What kind of government does Canada have?
I’m Canadian. Officially we are a constitutional monarchy. Queen Elizabeth is our head of state. Practically speaking, we are a parliamentary democracy. The Prime Minister (Stephen Harper) is the head of government. His party (the Conservatives)currently form a minority government because they have a plurality, but not a majority of the seats in the House of Commons.
The Government of Canada (French: Gouvernement du Canada) is the name of the federal government of Canada. The powers and structure of the federal government are set out in the Constitution Act, 1867. Elizabeth II as Queen of Canada is the head of state and repository of executive power, which she normally does not exercise herself. As expressed in the constitution, “the Executive Government and Authority of and over Canada is hereby declared to continue and be vested in the Queen”. The government acts in her name. The term The Crown is usually used to represent the power of the monarchy. Government ministers are ministers of the Crown. Criminal prosecutions are made by Crown prosecutors in the name of the monarch. Since the monarch does not reside in Canada, she appoints a governor general to represent her and exercise her powers. The person who fills this role is selected on the advice of the prime minister. “Advice” in this sense is a choice without options since it would cause a ma
Canada is a constitutional monarchy. That means that our official head of state is the Queen. Her representative here is the Governor General. We have parliament. Members of parliament represent a geographical area and are voted in to office. The party with the majority of the seats becomes the party in power. The party leader becomes the prime minister. So in Canada, we do not vote directly for the prime minister. Unless he/she is running in your local jurisdiction for a member of parliament seat (this is usually done in a riding that is strongly in favour of that political party to ensure their election). Currently Canada has a minority government, where the party with the most seats does not have more than 50% of the seats.
