● How Canadians govern themselves

○ Canada is a democracy, a constitutional monarchy and a federal state, with 10 largely self governing
provinces and three territories
○ Nova Scotia was the first part of Canada to secure a representative government (in 1758)
■ Pluralism
● Idea that power is not concentrated in one place or one person, it is distributed
deliberately
● That distributed power is typically thought of as checks and balances
● A federal state
○ It is one that brings together a number of different political communities with a common government for
common purposes, and separate “states” or “provincial” governments for the particular purposes of each
community
■ Overarching federal system → takes care of many common issues regarding road structures,
financial systems, universality of education and healthcare (standards should be the same no
matter where you go)
■ This system balances all that out
■ Federalism combines unity with diversity
■ The British North America Act of 1987 was the instrument that brought the Canadian federation
into existence
○ Canada was formed by colonies, which became provinces
● The Constitution
○ Has the ability to be amended (some attempts in the past but is very difficult and has not gone well)
○ The Constitution Act, 1982, did not give Canada a new constitution
○ What we have now is the old constitution with a very few small deletions and four very important
additiosn:
■ The astablishment of 4 legal formulas for amending the constitution
■ The first three amending formulas place certain parts of the written constitution beyond the power
of parliament or any provincial legslature to touch
■ The setting out of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
■ The giving to provinces, wide powers over their own natural resources
● Charts of Rights and Freedoms → sets up what can and cannot be done, and who cannot and can do things
○ Rights and freedoms:
■ Democratic Rights
■ Fundamental freedoms
■ Mobility Rights
● Eg in the Soviet Union, they don’t have these. If you’re located within a city, you have to
have a permit to drive out
○ Nor same legal rights eg the ownership of property
○ Didn’t have the democratic rights, ie the ability to do the same level of voting we
can do
○ Different perspectives regarding the way government and citizens interacted
● In Canada, you can travel to any province or city you want (complete ability to change
locations)
■ Legal rights
■ Equality rights
■ Official language rights
■ Minority language education rights
● Canadian federalism
○ Canada is governed by a system of parliamentary democracy with powers divided among the various
levels of government that constitute our federalist state
■ Parliamentary Democracy
● Each citizen gets the right to vote at the provincial, federal and municipal level
○ Party with the most votes forms the government
■ Our system has a flaw → originally only 2 political parties (the party
with the most votes would form the government)
■ But now we have 5 national political parties
○ System is somewhat flawed:
■ These parties such to accumulate 20% of the votes, another 30%, most in
the 20-30% range
■ That means the one with 30% could form the majority (government)
■ The party that’s now in power was not voted for by 70% of the
population
○ Federalism
■ Is a system of political organization in which the activities of the state are divided between at
least two levels of government in such a way that each level has certain areas in which it is
empowered to make final decisions
○ The Canadian federation
■ The federal government
■ 10 provincial and three territorial governments
■ A number of regional and local municipalities
○ Federal Government has exclusive national powers:
■ Patents (applicable all across Canada), weights, money, direct and indirect taxation, regulation
trade and commerce, “the public debt and property” (grants, family allowance, hospital
insurance/medicare, higher education), the post office, census and statistics, defence, navigation
and shipping, fisheries, money and banking, interest, bankruptcy, weight and measures, patents,
copyrights, criminal law and procedure in criminal cases, general law of marriage and divorce
● Before Confederation (colonies became provinces), banks, stores, and provinces issued
their own money (sometimes people used foreign money, like gold coins from Spain)
○ Provincial legislation powers
■ More localized solutions
■ Eg education, hospitals, municipalities, direct taxation for provincial purposes, natural resources,
prisons (except for federal pentitenceries), charitable institutions, hopsitlas, municiapl
institutions, licenses for provincial and municipal revenue purposes, incopration of provincial
companies, solemnization of marriage, propery and civil rights in the province, creation of courts
and adminsitration fo justice, fines and penalties fo rbreaking the law, matters of merely local or
