A few weeks ago, Martini asked me to write up a post on Canadian politics. Life got pretty busy, so I was a little slow on responding…. But here goes!

The basics
Canada operates under a federal parliamentary democracy within a constitutional monarchy. Basically, “within a constitutional monarchy” means that we have ties to Britain, but these ties are functionally symbolic. The Queen is the Head of State, but any decisions that she makes are on recommendation from the Prime Minister.

The Canadian political system operates on three primary levels: federal, provincial, and municipal. Unlike the US, the federal government tends to hold more power than the provincial governments. I’m going to focus on federal politics because a) they’re usually more interesting and b) I’m not too familiar with the goings-on of provinces outside of Ontario.

Federal Government
The federal government is led by the Prime Minster (essentially the equivalent to the American President). The Prime Minister is not directly elected by the electorate, rather the electorate votes for a local Member of Parliament (MP). The party leader is elected by the parties themselves in a separate election.

The government is determined by who wins the most seats in a federal election. There are 308 possible seats. Each seat is held by the MP who wins in his or her riding. A government is either formed as a majority or minority. Currently, Prime Minister Harper runs a minority government. A minority government means that, while the party has more seats than another party does individually, that party did not obtain at least 50% of the possible ridings.

House of Commons and the Senate
The federal government is made up of two main bodies: the House of Commons and the Senate. The House of Commons is where MPs and members of the opposition debate issues and initiate bills. The Senate is supposed to serve as a second reviewer of any bills that initiate in the House of Commons, but it rarely turns down a bill (in my opinion the Senate is useless). Members of the Senate are appointed by the Queen (again, on the recommendation of the Prime Minister) and typically reflect the political affiliation of the Prime Minster. The qualifications required to be a Senator are superficial. Most politicians currently call for Senate reform or abolition.

Political affiliations
There are two main parties in federal politics: the Conservative and the Liberal. The Conservative Party was formed by a merger of the Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party a few years ago (because neither party could obtain enough seats on their own). Traditionally, the Conservative Party does well in the western provinces (especially Alberta), while the Liberals are prominent in Ontario and the Maritimes. Other prominent parties include the New Democratic Party (NDP) which is on the far left of the spectrum, the Bloc Québécois (a “federal” party that only exists in Quebec), and the Green Party.

The dirt and some fun facts that make me oh so proud of my government
1) The western provinces joined the union to ward off all you Americans from stealing our land
2) Quebec (the French-speaking province) likes to try and separate from Canada every few decades.
3) Our current Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition spend more time arguing about who should be running the country than actually running the country
4) Our previous Minister of Foreign Affairs decided it would be fun to leave confidential NATO documents at the house of his girlfriend – a member of the Hells Angels

Obviously this is a very basic overview, so feel free to ask questions!