our legislative arm is formed of the Senate and the House of Commons. The Senate consists of senators who are appointed. Senate appointments are made by the Prime Minister and are lifetime appointments. While senators may have political affiliations, the senators are more of 'outstanding Canadian citizens', knowledgeable people, people who are recognized in their field as experts, etc... Since the appointments are lifetime the political affiliation of the senators does not really reflect the party in power in the government. The senate studies, amends and either rejects or approves bills. No bill can become law unless it is approved by the Senate - although the Senate is currently fairly 'weak' in the Canadian political system right now and rarely exercises authority beyond amending bills. There are currently 105 seats in the Senate. These seats are more or less selected to proportionally represent the different areas of Canada according to population figures. For instance, Ontario has 24 seats, compared to the Northwest Territory, which has 1 seat, because Ontario is much more populated.
The other part of the legislative arm is the House of Commons. The House of Commons consists of Members of Parliament who are elected directly by the people of a specific area. The country is divided up into constituencies (also known as ridings). The division is based on population so in metropolitan centers you might have several 'ridings' in a small area, where as in rural Canada you could have an area the size of Europe as one 'riding'. There are 308 ridings throughout Canada. The House of Commons is the major law making body in Parliament. In the House of Commons bills are tabled, debated, and voted on. The House of Commons also serves as a forum for Members of Parliament to bring forward the specific cares and concerns of the people they represent. It is also the means by which the government is kept accountable through debate. Basically, it's a zoo.
The executive in the Canadian political system is much weaker than in the American System. The Prime Minister has a cabinet of ministers and acts more or less as the first among equals. The opposition party has a 'shadow cabinet' which mirrors the cabinet of the ruling government to keep them accountable. It's kind of like playing soccer and having checks. For instance, the Minister of Finance in the cabinet would have to deal with a 'shadow minister of finance' in the opposition cabinet whose job would be to keep the one who is in power accountable.
The Prime Minister is the leader of the party which wins the most seats/ridings/ constituencies in the election. Therefore, as Canadians we don't vote directly for who we want as Prime Minister, but rather we vote for who we want to represent our area. For instance, if the majority of the ridings elect conservative Members of Parliament the the leader of the Conservative party becomes the Prime Minister. Furthermore, the Prime Minister needs to win his own riding in order to have a seat in the House of Commons - therefore he acts not only as the Prime Minister but also as the Member of Parliament for a particular riding.
In terms of a crash course in the political orientation of the country, on a right-wing left-wing spectrum, in my opinion Canadian politics is just to the left of the middle. The parties are fairly similar in policies when it comes down to ninety-nine percent of the stuff. Canadians tend to be pretty non-confrontational when it comes to politics and we'd rather whine about the budget than anything else. For the past twelve years we've had a Liberal government in power. The Liberals are strong in the East of Canada. . . which happens to be where most of the population of Canada resides. That means that they win more ridings and they get into power. The Liberals also tend to be a party full of baptized Catholics with serious conscience problems. In the West the Conservatives tend to be stronger. The Conservatives are relatively more pro-family than the Liberals (at least from a Catholic perspective). Then, there's always the NDP (New Democratic Party). They're big on workers rights and protecting the poor, which isn't a bad think, but when it comes to protecting human life in general, they pretty much fail. Really, when it comes to Canadian politics, compared to American, or even European, the parties all fall very close to one another on the political spectrum. Then we've got the Bloc Québecois of course, which is the French separist party in Québec. They win a fair amount of seats in Québec but don't exist outside of the province of Québec And then we've got fringe parties such as the Canadian Marijuana Party and the Party Party and the Sex Party (?!?) and the Green Party. They've never won seats and probably never will.
Hmmm... that's all I can think of right now...I reserve the right to edit this post later if need be.
Anyways, here is a crash course in Canadian politics:
The Canadian political system is very similar to the British. Our legislative arm is formed of the Senate and the House of Commons. The Senate consists of senators who are appointed. Senate appointments are made by the Prime Minister and are lifetime appointments. While senators may have political affiliations, the senators are more of 'outstanding Canadian citizens', knowledgeable people, people who are recognized in their field as experts, etc... Since the appointments are lifetime the political affiliation of the senators does not really reflect the party in power in the government. The senate studies, amends and either rejects or approves bills. No bill can become law unless it is approved by the Senate - although the Senate is currently fairly 'weak' in the Canadian political system right now and rarely exercises authority beyond amending bills. There are currently 105 seats in the Senate. These seats are more or less selected to proportionally represent the different areas of Canada according to population figures. For instance, Ontario has 24 seats, compared to the Northwest Territory, which has 1 seat, because Ontario is much more populated.
The other part of the legislative arm is the House of Commons. The House of Commons consists of Members of Parliament who are elected directly by the people of a specific area. The country is divided up into constituencies (also known as ridings). The division is based on population so in metropolitan centers you might have several 'ridings' in a small area, where as in rural Canada you could have an area the size of Europe as one 'riding'. There are 308 ridings throughout Canada. The House of Commons is the major law making body in Parliament. In the House of Commons bills are tabled, debated, and voted on. The House of Commons also serves as a forum for Members of Parliament to bring forward the specific cares and concerns of the people they represent. It is also the means by which the government is kept accountable through debate. Basically, it's a zoo.
The executive in the Canadian political system is much weaker than in the American System. The Prime Minister has a cabinet of ministers and acts more or less as the first among equals. The opposition party has a 'shadow cabinet' which mirrors the cabinet of the ruling government to keep them accountable. It's kind of like playing soccer and having checks. For instance, the Minister of Finance in the cabinet would have to deal with a 'shadow minister of finance' in the opposition cabinet whose job would be to keep the one who is in power accountable.
The Prime Minister is the leader of the party which wins the most seats/ridings/ constituencies in the election. Therefore, as Canadians we don't vote directly for who we want as Prime Minister, but rather we vote for who we want to represent our area. For instance, if the majority of the ridings elect conservative Members of Parliament the the leader of the Conservative party becomes the Prime Minister. Furthermore, the Prime Minister needs to win his own riding in order to have a seat in the House of Commons - therefore he acts not only as the Prime Minister but also as the Member of Parliament for a particular riding.
In terms of a crash course in the political orientation of the country, on a right-wing left-wing spectrum, in my opinion Canadian politics is just to the left of the middle. The parties are fairly similar in policies when it comes down to ninety-nine percent of the stuff. Canadians tend to be pretty non-confrontational when it comes to politics and we'd rather whine about the budget than anything else. For the past twelve years we've had a Liberal government in power. The Liberals are strong in the East of Canada. . . which happens to be where most of the population of Canada resides. That means that they win more ridings and they get into power. The Liberals also tend to be a party full of baptized Catholics with serious conscience problems. In the West the Conservatives tend to be stronger. The Conservatives are relatively more pro-family than the Liberals (at least from a Catholic perspective). Then, there's always the NDP (New Democratic Party). They're big on workers rights and protecting the poor, which isn't a bad think, but when it comes to protecting human life in general, they pretty much fail. Really, when it comes to Canadian politics, compared to American, or even European, the parties all fall very close to one another on the political spectrum. Then we've got the Bloc Québecois of course, which is the French separist party in Québec. They win a fair amount of seats in Québec but don't exist outside of the province of Québec And then we've got fringe parties such as the Canadian Marijuana Party and the Party Party and the Sex Party (?!?) and the Green Party. They've never won seats and probably never will.
Hmmm... that's all I can think of right now...I reserve the right to edit this post later if need be.
posted by DP | 9:42 PM
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