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Summary: The Canadian Parliamentary System

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As a head of our government, the leader of our nation and the individual that Canadians look to for change and prosperity, the Prime Minister (next to the Governor General of Canada) holds the greatest amount of governing power. Democratic parliamentary systems like the one in Canada, compromise with their general population in order to give the people a voice within government. It is important to understand how the parliamentary system works in order to understand what administrative powers the Prime Minister executes and whether they are effective or not. The presence of a responsible government ensures Canadians that the governing body is an elected assembly instead of having a monarch in power. The Prime Minister, citizens of Canada, as …show more content…

Parliament’s legislative branch of Government, with the three-part component, it is composed of the House of Commons, the Senate and the Queen (McTeer, 1995), who is represented by the Governor General in Canada (currently David Johnson) (G.G., 2015). These components of government serve more as a ceremonial role with such responsibilities as: “the installation of the Governor General; the Opening of Parliament; the Speech from the Throne, and Royal Assent ceremonies” (Parl. Library, 2011). The Governor General is appointed by the Prime Minister, who advises the Queen about who shall be appointed with a lengthy term of five years, which may eventually be extended (Parl. Library, 2011). The other part of the puzzle consists of the Executive branch of government. This branch consists of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. The Prime Minister runs the Cabinet; he/she controls the ministerial appointments (Parl., 2012). Being responsible for government policy, it is crucial for the Cabinet to have confidence of the House of Commons (Parl., 2012). Not everyone can be a part of Cabinet, so the Ministers who are chosen by the Prime Minister are “Members of House of Commons… and at least one Senator… who serves as the Leader of the Government in the Upper house (Parl., 2012). Each Cabinet Minister is assigned specific roles they must fulfil within government (House of Commons, 2008), and the Cabinet lasts as long as the Prime Minister is in power. Another factor that grants the responsible government power is winning majority seats in the House of Commons. Simply defined by Joseph Howe, responsible government indicates the responsibility to the people in Canada; as it “is more commonly described as an executive or Cabinet that is dependent on

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The Senate in Canada should be abolished Introduction: Canada senate is a part of legislation institution in Canada, which represents the interests of upper class people. Different from America, it is not produced by election but directly-nominated by the premier and appointed by governor. Senate, governor, and the House of Commons are like three legs of a tripod which constitute the congress and legislation system in Canada. Senate undertakes the responsibility of proposing expostulation to governor and cabinet, which acts the role of supervision and restriction. Senate played critical role when Canada established federal government in 1867, the diversity of senators warrants the smooth convey of popular will to governors and legislators coming from different ethnic group and social status.

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Furthermore, Docherty (2002) suggests that the only province that appears to be fully committed to Senate reform is Alberta (the case 15 years ago anyway) while Most other provinces are quite happy to complain about the Senate but care little for reform [because] executive federalism has provided provincial premiers with a national stage that would be compromised with a powerful Senate. Inter-state federalism gives the Premier of Prince Edward Island, a province with fewer people than many Ontario cities, as much national authority as the Premier of Ontario. (Docherty 2002,

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564 Words | 3 Pages

The founding fathers of Canada when they put down the agreement of the Confederation did not envisage many cases such as the power of controlling the water sources. There are many differences over the ruling power between the federal government and the provinces, which makes the role of the queen critical in ruling between them (Salter & Hebert, 2014). The second role of the Queen in Canada is leading the crown institutions whose job does not depend on the parties at power, the RCMP, and the Central Bank of Canada are examples of these institutions that are supervised by the Queen and their leaders are nominated by

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For a long time the debates had been going about how was the better prime minister of Canada. On the the top of most lists of best prime ministers are Mackenzie King and Sir John A. Macdonald. For example, according to the Expert Survey that was made in 2013 “Laurier came first, Macdonald second, and King third, but the difference in their overall scores was negligible”. Both prime ministers had a strong vision of the country that helped shaped Canada to become the country it is today(in 2015). Thesis: Sir John A.Macdonald was one of the founding fathers, but William Lyon Mackenzie King had to lead the country through the part of Depression and WWII, and they both have made different positive contributions to Canada and are highly respected

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Canada has two legislative bodies in the parliamentary system, one is the Senate of Canada which is constituted by the appointed members. Secondly, is the House of Commons, which is made up of elected officials. The Senate is consisted of 105 members that are recommended by the Prime Minister and the appointed by the Governor General. The members of the Senate can be made up of business people, lawyers, doctors, hockey players, and many more, because of the variety of experience from the individuals of senators gives a better understanding of the people they represent and of the problems that Parliament must try to solve.

