Home > Politics of Canada
1 System of government
Canada is a constitutional monarchy as 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 British constitution. In that context the executive tends to apply strict party discipline on members of its party, with the net effect of seriously diminishing the influence of its own backbenchers and opposition parties alike. This effect is exacerbated in Canada by the practice of having party leaders elected by the party at large rather than by the parliamentary caucus. However Canada has evolved its own set of rules. Party discipline in Canada is stronger than in the United Kingdom, and more of the votes are considered confidence votes. However, backbenchers can exert their influence by being selected to parliamentary committees, like the Public Accounts Committee or the National Defence Committee, for example.
This situation, where much power is held in the hands of the Prime Minister, has been characterized by Paul Martin as a "democratic deficit". The situation may be contrasted with the written constitutional provisions of its American neighbour that provide for the separate elections of a president and a legislature.
The political system under which Canada operates was first set forth by the Constitution Act 1867 (formerly called the British North America Act 1867), a statute of the British Parliament and is modeled on the Westminster System. An effect of this was that any amendments to Canada's constitution required the approval of the British Parliament. Over time, and particularly after World War IWorld War I (also known as the First World War , the Great War the War of the Nations and the "War to End All Wars") was a world conflict occurring from 1914 to 1918. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers, or involved so many in the field of, citizens of the self-governing "dominions" (including Canada, AustraliaAustralia is the sixth-largest country in the world (geographically), the only one to occupy an entire continent, and the largest in the region of Australasia. Australia includes the island of Tasmania, which is an Australian State. Its neighbouring count, IrelandThe island of Ireland ire in Irish, Airlann in Ulster Scots) is the third-largest island in Europe. It lies on the west side of the Irish Sea, close to the island of Great Britain. It is composed of the Republic of Ireland in the south and Northern Irelan, Dominion of Newfoundland, South AfricaSouth Africa is a republic at the southern tip of Africa. It is bordered to the north by Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the north-east by Mozambique and Swaziland. Lesotho is contained entirely inside the borders of South Africa. South Africa is one o, and New ZealandFor alternative meanings, see New Zealand (disambiguation). New Zealand is a country formed of two major islands and a number of smaller islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. A common Mori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa popularly translated as Land) began to develop a strong sense of identity, and in the Balfour Declaration, 1926, the British government expressed its intent to grant full autonomy to these dominions. Thus in 19311931 is the common year starting on Thursday. see link for calendar) Events January January 4 Female aviator Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa January 6 Thomas Edison submits his last patent application. January 22 Sir Isaac Isaacs sworn in as the the British Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster giving legal recognition to the autonomy of Canada and the other "white" dominions. The British Parliament retained its power to amend the Canadian Constitution. This was an improvement, but still unacceptable for many Canadians even as this power was only treated as a formality. However, political partisanship and the inability to obtain consensus on an amending process led to the status quo remaining in effect until 1982.
