How the Canadian Government Works - OverSimplified - Making Money Is EasyMaking Money Is Easy

Firstly, Canada has a parliamentary democracy, and this is different from the presidential form of government. The Key Differences Between the Parliamentary and Presidential Forms of Government is in the role of the Head of State: for example, in the US, the head of state is the President, who therefore serves both as Head of State and as the leader of the government.

Meanwhile, in Canada, Queen Elizabeth is the Head of State (apolitically, so she serves everyone, rather than just her own political ideology), whilst the Prime Minister is the Head of government and runs the government in the name of the Queen.

In a parliamentary democracy, the voters elect the legislature called a parliament.

The parliament then elects the prime minister.

Basically, the Prime Minister is the leader of whichever party that comes out of an election with the confidence of the house, whether that’s because he won the most seats overall or because he can convince the smaller parties to back him in a coalition even if he technically got fewer seats than some other party: basically, the prime minister is whoever can get the largest number of members of the parliament to agree to support him as prime minister.

In a presidential democracy, the voters elect both the legislature and the executive separately. A good example of this would be the US where the people vote for their representative, their senator, and their president. Canada got its sovereignty over a period of over 100 years. It started in the 1840s, when the colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Canada (modern-day Ontario and Quebec) were granted Responsible Government.

This meant that the Colonial Government was responsible to an elected legislature of Canadians for the first time. In 1867, those colonies united politically to form the Dominion of Canada. The new Dominion had a unique kind of status. It was still part of the British Empire, but we had sovereignty over everything but foreign relations, Britain remained largely responsible for foreign policy.

This means that the government ran the country but could not enter into treaties or make international agreements with other countries.

It was de Facto nationhood. Technically, when the UK was at war, Canada is at war. But the government could decide whether or not to send troops to a conflict. They sent troops for the Boer War, and sent a major force to fight in World War I but refused to for some other conflicts. One time when not having control over international affairs hurt was when the UK government gave away a huge amount of land in British Columbia near the coast to the Americans.

Canada became a country on the battlefields of World War One. When Britain declared war, in August 1914, Canada, like the rest of the Empire, was just automatically included. In battles such as that at Vimy Ridge, where Canadians fought together as a Canadian army, under the full command of their own officers, for the first time, and succeeding in capturing an objective that others had tried and been unable to take, Canadians earned respect and a sense of their own distinct identity. At the end of the war, Canada was a separate signatory of the Treaty of Versailles and after the war became a fully independent participant in the League of Nations. When World War Two began, Canada was no longer just automatically included in Britain’s declaration but made its own.

The Canadian Parliament declared war on Germany a week after Britain, on the 10th of September 1939. Another significant step toward nationhood for Canada was the adoption in 1931 of the Statute of Westminster, by which Britain officially recognized the legal autonomy of the Canadian Parliament and gave up the right, which it really no longer exercised, to legislate for Canada, except in constitutional matters, where Britain temporarily retained jurisdiction, at Canada’s request.

The reason for that was due to differences of opinion within Canada over how such changes should be made once Canada assumed full responsibility for them. Although Britain retained the right to make these changes, it agreed to do so only at the request of the Parliament of Canada. That situation ended in 1982, after the federal and nine of the ten provincial governments had agreed on an amending formula and other changes including a Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Quebec disagreed, and to this day, the province has not officially accepted the Constitution, but as part of Canada, it is subject to it. Canada has three levels of government: federal, provincial, and municipal. Each of the provinces has its own parliament (or legislative assembly, or national assembly in Quebec). The federal government has three branches: the judicial, legislative, and executive. Unlike the American system, there is no strict separation of powers (I will explain this later).

The Legislative branch is composed of a bicameral parliament with the “Queen in Council” on top. The lower house is called the House of Commons, which consists of 308 members of Parliament who are each elected to represent an electoral district by a plurality of votes of all residents who are eligible to vote in that district.

Canada is a multi-party democracy with three major parties (Conservative, Liberal, New Democrats) and a couple of minor or regional parties (including the Quebec separatists), and some independents. The Commons typically introduce legislation, debate it and pass it on to the upper house if a bill is approved in three separate votes. The upper house is known as The Senate and is composed of 105 members appointed by the Queen on the advice of the prime minister.

The Senate typically does not introduce legislation, they get to debate legislation that gets passed from the Commons and votes on it once. Due to the inherently undemocratic nature of the Senate, it is largely powerless. It is considered the house of “Sober second thought”, this means that its members are not restricted by the short-term needs of electoral politics.

Its members also represent the regions of Canada, and they are supposed to ensure that the rights of the less populous provinces do not get trampled on. Senate reform is a frequent discussion in Canadian politics… However, reform is usually stalled and delayed because there isn’t a clear consensus of what the role of the Senate should be. After a bill is passed by the Senate it gets signed by the monarch and becomes a law of the land. The Queen’s representative is constitutionally entitled to veto legislation – this power is traditionally not used.

The executive branch is run by the Cabinet, which is led by the prime minister. The prime minister in Canadian political tradition is the leader of the largest party. If the largest party does not command a majority of members it is known as a Minority Government. A majority of the house is required to pass legislation.

The leader of the second-largest faction becomes the “Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition”.

