Canada + Politics

Hello everyone it’s me, 

 

Oh no need for a standing ovation, I know you missed my posts. 

It’s a brand new year! A lot has changed, I have a new locker, different classes and we also have a brand new Canadian Federal government.

Yesterday (September 20th) was the day of the Federal election! Millions of Canadians cast their votes either via mail or at the designated building in their riding. Before I go into detail about the result of this election, let’s talk about Canada’s government and electoral system. How and why did this election occur? 

Canada is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy. (That was a lot of fancy words) Essentially this means the following things…. 

We are a Democratic Country. 

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Democracy means Rule by the People. The system we use allows each Canadian to have a voice, an opinion and the freedom to put it in action by voting. While democracy can have flaws, it allows all Canadians to be included. 

Democracy itself has certain principles, following these ideas allows democracy to work as best as possible in our country.

 Human Rights and Equality

All people have guaranteed rights. Including the Freedom of opinion, expression, religion, and to protest. Individuals should be valued equally and all of these rights are protected in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

Free and fair Elections

Adults have the right to vote. Anyone of age can run for political office, and at least every five years there is an election.

Accountability and Transparency 

Elected Politicians are accountable for their actions. Decisions are made for those they represent not themselves. The press keeps Canadians informed via question periods or other forms of interviews or media. 

The Rule of Law 

 Laws are enforced regularly and apply to all Canadians, including political leaders. This ensures safety and justice. 

Political Tolerance

All minorities are protected. The voices of these groups valued.

Citizen participation 

Citizens also have duties to withhold, All citizens must vote, attend community meetings, pay taxes and complete jury duty. It is also up to us to stay informed and understand current events and issues.

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These ideals are important in all democratic countries. As soon as I learned about them my first thought was…

“Why have I never heard of this before” – Me

While a lot of these principles are pretty simple and expected in Canada, I think they should be common knowledge. Citizens should understand their specific rights and  duties. I feel like if Canadians understood and knew these principles from a younger age, There would be more intrigue in events such as the current election. I’m glad that this in fact is starting to occur. I feel like every year Elementary schools improve what they teach to young citizens about politics. My younger siblings seem so much more interested in politics than I ever did!

Everyone should feel like they have the ability to enact change from a young age.

We have multiple political parties. 

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In Canada politicians join groups they share views with. Within a group they have more power. In most ridings there is a candidate for each party. The party with the most candidates elected, wins the election.
What I personally love about our political parties is the amount of them. I find with so many representatives and variety, we feel less separated from our friends and family. With more parties we have more options. We are also able to relate to others more, our parties are multiple shades of the political spectrum. While this makes it much harder to make decisions. I like how Canadians can find the party closest to representing their views.

We have a Prime Minister..

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How does someone become Prime Minister? Like I mentioned before, politicians are apart of political parties. These parties have leaders. Once a party wins, their leader becomes Prime Minister and the overall leader of the Canadian government.

We have a Queen…

While Queen Elizabeth is the Queen of Canada she holds limited power. She is a constitutional monarch, which means she shares a majority of her power with a constitutionally organized government.

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There are multiple levels of government…

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Federal

The Federal Government is responsible for National matters. There are 338 representatives, one from each riding. The representatives are lead by the Prime Minister.

Provincial 

There is a group in every province, making 13 Premiers and individual branches of government. The provincial government is responsible for provincial matters.

Municipal 

There are multiple Municipalities in each Province. These are lead by local Mayors, whose job is to focus on community matters.

First Nations, Métis and Inuit 

These groups haves their own systems. These systems consist of Chiefs and councillors. They have little power outside their communities, but are able make their own personal decisions.

The Sovereign

Like I mentioned before the Queen has limited power. Something she does have is representatives. In certain branches of government the Queen has representation. Within the Federal government there is a Governor General, In the Provincial government there are Lieutenant General’s.

 

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Now that we are completely caught up on Canada’s government structure and voting system let’s talk about this years election… 

This election was different from the beginning.

This election was requested by Justin Trudeau, which promptly resulted in the dissolution of parliament. Because of this, the election seemed to happen really fast. Trudeau’s goal with this election was to win a Liberal majority. Here is what happened… 

The Liberals did not achieve majority, in fact very little changed. I find this is because of the nature and bad timing of this election. I think the odds were against a majority government from the start.

Because of all the issues and political problems stacked against us, I knew the results would not lean heavily towards one party. In Canada our provinces are very diverse, with each area focusing on specific problems. This is what caused our results to look a little like this….

 

As you can see the numbers are not too different from 2019….

Recently I visited Saskatchewan for a family event. A majority of that family had similar, yet different stances on issues. While they all recognized the main problems, they prioritized them differently. Many were concerned about their jobs and the economy of Canada. While I personally find housing costs, the Climate Crisis and COVID 19 to be my top worries. I think because there is so much going on it’s hard to make direct decisions as a country. Each province has it’s own conflicts and priorities, which is why I believe we wouldn’t vote in a majority government.

 

As mentioned in this article by CBC, many including myself believe minority governments are becoming the expected result. Like I mentioned earlier as I wrote about Political parties, there is so much variation and options. Over the years we see newer or historically unpopular parties gain more seats.  This is what I believe is making it hard for our elections to create majority governments.

Overall this was an Election for the history books. It was definitely eventful and captivating. This year I noticed so many more people taking interest in the election. My parents spent hours researching candidates. Even my ten year old sister FaceTimed her friends on election night. Even though not much about our government has changed, I think this election provided us a chance to educate ourselves. We as a nation woke up and discovered our wants and hopes for the future. 

See you soon- Kaia