Westminster system

Unit Four- Question Three- Tate Sensenbach Congress periodically attributes some of its characteristics to British Parliament. For example, both systems use different houses to voice disparate opinions. However, the two systems of government more often contrast with each other. Parliament, unlike Congress, represents houses through a specific order in society. Members of the House of Lords inherited their seats through ancestors attaining peerage, which is a title of nobility. This specific…

Parliament of Canada, and despite the elevated media profile for would-be parliamentarian reformers and refuseniks after the Lefebvre and McGrath parliamentary reforms, the current Canadian House of Commons committee system remains comparatively understudied to similar Westminster-style democracies. Decades worth of government responses to committee recommendations are largely untouched, even by the Library of Parliament; empirical frameworks developed to judge committee influence and…

There is a belief that the President of the United States holds the most powerful office in the world. Indeed, the Constitution of the United States grants executive power to the President. In Canada, the Prime Minister is not a part of the Constitution, rather the Governor General acts as the executive. By convention, however, the Governor General acts only on the advice of the Prime Minister who has the confidence of the House of Commons. The Prime Minister is able to achieve such support from…

members of any party from bringing a bill on the subject (p. 231). White (2012) provides two measures to quantify the power of first ministers: their length of tenure and probability of being removed from office (p. 240). In comparison to other Westminster countries, Canadian prime ministers have the longest tenure, and not a single time has a prime minister has been removed from office (p. 240). Although these practices may seem arbitrary – they are democratic in essence. Democratic power…

twentieth-century democracy. The following paragraph will then examine the Senator appointment process, arguing in the defence of an elected senate. Following that, the effectiveness of the Senate will be criticized proving a lack of accountability within the system. To finalize argumentation, an equal Senate will be pushed for so that regions of Canada don’t face alienation from federal government…

Minister and Cabinet. The era of Pierre Elliott Trudeau as Prime Minister has been referred to as the period when the checks and balances began to grow weaker due to the changes and transformations that were made, but other critics believe that the system of a fusion of powers still acts as a check on Prime Ministerial power. After a thorough analysis of the power of the Prime Minister in contemporary…

In 1604 in London five men planned a plot together to kill King James. This plot is celebrated each year in the United Kingdom with Bon Fire Night, fire works and “Penny for the Guy.” The story begins with the main conspirator Robert Catesby. Catesby brought together 8 men who felt the way way Catesby felt against the Protestant King. One of these men that joined Catesby in his plot was Guy Fawkes also known as Guido Fawkes. Guy Fawkes was born on April 13 1510 in Stonegate, York. After the…

The government is a political party with the majority of MPs, this is currently the House of Commons. This is probably the biggest influence on parliament as a whole due to them being hard to control by any other house, this is due to them having the majority of power and the only way they can be made weak is if members of the Commons start turning against one-another. Most of the main bills that occur come from the government, so if the campaign did pass and get enough attention then it would…

Prime Minister of Canada is a great gig. If you’re going to be the leader of a country, it doesn’t get much better than Canada. We have so much going for us. One of our greatest assets actually has nothing to do with us at all but rather the stellar quality of our neighbours. And every Prime Minister since Mackenzie King could count on that. But that’s the thing about great neighbours, isn’t it? You think they’re gonna be there forever and then one day there’s a sold sign out front and you’re…

Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy, that is as well technically a constitutional democracy under the dominion of the British Commonwealth; however, the British Commonwealth is purely ceremonial and does not possess any real control over the direction of Canada nor any actions dealing with Canadian foreign policy. The head of state of Canada is Queen Elizabeth II of the British Commonwealth, but as I stated earlier she holds no real power in Canada and is ceremonial. The true power in…