This role carries many responsibilities and also prestige. The job of the opposition leader is to appoint critics to shadow the governing cabinet, who will challenge the government’s agenda in Parliament. The prime minister serves at “Her Majesty’s Pleasure” meaning that the terms are not fixed, and the government may fall whenever it loses the confidence of the house, unable to pass a budget, or the Speech from the Throne gets voted down.

Parliament must be dissolved by the end of the 5th year after a new Parliament sat. Recently, legislation fixing election dates to once every four years has passed.

Of course, the prime minister can always ask to call a snap election by requesting the governor-general to dissolve parliament. The Canadian political system is very leader-centric.

Party leaders have near-dictatorial powers over party policy and legislative agenda. While officially a party’s candidate in a Riding is selected by the party’s electoral district association, it’s very common for party leaders to strategically parachute star candidates into a riding.

You would often hear a party leader criticized for their powers… however, this has been a longstanding feature of Canadian politics. The laws governing Canada fall within the framework of “The Constitution of Canada”.

It’s a largely unwritten constitution that is derived from English Common Law.

In recent times the cornerstone of the Constitution is the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, outlining principal freedoms and liberties that Canadians are guaranteed, as well as codifying bilingualism and governing certain aspects of the relationship between Canada and its provinces and territories, as well as with First Nations. Constitutionalism in Canada is still a controversial point, as Canada’s second-largest province (Quebec) never ratified it and would still maintain that it is invalid… making hard constitutional reforms very difficult.

Below the federal government, there are ten provinces and three territories. Each has its own unicameral legislature, and a lieutenant governor fulfills a role similar to that of the governor-general.

While the federal government is responsible for things like immigration, defense, foreign policy, and trade…the provinces govern things like education, healthcare, and transportation. While the political structure of the provinces mirrors the federal, its party system often diverges in interesting ways. While provincial parties would often carry names to federal ones, often there would be a great disconnect between the federal party and its provincial cousin. The municipal level of government is almost self-explanatory, I guess. It is non-partisan, meaning candidates put only their name on the ballot.

Councilors are elected to represent wards and mayors are popularly elected. Most municipalities employ a strong council, weak mayor framework. Elections are held every four years and are not designed to coincide with either provincial or federal elections. So, how is the Canadian political system different from the American system? Well, both Canada and the United States have a bicameral legislature, made up of two houses: one representing the people (the House of Representatives in USA or House of Commons in Canada) and one representing its geographic regions (the Senate, in both countries).

Members serving in the people’s house represent some set number of individuals in a predetermined political area, while members serving in the Senate represent a political division such as a state or province. Each country also has an executive branch with generally separate powers, headed by the president for the U.S or prime minister for Canada and their Cabinet. The differences are in how they are selected. For House of Representatives or House of Commons: In both countries, members are elected directly by the people they represent through a simple plurality election (the most votes wins); one member represents each electoral district.

In the United States, elections for the House of Representatives are held every two years on Election Day, and as far as I know, there are no term limits for Representatives. In Canada, the only general election which occurs is for members of the Members of Parliament; other positions in government are chosen from its elected members. For The Senate: In the United States, members of the Senate are also elected directly by the people they represent. Two senators represent each state and are elected to four-year terms, which are offset by two years so that the people elect one senator every two years.

Therefore, each state has equal representation in the Senate.

As far as I know, there are no term limits on the Senate. In Canada, senators are not elected but are appointed directly by the Governor-General on the direction of the Prime Minister (meaning that senators are appointed by the Prime Minister).

There is a constitutional formula for determining how many senators represent each of the geographic regions of Canada, with the idea that each region is equally represented.

Senators in Canada are appointed for life, or until mandatory retirement at age 75. For the Cabinet: In the United States, the executive branch is headed by the president, who is elected by the Electoral College (along with the vice president).

Each state has a certain number of Electoral College votes determined by population, and how the state votes are determined by a plurality vote of the state’s population. The candidate with the most Electoral College votes is elected president. The president is elected to a four-year term and is limited to a maximum of two terms. The president then appoints members of his/her Cabinet. In Canada, the governor-general is appointed “at the Queen’s pleasure”, but in practice, the governors-general are chosen by the current prime minister and serves a five-year term.

In turn, the governor-general appoints most members of the executive (unless appointed by the Queen directly), although in practice the governor-general only acts on the advice of the current prime minister. The prime minister is normally the leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Commons following a general election, although it is possible for the governor-general to select any member, such as in the case of a fallen minority government or a coalition government. The Cabinet is then appointed by the Governor-General on the prime minister’s recommendation (again, effectively chosen by the prime minister).

Members of the Queen’s Privy Council are also formally part of the executive, but in practice and under the principles of responsible government, the Privy Council has a role limited mostly to formal proclamations. In both countries, the Cabinet serves to advise the head of state, who is the president in the United States, or the Queen through the governor-general in Canada.

The difference is that in Canada the governor-general is obliged by convention to accept the advice of Cabinet (and always does so, except in very rare circumstances) whereas in the United States the president may choose to depart from Cabinet’s advice if they do not agree with it. In conclusion, the makeup and function of both countries are remarkably similar.

The major difference is elections: Americans (more or less) directly elect their Representative, Senator, and President, while Canadians only elect their Member of Parliament and the more senior roles are chosen from the elected members. You can support us on Patreon using the link in the description.

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