2. Parliament of Canada
Canada’s Parliament consists of three parts:
The Queen
The Senate
The House of Commons
They work together to make the laws for our country.
The executive branch consists of the Queen, the
Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the departments of
government. They implement the laws.
The legislative branch makes the laws.
And the judicial branch — which is not part of
Parliament — applies the laws.
4. The Queen
Canada is a constitutional monarchy. This
means that the laws governing Canada
recognize the Queen as the formal Head
of State. All federal laws are made in the
Queen’s name. She also performs many
important ceremonial duties when visiting
Canada.
5. The Governor General
The Governor General is the Queen’s representative in Canada.
The Queen appoints the Governor General on the advice of the
Prime Minister. The Governor General usually serves for five years.
One of the most important roles of the Governor General is to
ensure that Canada always has a Prime Minister. For example, if no
party had a clear majority after an election, or if the Prime Minister
were to die in office, the Governor General would have to choose a
successor.
The Governor General acts on the advice of the Prime Minister and
Cabinet. The duties of the Governor General include the following:
summoning, opening and ending sessions of Parliament; reading
the Speech from the Throne; giving Royal Assent to bills; signing
state documents; and dissolving Parliament for an election.
6. The Senate
The Senate studies, amends and either rejects or approves bills
passed by the House of Commons. It can also introduce its own
bills, except those to spend public money or impose taxes, which
must be introduced in the House of Commons. No bill can become
law until it has been passed by the Senate. Senators also study
major social, legal and economic issues through their committee
work.
One of the duties of the Senate is to represent the interests of
Canada’s regions, provinces, territories and minority groups. Seats
in the Senate are distributed to give each major region of the country
equal representation.
The Senate has 105 members. Senators are appointed by the
Governor General on the recommendation of the Prime Minister and
hold office until age 75.
8. The House of Commons
The House of Commons is the major law-making body in
Parliament. In the Commons Chamber, Members devote most of
their time to debating and voting on bills. The Chamber is also a
place where Members represent constituents’ views, discuss
national issues and call on the government to explain its actions.
How do you become a Member of Parliament (MP)? By running in a
federal election, which is held about every four years. In each of the
country’s 308 constituencies, or ridings, the candidate who gets the
most votes is elected to the House of Commons, even if he or she
gets less than half of the total votes.
Seats in the House of Commons are distributed roughly in
proportion to the population of each province and territory. In
general, the more people in a province or territory, the more
Members it has in the House of Commons. Every province or
territory must have at least as many Members in the Commons as it
has in the Senate.
11. 1. Speaker
Who’s Who in the House of
2. Pages
Parliament?
3. Government Members
4. Opposition Members*
5. Prime Minister
6. Leader of the Official Opposition
7. Leader of the Second Largest Party in Opposition
8. Clerk and Table Officers
9. Mace
10. Hansard Reporters
11. Sergeant-at-Arms
12. The Bar
13. Interpreters
14. Press Gallery
15. Public Gallery
16. Official Gallery
17. Leader of the Opposition’s Gallery
18. Members’ Gallery
19. Members’ Gallery
20. Members’ Gallery
21. Speaker’s Gallery
22. Senate Gallery
23. T.V. Cameras
* Depending on the number of MPs elected from each political party, government
Members may be seated on the opposite side of the Chamber with opposition Members
(or vice versa).
12. The Speaker
After each general election, the Members of the House
of Commons elect a Speaker from among MPs by secret
ballot. The Speaker presides over the House of
Commons and ensures that everyone respects its rules
and traditions. The Speaker must be impartial and apply
the rules to all Members equally.
The Speaker represents the Commons in dealings with
the Senate and the Crown. The Speaker is also
responsible for the administration of the House and its
staff and has many diplomatic and social duties.
13. The Prime Minister
The Prime Minister is the leader of the party in
power and is the Head of Government.
A Prime Minister’s duties include presiding over
Cabinet meetings, meeting official foreign
delegations to Ottawa and answering questions
in the House of Commons.
Since the Prime Minister is usually a Member of
Parliament (two Prime Ministers who held office
in the 1890s were Senators), he or she also
spends time helping constituents.
14. The Cabinet
The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet Ministers, and
the Governor General formally appoints them. Most are
MPs, and there is always at least one representative
from the Senate. The Prime Minister and Cabinet meet
regularly to discuss and decide on important issues
affecting Canada. These issues concern government
spending, ideas for bills, and new policies, programs and
services. Most Cabinet Ministers are in charge of a
government department and they report on their
department’s activities to Parliament.
15. The Cabinet Cont’d
A key feature of Cabinet is the concept of collective
responsibility, which means that all Ministers share
responsibility for the administration of government and
for the government’s policies. They must all support a
Cabinet decision. They may not agree with it, but they
have to support it in public. If a Minister cannot support a
decision, he or she must resign from Cabinet.
Another important feature of our parliamentary system is
responsible government. This means that the
government must have the support of the majority of
Members in the House of Commons to stay in power. In
the British tradition, if the government loses a vote on a
major measure, or on any motion of non-confidence, it is
expected to resign or to ask the Governor General to call
a general election.
16. The Official Opposition
The role of the Official Opposition is to challenge
government policies, hold the government accountable
for its actions and give voters an alternative in the next
election. Generally, the Leader of the Opposition is the
leader of the party with the second largest membership
in the Commons. This person leads opposition debates
and suggests changes to government legislation or
alternative proposals. Each opposition party in the
Commons has its own leader and appoints critics from
among its members. Each critic handles a certain
subject, such as health or defence. They present their
party’s policies on the subject and comment on
government policies.
17. Provincial Governments
Provincial governments are very similar to the
federal government, with some small changes:
The leader of the government is called the Premier
(except in Quebec)
The legislature is unicameral (has only one house)
and goes by different names in different provinces.
(There is no equivalent to the Senate.)
The Queen is represented by the Lieutenant-
Governor
18. The Judicial Branch
Canada has a unified judicial system.
The top court is the Supreme Court of Canada.
Rulings of the Supreme Court may not be appealed, they
are final.
The Supreme court may provide references to the
government on the constitutionality of a proposed law.
19. The Judicial Branch Cont’d
The provinces run most of the courts in the country.
Each province has several layers of courts which a case
can move through.
In Ontario, the courts lowest to highest are:
Provincial Courts (small criminal cases, traffic, small
claims etc.)
Ontario Superior Court
Ontario Court of Appeals
All judges are appointed by the P.M. until retirement (age
75)