Subject:
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Re: An interesting North American Election (was Re: Cdn Election Day)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Fri, 1 Dec 2000 01:34:41 GMT
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Viewed:
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413 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, David Low writes:
> Hey, how does the Candian electoral system work?
I'm sure you don't want the books of details that you probably
realize could result from such a question, so I'll TRY to give
you a brief over-view. (don't know how well I'll succeed)
Our primary federal government body is Parliament. Like your
Congress, each member is elected based on votes from each citizen.
ie. representation by population - the most populist province (Ontario)
has about 1/3 of the population and about 1/3 of the seats. The
Liberals won almost all of those seats, plus a bunch in Quebec and
the Maritimes, giving them over half the seats and a majority govt.
Where our system breaks down is that while you have two (elected) senators
from each state and a president to balance things, the number of senators
here isn't equal for each province and they are appointed by the prime
minister. Our "third level" like your president is theoretically the
Queen - represented by the Governor General, but this is just a "figure-head"
position, with no legitimate authority, as the GG is appointed by the prime
minister. While your supreme court judges are essentially elected, ours
are appointed by the prime minister. Starting to see the problem?
Imagine if you didn't vote on who would be president, but left it to the
party members. Ie. Whoever had the majority in congress - that party would
choose the president, and then he would choose everybody else, including who
would hold what cabinet positions and who could run for election, (within
his party) even when the election would be held. If this sounds like
an "elected dictatorship", that's because it is, and that's what we've got.
That's why the Alliance policies of referendum and recall (if an elected
member doesn't vote according to the wishes of his constituents they can
force a by-election) and a "Triple E" senate (where senators are Elected
Equally from each province) are so important. The third E is Effective - the
power to block bad bills and even propose legislation. Our senate has that
power now, but seldom uses it, as it's not legitimate elected power - just
like the GG. I hope that's brief enough. Any questions? ;-)
SRC
StRuCtures
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