Canadian political system: the how and why
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- What are the Canadian elections all about?
That was pretty much what an American friend asked me a couple of days ago when we were discussing the fact p2pnet is assigning virtually all of its content to the elections, focusing on a hoped-for NDP win.
I explained we’re one of the few countries which still uses the old parliamentary system.
But, “The whole political process in this age disenchants me and the reason is,” writes my wife, Liz, going on:
“I believe in democracy, but I think it’s a model of government which works better in smaller social units, such as Greek city states or Switzerland’s canton system.”
You can spot other countries running under parliamentary systems from the Wikipedia map below.
States currently utilizing it are in red and orange, the former being constitutional monarchies where authority is vested in a parliament, and the latter being parliamentary republics whose parliaments are effectively supreme over a separate head of state.
States in green have the roles of head of state and head of government in one office, similar to presidential systems, but this office is filled by parliament’s choice and not elected separately.
As the Wikipedia explains things »»»
Canadian federal politics has been a multi-party affair since the 1920s, which saw significant parliamentary presence from the Progressive party and the United Farmers movement. They were supplanted by the Social Credit party and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in the 1930s. The CCF evolved into the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1961. The Social Credit party and the CCF/NDP occupied the 3rd and 4th party slots between them from the 1930s, until the Social Credit party failed to win any seats in the 1980 election.
Since 1980, the NDP have remained a presence in the Canadian parliament, but the situation amongst other non-government parties has been more complex. The historic Conservative party never recovered from its spectacular defeat in the 1993 election (when it went from being the majority government with 169 seats, to just two seats and the loss of official party status).
Right-wing politics has since seen the rise and fall of the Reform party and the Canadian Alliance, followed by the rise to government of the new Conservative party. Further, 1993 saw the first seats won by the separatist Bloc Québécois, who have been a constant presence in the Canadian parliament since then.
Click here for a time-line running from 1867, the first election year when the Conservative Party, led by Sir John A. Macdonald, formed Canada’s first majority government, beating the Liberals and their de facto leader George Brown.
Cheers!
Jon Newton – p2pnet
Los Angeles Times – , October , 2008
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