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.

Parliament

Canada's parliament consists of the monarch, an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. The Governor General appoints Canadians, who are recommended by the Prime Minister, to the Senate according to a formula that distributes the seats among the provinces. In practice, legislative power rests with the party that has the majority of seats in the House of Commons which is elected from a current 308 constituencies (or electoral districts) for a period not to exceed five years. Canada's highly disciplined political parties and first-past-the-post electoral system have, since the 1970s, usually given one political party control of the Commons. The five-year period has only been extended once, in 1916. The prime minister may ask the governor general to dissolve Parliament and call new elections at virtually any time. That request was refused only once, during the minority government of 1926. By custom, prime ministers usually call new elections after four years in power. Because the first-past-the-post electoral system leads to a one-party rule for a protracted amount of time, it has led to calls for championing a different kind of electoral system, such as proportional representation or STV.

Related Topics:
House of Commons - Senate - First-past-the-post electoral system - Proportional representation - STV

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Members of the Senate do have some power, however. It is usually the greatest after a party has been in power a long time (and hence nominated Senators that would most likely support their policies), and a new party forms the government. Brian Mulroney used a special provision to recommend the appointment of an additional eight senators so that he could get bills he wanted passed through the Senate. Also, after the criminalization of abortion was decided to be against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by the Supreme Court of Canada, a new bill was prepared by Kim Campbell, who was then Minister of Justice. While it passed in the House of Commons, there was a tied vote in the Senate. In the case of tied votes, the bill is not passed. For more on this particular case, see the page on abortion in Canada.

Related Topics:
Brian Mulroney - Charter of Rights and Freedoms - Kim Campbell - Abortion in Canada

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Since 1867, there have been only three Canada-wide referenda.

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