Posted july 25 10:28 am
Canada form of Government is the Parliamentary System patterned to that of the British P{arliament, but with slight modification to reflect realities that are unique in Canada.
Canada is a Democratic Country, Fully Independent, and the power of the Government emanates from Her citizens.
The structure of Government:
Head of Canada---Queen Elizbeth II ...Represented by the Governor General Appointed to the post by the PM to the term of five years..Any citizen may qualify.
Head of Government---The Prime Minister...The Leader of the Political Party who was declared a winner in the last election and sworn in by the Governor General to Form a Government.
The Prime Minister will form a Cabinet to head various ministries of the government with the title of "cabinet minister" and will be assisted by deputy cabinet minister which is usually a civil servant, to adminster and run each ministry and implement the programs, policy, and enforce the law.
The Parliament---The Parliament is both the Executive and Legislative branch of the Government.. It compose of the House of Common and the House of Senate.
House of Common---This is the seat of all the elected members that represent the Total of 308 ridings comprising the 10 provinces of Canada and 3 territories.
The Senate ---Members are appointed by the PM of the Day to the term of up to retirement age as speified by the law. The senate function are mostly perfunctuary, so it ist not very relevant to the overall governance. (There is a plan that get floated once in a while to abolish it entirely as it becomes the favourite patronage retirement employment for those has-been politicians who could no longer win an election). and I agree.
Political Parties ---Canada's political parties so strong that no personality is above the party. A charismatic and smart leader may help propel the party to lead a government, but never in her history that a party was taken over by personality.
Any citizen or group of citizen can form a political party for the purpose of contesting an election. There are currently numerous parties like the Communist Party, Socialist, Green, but the most remarkable Protest Party (now disbanded) was the Rhinoceros Party of Canada. Now instead, a Protest vote can be done by just crossing your ballot accross without checking a particular candidate. And it is tallied like any other vote.
Currently there are Four (4) major Political Parties that represent all 308 seats.
Conservative Party-governing Minority
Liberal Party --official opposition..
Bloc Quibecois--only represent the province of Quebec and don't run candidate anywhere else.
New Democrats-- A socialist party always the last but has the same rate of hardcore supporters. (a little up and down according to the promise of its compaign)
A STRONG party system of electing a "government" is based on the premise that the voters as a whole is sending a political party to lead a government based on the party's principles, ideologies, programs of government, and promises laid down during the set time period of campaign. And a charismatic, powerful communicator of a leader may help the party sometimes despite of all the premises. But not for a long term gain.
An individual voter choice ---Individually a voter has a few options of electing the candidate to represent him or her in the House.
1. vote for the party--according to the voter own's ideologies and views, thoughts and principles. a party member not only vote for a party candidate, but usually campaign for the whole party (this blogger is a card-carrying member of Conservative Party)
2. vote for the best among the candidates.. according to your judgement (may not agree with your partner or neighbor).
3. vote for the party whom you believe the LEADER isthe best to be the Prime Minister.
4. vote for the one who first knocked on your door and told you your lawn is the greenest in the neighborhood or vot for his/her opponents if you believe and you can see the grass is greener on the other side.
Campaign and Source of FUNDS:
Political party funds for elections campaign and all other expense can legally come from only these three (3) sources.
1. Citizen--Every citizen is allowed to contribute to any party or candidate up to a maximum fo $5 thousand of which the ffirst $5hundred is tax deductible up to 70% up to the maximum of $650. This amount is going to be reduced under the new Accountability Law the currrent govt. is introducing.
2. Corporation and Labor Unions- -Maximum of $1 thousand. Big loophole on this one. Corporation and Union can over ride the limit by using the citizens (or persons) to do the contributions. Proposal under the above Accountabilty law will elliminate entirely corporate and union donation and a quideline to make sure that person under the employ or families of business owner may not abuse the citizens privilage by requiring politcal parties and candidates to submit all the names and amount of political contributions to Election Canada for Audit. And That Man we Call our Chief Electoral Officer is a very serious man. He has been around for a while and not a single issue had been said about him except that he is the Best there is. You can check this Brag yourself and come back to me..
3. Government (Taxpayer) For every cast vote to a Political Party Candidate or an independent candidate, the government will pay $1.75 (one dollar and seventy five cents). Note: Every candidate must put up a "nuisance" deposit that will be forfeited if said candidate cast less than the minimum as specified by the Eelction Officer according to the accepted formula. This measure is to discourage a lineup of candidates, since there is no minimum qualification for elected office. none whatsover..exept that you are a qualified voter, not serving a prison sentence (tha's obvious) and is not im bankruptcy proceedings (not being discharge) and not an officer of Election Canada (same as comelec).
Enough for now.. kind of hard to blog all from memory..this is all written without the aid of research or search engine but just by simple re-call from all the observations and experiences any one can accumulate as we go along the daily business of living.. thanks and I'll try to refresh sometime when this heat and humidity somehow cool down..
