Canada. Q&A.

There was a post in another thread by an American that asked about Canadian politics and the political system. It would have been off topic to answer but it was asked in such a nice way I thought that maybe this thread might be of some value.

Ours is a parliamentary system similar to Britain. The head of state is the leader of the party that wins the election. Not elected separately. This could be a majority, minority parties don't have enough votes to stop unilateral legislation. Or it could be a minority where the party with the largest number of seats has to play ball with other party(s) to remain in power. A minority government could fall in a vote of "non-confidence". A failed vote on an important piece of legislation, like, say, the budget. Then we are off to the polls again.

We have no Amendments. Hell, we really don't have a Constitution. It was put forth in 1982 but was never ratified by Quebec. Thus leaving it in limbo. Does this mean we have a lessened sense of our country? No but it DOES lean heavily on our Supreme Court. Our Senate is appointed, not elected. It doesn't really propose much legislation, it's considered a "sober second opinion." We think it should be done away with. Retirement home for partisan politicians and media alike.

I and other Canadians would be more than willing to answer any questions that you may have. Keep it civil please.

reply to post by intrepid


Someone was actually interested in Canadian government!? Wow. I will help as well, where I can.

Why is the Queen of England on your currency? Why do the provinces have names such as "British" Columbia and Prince Edward Island?

We have our District of 'Columbia' as well. I think we are being ruled by the same monarchs, my friend.

As a Canadian I can say I am not proud of our Government. We are just another puppet to the Royals/American Govt. and anything Harper has done for us has just pushed us further into being just as corrupt as the States or UK.

Harper has done no good for the Canadian Citizens. He's destroying our beautiful land and breaking the people within it.

All head Royals, Bankers, CIA, Govt, TPTB need to be removed.. or we're all doomed. Well. Let me fix that. We are doomed.

Originally posted by Merlin Lawndart
Why is the Queen of England on your currency? Why do the provinces have names such as "British" Columbia and Prince Edward Island?

We have our District of 'Columbia' as well. I think we are being ruled by the same monarchs, my friend.

We are ruled by the Royals. It's sickening how in-love some Canadians are with the Queen, Prince and Kate. Full towns are shut down sometimes because they come through on Parades and show off their greedy selves. It's disgusting how we are controlled by these Royals and we kiss their feet.

Originally posted by Merlin Lawndart
Why is the Queen of England on your currency?

Tradition.

Why do the provinces have names such as "British" Columbia and Prince Edward Island?

Colonization. Same as the British Virgin Islands. US Virgin Islands.

We have our District of 'Columbia' as well. I think we are being ruled by the same monarchs, my friend.

We are not ruled by the Monarchy. It's a figurehead. If the Monarchy attempted to influence Canadian politics we would opt out of the Commonwealth in a heartbeat. And we are one of the staunchest countries in the world that supports the Commonwealth.

Figurehead until we actually tried to secede from the commonwealth! If this were actually attempted, I think we would quickly see who signs the checks to our big brother to the south.

Originally posted by intrepid
There was a post in another thread by an American that asked about Canadian politics and the political system. It would have been off topic to answer but it was asked in such a nice way I thought that maybe this thread might be of some value.

Ours is a parliamentary system similar to Britain. The head of state is the leader of the party that wins the election. Not elected separately. This could be a majority, minority parties don't have enough votes to stop unilateral legislation. Or it could be a minority where the party with the largest number of seats has to play ball with other party(s) to remain in power. A minority government could fall in a vote of "non-confidence". A failed vote on an important piece of legislation, like, say, the budget. Then we are off to the polls again.

We have no Amendments. Hell, we really don't have a Constitution. It was put forth in 1982 but was never ratified by Quebec. Thus leaving it in limbo. Does this mean we have a lessened sense of our country? No but it DOES lean heavily on our Supreme Court. Our Senate is appointed, not elected. It doesn't really propose much legislation, it's considered a "sober second opinion." We think it should be done away with. Retirement home for partisan politicians and media alike.

I and other Canadians would be more than willing to answer any questions that you may have. Keep it civil please.

There are several errors in your original post that I feel should be corrected if we truly wanted to give those that are interested factual information on the Canadian system. I am in no means attempting to jump into a debate with you on the worth or value of the system in Canada or what needs to be changed, just wanted to point out how things really are at this point in time.

Canada is a democratic constitutional monarchy. we have a parliamentary government but officially Canada is a constitutional monarchy. And, our head of state is not the leader of the party that wins an election, rather the leader of the party whom currently forms government becomes Prime Minister but not the head of state. Our official head of state (as much as this pains me to say) is currently Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. In her absence, the federal viceregal representative of the Monarch serves as head of state, in other words the Governor General, appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister (the Prime Ministers advice to date has always been agreed to). The Governor General carries out "Her Majesty's Pleasure", which is the constitutional duties of the Queen in her absence, and is the person in Canada who remains in direct contact with the Queen.
www.canada.gc.ca...
www.fraser.cc...

As far as majority vs. minority governments are concerned, a minority may fall but not necessarily result in another election. The parties that cause the current minority government to fall (known as lost confidence) can form a coalition to temporarily run the government as a coalition.
www.mapleleafweb.com...

Canada does have a constitution, in fact the Constitution is the supreme law in Canada, and contains the rules and principles of how Canada must be governed. The constitution can in fact be amended, and we have rules and procedures in place as to how the amendments are to be enacted.
www.justice.gc.ca...

Our senate, while all senators are appointed by the Prime Minister, the current PM does in fact appoint senators that are elected by the provinces. Most provinces however refuse to or are unwilling to supply the PM with a list of senators in waiting that have been elected by the people of the province so the PM must appoint an unelected senator. To date only one province has provided the PM with a list of elected senators in waiting, and the PM has in fact appointed senators from that list. The current Prime Minister is to date the only PM to have ever appointed an elected senator. While many Canadians do in fact want to abolish the senate, many do not. The problem with abolishing the senate is the fact that we really do lose our house of sober second thought. There would be nothing to stop a PM from bringing in measures that could be very detrimental to the country without one. Our problem is that appointed senators become puppets of the PM rather than the previously mentioned sober second thought. If we truly want a senate that works for the people then perhaps a triple E senate with elected senators would be the best option. (Again I don't want to debate, just thought I'd point out that there are people that believe and think differently)
www.thecanadaguide.com...

reply to post by intrepid

Hell, we really don't have a Constitution

BNA act

Originally posted by Merlin Lawndart
Why is the Queen of England on your currency? Why do the provinces have names such as "British" Columbia and Prince Edward Island?

We have our District of 'Columbia' as well. I think we are being ruled by the same monarchs, my friend.

The answer given to you earlier was quite incorrect. The Queen is not on Canadian money because of 'tradition', she is on Canadian money because Canada is part of the British Commonwealth. All commonwealth nations have the official Monarch on their currency.

Prince Edward Island was named after Prince Edward Augustus aka the Duke of Kent and Strathern. He was the father of Queen Victoria.

British Columbia was named by none other than Queen Victoria in 1858. The 'British' part is obvious, but the 'Columbia' was named after the Columbia river, which got it's name from captain Robert Gray who named it after his ship. BTW as far as I know, the district of Columbia in the USA was named after Christopher Columbus, so they may both have the same name, but neither have name origins that are related