How Canada's Parliament Works

Because Canada is a constitutional monarchy, our system of government operates under the Parliamentary System.

Canada's Parliament is divided into the following two chambers

The governing party in the House of Commons choses the Prime Minister of Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada currently rules Canada, and their leader is Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The Parliament of Canada's job is to pass bills to make laws. All laws originate in the House of Commons, are approved by the Senate, and are signed by the figurehead represenative of the Queen, the Governor General. You can find more information on the three specific branches on either the House, Senate, or Monarchy pages.

This page will mostly discuss the generalities of the Canadian parliamentary system.

Canada has no set terms or election dates for members of parliament. The Prime Minister is allowed to call elections whenever he pleases, usually once every three or four years. There is a time limit, however, and he cannot call an election any later than five years after the last one.

The fact that an incumbent PM can decide the date of his party's own election is often widely criticized. It more or less ensures that the PM will always call an election when his approval rating is highest, in an attempt to ride that wave of public support to reelection. However, waiting too long to call an election can have its consequences, too. The people expect elections fairly regularly, and if a PM overstays his welcome, he is likely to suffer the consequences at the ballot box.

When he decides the time is right, the PM goes to visit the Governor General and asks him or her to close the parliament so the country can elect a new one. The Prime Minister announces that a Federal Election will be held, and everyone campaigns for 38 days, then Canadians go to the polls and vote.

The last four elections have been in: January of 2006, June of 2004, November of 2000, and June of 1997.

In a Federal Election, people all over Canada go out and cast their ballots for the person they want to represent them as their Member of Parliament (MP). Each Member of Parliament represents a different riding, which is a geographic area. Ridings usually roughly match up with the borders of a city or town, and are similarly named. So if you live in the City of Beavertown you probably live in the Beavertown riding as well.

The number of ridings/MPs a province has is based on its population. So the most heavily-populated provinces have the most:

A ballot in a Canadian Federal election looks like this:

then you put an X in the circle beside the person whom you want to be your Member of Parliament. The votes are tallied, and the person who gets a plurality of the votes is sent to Ottawa. Since Canada has so many political parties, the plurality system sometimes seems a little flawed. It is not unusual, for example, for an MP to be elected with only 30% of the vote.

It is important to understand that under the Canadian parliamentary system,"you elect the party, not the person." People vote for MPs largely on the basis of which party platform they like best, and which party leader they want to become the prime minister.

Following an election, the Governor General asks the leader of the party with the most MPs in the House to form a government and become prime minister. In this case, the largest party in the House is the Conservative Party, so the prime minister is currently Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper .

There are no elections for the Senate, since that body is appointed by the Prime Minister. Elections for other political offices in Canada, such as mayors and provincial parliaments are all held on different time tables. It's not uncommon to go through three different elections in three years.

There are a bunch of different important people in Parliament, along with the Prime Minister. Here are the main ones:

Members of Parliament

The rank-and-file legislators in parliament are known as the MPs. There are currently 308 MPs representing all the regions of Canada. It's a sad reality, but the vast majority of MPs are unknown, even to their own constituents. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau once famously described them as "nobodies." As mentioned, MPs are essentially elected on the basis of what party they represent, and thus who will become the next Prime Minister, and rarely on their own individual merits.

MPs vote on legislation introduced in the House of Commons. As I explain on the other page, however, their powers have been gotten quite limited in recent years. Unless they're a member of the ruling party's cabinet (see below) MPs are dismissed as mere "back benchers" (because that's where they sit) and aren't regarded as serious players in the political process.

The most visible role the MPs play is during the House's Question Period. During QP they get a chance to ask the Prime Minister and the cabinet ministers questions. Because parliament is televised, this often becomes quite a theatrical show, as the MPs try to act all dramatic and serious as they ask their questions in front of the cameras. Though it makes for entertaining TV, it's debatable as to just how meaningful Question Period is. A lot of the questions are overly orchestrated and don't get much of a response from the government, except for denials and talking points. As well, the House is infamous for being very rowdy and noisy, with MPs often shouting insults at each other, even when someone else is speaking. It's hard to really have a productive debate on the issues in such an atmosphere.

