Top: Regional: North America: Canada: Government and Politics
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Founded: June 15, 1991
Leader: Gilles Duceppe
Party President: Gilles Duceppe
Ideology: Social democracy, Nationalism & Sovereigntism
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Founded: December 7, 2003
Leader: Stephen Harper
Party President: Don Plett
Ideology: Conservatism
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Founded: July 1, 1867
Leader: Paul Martin
Party President: Mike Eizenga
Ideology: Liberalism
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Founded: June 17, 1961
Leader: Jack Layton
Party President: Adam Giambrone
Ideology: social democratic/democratic socialist
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Founded: 1983
Leader: Jim Harris
Party President: Bruce Abel
Ideology: Green
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Canada is a constitutional monarchy as a Commonwealth Realm 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 advantage of the fact that there is not the separation between president and legislature is that it is uncommon for a government to have difficulty passing legislation. The gridlock that can occur in the United States when a President and the Congress cannot agree on a law does not ever happen in the same way; although minority governments and the Senate can make it hard to pass legislation, it is never to the same extent.
The political system under which Canada operates, known as the Westminster system, was enshrined by the British Parliament by the Constitution Act 1867 (formerly called the British North America Act), but the federal model and division of powers were devised by Canadian politicians. Particularly after World War I, citizens of the self-governing "dominions" 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 1931 the British Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster giving legal recognition to the autonomy of Canada and other dominions. Canadian politicians were unable to obtain consensus on a process for amending the constitution until 1982. Therefore, amendments to Canada's constitution required the approval of the British Parliament. Similarly, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain continued to make the final decision on legal issues until 1949, such as whether a woman could be appointed to the Senate.
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