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After all, in giving the PM the power to prorogue we are able to hold him more accountable for his actions if the prorogue is unsuccessful, or has partisan intent. While it may be true that with great power, comes great responsibility, power is not always the best solution to the problem. In every example of Canadian partisan prorogation, prorogation is used as a last resort. Without the option to prorogue, the PM must address the situation instead of prolonging it for their personal gain.

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The House of Commons is an iconic image of Canadian representative democracy. It is a body of elected Members of Parliament (MPs) through a system known as a single-member plurality. These MPs get together Monday to Friday and debate about new policies and policy reforms. On one side is the governing party which includes the Prime Minister and their cabinet along the front row of seats. Directly across would be the opposition, which consists of the other major parties that had obtained seats in the house of commons.

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The Senate: “The upper chamber of Parliament where there are 105 members who are appointed until age 75 by the Crown on the advice if the prime minister.” (Rules of the Game pg 106)The original Senate that was created in 1867 had only originally 72 seats. It was created to counter balance representation population in the House of Commons, although in recent years the Senate has become to reinforce representation of groups that have often been underrepresented in parliament, examples; Aboriginals, visible minorities and women. There has been a huge debate’s on whether Canada should keep the Senate. The people all over Canada have mixed opinions on if we should keep the Senate or not.

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The first Cabinet was selected by George Washington and the purpose of it was to advise the President on problems and probable solutions to those problems. Also, the president is accountable for the decisions made. The Cabinet’s role has grown tremendously today and covers many more areas than the original three created by Washington. Today’s cabinet includes fifteen executive

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Prorogation is much like a complex acronym to Canadians. We understand that it conveys meaning in some way, yet the majority of us are not familiar with the term. Developed during the Tudor period, prorogation is a healthy alternative to dissolution; however, today prorogation is a process that once approved by the Governor General, the acting Prime Minister may cease the current parliamentary session, effectively clearing the parliamentary agenda and ending proceedings for a set period of time. In recent years there has been a growing controversy in relation to prorogation in Canada. This is largely due to the 2008-2009 parliamentary disputes between the Conservative minority government and the opposition governments; however, that is addressed

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Abi H. Civic Reflection Issue 1- Change in Point of View: In Canada, voter turnout has become a major issue; as there is a large amount of the population that does not vote in elections. Back in 2008, a total of 58% of the countries` population voted in the election. This is a startling low number, which since has begun to increase only slightly in recent years. In a democratic society, voting is essential for it to function with its full potential. Doing so enacts one of your basic responsibilities as a citizen, as well as shows that you are staying involved in your community and government.

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With ministers, the leader is the only ruler in the country and therefore, ministers will remain loyal to the ruler since he is the one who selects them. “Either by a prince, with a body of servants, who assist him to govern the kingdom as, ministers by his favor and permission … do not bear him any particular affection.” (Machiavelli 16) Ministers are picked by the leader of the territory, and that by picking ministers; it causes the citizens to hold their prince with more consideration. Machiavelli and the United States Constitution clearly disagree on this policy since Machiavelli argues there should be more control in how government is run. That's not the way the Founding Fathers wanted this country to run since it limits the people's power in

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The Westminster system of government comprises of a democratically elected lower house. After the executive members the head of government is the prime minister. The next system that falls in place is the opposition which is led by the leader of the party or the parties with the second largest number of seats in the lower house. It follows that in the British system the prime minister and the cabinets are fully in charge of Parliament.

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In a single party government, the choice of ministers is at the discretion of the prime minister alone. In a coalition, the power of the prime minister is significantly limited. Officially Cameron is the prime minister, who has the ability to form his own government. However, in a coalition, the deputy prime minister has a bigger role than his predecessors. He too has a role in appointing ministers.

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The branches of government are: (a) The Legislature: makes the law (The People’s Majlis –Article 5 and Article 70(a)) (b) The Executive: implements the law (The President and the independent commissions –Article 6- ) (c) The

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