Much more important are the party leaders I mentioned. Party leaders, as the name suggests, are the heads of Canada's political parties. They lead their MPs, and generally tell them how to vote and what to do. They also hold press conferences and denounce the current government. Except of course, for the Party Leader who is currently serving as Prime Minister.

The Leaders of the different political parties are usually sitting Members of Parliament. For example, Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper is also the MP for Calgary, Alberta.

Party leaders are elected in different ways depending on the party. Some parties allow all registered party members to vote, other only allow members to vote for delegates, who then in turn elect the leader. Such elections are held every few years at big noisy party conventions.

There are five parties represented in parliament, so there are four party leaders in all. Read about them on the parties page. During an election, it's the party leaders who campaign for the job of Prime Minister.

There are two speakers in Canada, the Speaker of the House, who is the guy who mediates the House of Commons, and the Speaker of the Senate, who mediates the Senate. The Prime Minister choses both people, but the house speaker must be ratified by a vote of approval by the MPs.

The Speakers sits on a big thrones at the end of their respective chambers and wear long black robes like a judge. When Parliament is debating, he tells the individual MPs and the PM and the Party Leaders and the cabinet ministers and everyone else when it is their time to speak. When Members of Parliament and Senators debate with each other, they never call each other by name, which is taboo for some reason. Instead, they pretend like they are talking to the speaker, and speak in a grand rhetorical manner:

INCORRECT: "Hey Joe Blow, when is your brain-dead party going to pass some welfare reform?"

CORRECT: "Mr. Speaker, the Canadian people want to know when the honorable member's brain-dead party is going to pass some welfare reform."

After he takes office, the Prime Minister is required to appoint his cabinet. Cabinet members must be chosen from the ranks of sitting MPs from the Prime Minister's party. Each member of the cabinet is called a minister. There is a Minister of Finance, a Minister of Health, a Minister of Foreign Affairs, a Minister of the Environment, etc. Officially, their job is to run the various executive branches of government, although due to the fact that they're usually not very qualified for their jobs they often become a bit of a figurehead who simply presides over the vast bureaucracy below them.

Cabinet minister continue to serve as members of parliament after being appointed, meaning they fulfill executive and legislative branch positions simultaneously. The vast majority of bills introduced to, and passed by the parliament are initiated by cabinet ministers as well. So, for example, it is the minister of finance who would introduce a tax cut bill while the minister of agriculture would be the one to introduce a bill permitting the clear-cutting of Canada's old growth forests.

Sometimes the cabinet is also required to collectively ratify certain executive decrees of the Prime Minister. Although unanimous consent is required, the Prime Minister alone gets to dictate when unanimity has been reached. Cabinet ministers are not allowed to disagree with government policy, and if they do they must resign. This is actually a formal rule.

There are about 26 members of the current cabinet, representing 26 different government departments. The exact number of cabinet departments and ministers changes a lot. The Prime Minister can make a new position whenever he wants. For example, right now there is a minister for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, but obviously that position will be a temporary one.

These days the biggest concern a PM has when forming his cabinet is trying to ensure that the body reflects the "face" of Canada, and thus includes enough minorities and representation from all provinces.

Here is a chart I made showing all the people in Canada's current cabinet.

The Loyal Opposition

The Liberal Party of Canada is the second-largest party in Parliament. Thus, the leader of the Liberal Party, Bill Graham, is known as the "Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition". He gets to live in a special house and gets a fancy oil portrait and everything. As Leader of the Loyal Opposition, it is Mr. Graham's job to form an Opposition Cabinet of Conservative Party MPs. For every minister Prime Minister Harper appoints, Mr. Graham must appoint an Opposition Minister. The purpose of Opposition Ministers, or "critics," is to criticize the actions of the government in a carefully targeted fashion. They're supposed to hold the ruling party accountable and raise questions about the specific actions of cabinet ministers.

The Opposition Cabinet has one other purpose, and that is to serve as the Government-in-Waiting. The implication is that when voters look at the Opposition Cabinet they can get an idea of what the government would look like if they voted that paticular party into power.