Canada's Provincial and city governments

Canada is a federal State. This means that Canada is divided into ten administrative regions called provinces, along with three additional regions known as territories (for more about these places see the provinces and territories pages). Each province has its own self-government, and each provincial government follows the Parliamentary system. Every feature of the federal parliament that I've discussed in the other pages, including the Speech from the Throne, no confidence votes, majority and minority governments, appointed cabinets, and the "Loyal Opposition" are reproduced in the provincial parliaments, albeit on a smaller scale. The main difference between the two is that the provincial parliaments are all unicameral, meaning they have no Senate.

Every Province has its own Prime Minister, although they are usually referred to as "Premiers" to avoid confusion. The elected members of the provincial parliaments are called MPPs (Members of Provincial Parliament) or MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) depending on what the official name of the provincial house is. Because provincial governments operate under the same "the Prime Minister gets to decide election dates" system as the federal government, provincial and federal elections are not held at the same time.

When Canada's system of government was created back in 1867. America had just undergone the Civil War, and as a result the Canadian founders were afraid of giving too much power to the provincies, lest they eventually rebel in a similar fashion. As a result, the Canadian constitution is very clear on what powers the provincial governments have. They are:

These services are thus paid for with various provincial taxes.

All other powers not specifically mentioned belong to the federal government. This also includes all new things that have been invented since the 19th Century, like stem cells and the internet and what have you. Canada was designed to be a very centralized country, but ironically the actual system has evolved in precisely the opposite direction, with the provinces now holding a great deal of power at the expense of the feds.

A constant topic of political debate in Canada is the matter of federal-provincial relations. The conventional wisdom is that if the provinces and feds can learn to work together efficiently, they can create an equal standard of living for all Canadians, regardless of where they live.

As we have seen, federal MPs as individuals are increasingly powerless, and federal senators are largely irrelevant. Most Canadians thus look to their provincial premiers as their chief representative to the federal government. A couple of times each year, the Prime Minister of Canada will call a First Ministers Conference, and summon all the provincial premiers together to discuss various issues of provincial concern. These meetings have a reputation for being somewhat unruly and conflict-filled.

Basically, the way the Canadian federal system works is that the provincial governments pay all their taxes to the Feds, and then the Feds redistribute the cash back to the provinces according to need. So yes, rich provinces can pay more in than they get back, and vice versa for the poor ones. As you might expect, during these First Ministers conferences the premiers all squabble which each other over who should receive the largest chunk of the federal budget. Everyone claims to be the worst-off.

Because they control the distribution of funding, the federal government is also fond of creating national programs that override provincial sovereignty. The famous Canadian healthcare program is one such example: healthcare is technically a matter of provincial jurisdiction, but at present all the provincial governments have committed to a national healthcare program that takes care of all their funding concerns for them.

Territorial Governments

The three Territories operate under a Slightly different form of Government. The Territories are all located in the most northern part of Canada, and with all due respect, they don't really have much except for a lot of ice and Polar Bears. Their extremely low population would make a full parliamentary government a waste, so they are instead governed under a more simplified system.

The Prime Minister of Canada appoints three special bureaucrats called Commissioners to administer the Territories in the name of the federal government, and serve as the Queen's representative on ceremonial occasions. The Commissioner thus has the combined powers of a Lieutenant Governor and Provincial Premier and, in theory at least, holds a lot of political authority. In recent years however this power has started to decline. In the late 70's, a limited form of democratic self government was introduced to the territories, and they were allowed to elect small councils to assist the Commissioner. The council was usually not larger than 20 people, and from amongst themselves they would elect a Government Leader who would serve as the Territory's chief political representative.

Today, the Yukon's council has evolved into a formal parliament, and their system of government is largely the same as the other provinces'. The Nunavut Territory and the North West Territory remain small, however, so they continue to follow the old system.

The elected leaders of the three territories are all active players in the Canadian federalist process, and today they even attend the First Minister Conferences.

Like most places in the world, Canada also has Municipal Governments that run our cities. The structure of Canadian municipal governments can greatly vary between cities, but they all follow the same general principles. In most cities, Canadians elect a City Council, a Mayor, and a few trustees for their School and Park Boards. The City Council operates out of a city hall, and deals with pressing municipal issues such as sewage treatment and street signs.

Being a Mayor in Canada is quite a prestigious job. For starters, you get to wear a special chain that signifies your authority. Each link in the Mayor's chain represents a past Mayor, so in some really old cities the chain is extremely long and heavy and thus is rarely worn. Until recently, Mayors also wore special colorful robes, similar to the robes worn by university graduates. Odd as it sounds, mayors in Canada are also technically supposed to be referred to as "Your Worship." Mayors are the only politicians in Canada who are require to obey set election dates and term limits.