Getting Politicked Up
When you are new to the politics game, you may want to research the policy platforms of each of the big political parties before jumping on board with them, or you may find that each party offers something for you, and therefore it is the individual candidate’s personality that matters most.
Even if you’re more of an armchair politician, it is every citizen’s right, but also responsibility, to learn the issues, find a candidate that suits you and to vote in every election. It is the easiest way to have a say in how society is governed.
When we vote, we choose the representatives who will make the laws and policies that govern how we live together. As citizens, we vote in municipal elections for Mayors and City/Town Councils, we vote in provincial elections, which determine the leaders for our provinces, and we vote federally, which creates Canada’s government in Ottawa.
Here are the basics of how the federal government works in Canada:
The Canadian Constitution provides the basis of our political system and is made up of written and unwritten conventions, judicial acts and decisions.
Our political system is a Constitutional Monarchy. It is composed of the Queen, represented in Canada by the Governor General, and Parliament.
Federal Parliament consists of the Upper Chamber, called the Senate, made up of 105 members appointed by the Governor General based on recommendations of the Prime Minister, and the Lower Chamber, called the House of Commons, made up of 308 members elected by citizens who vote in the elections. The House of Commons forms the government, so this is why in reality the Queen rules but does not govern.
Voting in Canada is by secret ballot. After an election, the party with the most elected representatives forms the government. Its leader becomes the Prime Minister and chooses people to head up the various government departments. These department heads are from the House of Commons and usually from the Prime Minister’s own party.
The leader of the party with the second-highest number of seats becomes the leader of the Opposition.
If a party receives votes to give them the most seats and this makes up more than half of the seats available (155 or more), they form a majority government. If a party has the most seats but not more than half of the available seats, they form a minority government and hope to work with key members of the opposition to complete the work of government in Parliament.
The seats in the House of Commons are based on electoral districts, or ridings. Each riding gets one seat, and so one Member of Parliament (MP). The election system is known as a ”single member plurality” or “first past the post”. Basically, this means that the candidate in each riding that receives the most votes wins the seat. Each political party can endorse only one candidate in each electoral district, but not every riding offers a candidate from every party.
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