Politics of Canada

Canada is a constitutional monarchy and a Commonwealth Realm (see Monarchy in Canada) with a federal system of parliamentary government, and strong democratic traditions. Many of the country's legislative practices derive from the unwritten practices of and precedents set by the United Kingdom's Westminster parliament; however, Canada has evolved variations. Party discipline in Canada is stronger than in the United Kingdom, and more of the votes are considered confidence votes, which tends to diminish the role of non-cabinet Members of Parliament (MPs), known as backbenchers. Backbenchers can, however, exert their influence by sitting in parliamentary committees, like the Public Accounts Committee or the National Defence Committee.

Federal-provincial relations

Federal-provincial relations is a regular issue in Canadian politics: Quebec wishes to preserve and strengthen its distinctive nature, western provinces desire more control over their abundant natural resources, especially energy reserves; industrialized Central Canada is concerned with its manufacturing base, and the Atlantic provinces strive to escape from being less affluent than the rest of the country.

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In order to ensure that social programs such as health care and education are funded consistently throughout Canada, the poorer provinces receive a proportionately greater share of federal "transfer payments" than the richer provinces do. This has been controversial. The richer provinces often favour freezing transfer payments, or rebalancing the system in their favour, based on the claim that they already pay more in taxes than they receive in federal government services, and the poorer provinces often favour an increase on the basis that the amount of money they receive is not sufficient for their existing needs.

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As well, some legal scholars have argued that the federal government's exercise of its constitutional spending power has contributed to strained federal-provincial relations. This power, which allows the federal government to spend the revenue it raises in any way that it pleases, allows the federal government to overstep the constitutional division of powers by creating programs that intrude into provincial jurisdiction. The federal spending power is found in s. 102 of the British North America Act 1867, now known as the Constitution Act, 1867. A prime example of an exercise of the spending power is the Canada Health Act, which is a conditional grant of money to the provinces. Delivery of health services is, under the Constitution, a provincial responsibility. However, by making the funding available to the provinces under the Canada Health Act contingent upon delivery of services according to federal standards, the federal government has the ability to influence health care delivery. This spending power, coupled with Supreme Court rulings - such as Reference Re Canada Assistance Plan (B.C.) - that have held that funding delivered under the spending power can be reduced unilaterally at any time (as federal health care funding has been), has contributed to strained federal-provincial relations.

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Particularly in the past decade, this has been one of Canada's dominant political conflicts.

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