private mature in the province, education
● Localized solution would make sense
○ Some areas of crossover
■ Both parliament and provincial legislatures have power over agriculture and immigration, and
over certain aspects of natural resources; if their laws conflict, the national law prevails
■ Although parliament cannot transfer any of its powers to a provincial legislature, nor a provincial
legilsature any of its powers to Parliament, Parliament can delegate the adminstration of a fedreal
act to provincial agencies, and a provincial legislature can delegate the adminstration of a
porovincial act to a federal agency
○ Eg at the federal level, the federal government is concerned with universality of
education
 ○ Will take in tax money, distribute that money to provinces so that they can
develop a standard
○ # of days people can stay in hospital for eg (another standard)
● Canadian political landscape
○ Canada is a constitutional monarchy, a federation and a parliamentary democracy
○ Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of Canada and constitutional head of state (though more of a formality)
■ She delegates her mainly ceremonial duties to her representatives in Canada, who are the
Governor General and the provincial lieutenant-governors
■ Formally the PM and cabinet advise the queen, but cabinet holds the power and determines the
policy for proposed legislation
○ Governor general does only a couple of things; eg if parliament dissolves, or an issue such that the party
in power loses a vote of confidence (eg budget is brought out and all other parties vote against it) the
Governor General would step in and find a solution
○ Legislation is voted on in two places; House of Commons and Senate
○ Federal level → civil servants, who can enact things
■ Distribution of power: Eg Parks Canada put up a website for camp reservations; situation in
which a person paid money and intended to use a site
■ Another person wanted that site, wrote to Parks Canada for it, but Parks Canada told them it was
reserved
● Contracted Prime Minister, who contracted Parks Canada, but the person who paid for it
still got it (the PM had no power over the Parks Canada)
● The Canadian Federal Government
○ Canada governs through the Westminster Model of Government
○ Three branches of gov:
○ Legislative: House of Commons (voted) and Senate
■ HOC
● 308 seats
● Elections every 5 years
● Speech from the Throne (intended workplan for the government)
● Question period (opposition’s chance to challenge government actions)
● Legilsation and debates (drafts are tabled and debated before becoming law)
● All proceedings of the House of Commons are recorded in a parlimentary publication
called Harvard
● Do we need to know the Breakdown of the 308 Seats
■ The Senate
● 105 seats
● Senators are apopinted by the PM of the day and must retire at 75
● The Senate is a revising and investigatory body for legislation
● Bills tabled in the HOC pass through the Senate and ts committees for discussion,
amendment, and recommendation, then back to the HOC for “royal assent”
● Most senators are affiliated with a political party and must retire at age 75 (note they are
appointed, not elected)
● Breakdown?
○ Executive: PM, Cabinet and the Public Service
■ PM selects Cabinet ministers from amongst elected members of his/her party - ministers then
formally appointed by the Governor General
■ PM and Cabinet ministers make all majority policy decisions
■ PM establishes committees of cabinet to handle streams of policy issues
 ■ PM also recommends various appointments to the Governor General; ministers, lieutenant-
governors, speakers of the senate, chief justices, senators, deputy ministers
■ PM also recommends a Governor General for the Queen’s appointment!
■ The public service is the third and largest component of the Executive Branch of government
■ Public servants work to translate the declarations and definitions of public policy into action,
devising options for actions from which Ministers decide on a course of action
● Departments and Agencies
○ The PM decides on the number and substance of federal government departments
(but changes do require the consent of parliament)
○ Departments are responsible for designing policies, delivering programs to the
public and managing the regulatory aspects of government
● Central Agencies
○ Privy Council office (including the intergovernmental affairs office)
○ Treasury Board and its secretariat
○ Department of Finance
○ Judicial:
■ Independent of Cabinet, Parliament or any other state institution
■ Prime Minister cannot influence what the courts decide
● Judiciary is the third branch
● Canadian system is inherited from the common law tradition of England
● The basis of the constitutional, criminal and civil law of the entire country except Quebec
which has its own civil code
● The judgements of the Supreme Court of Canada are binding on all other courts
● Judges of the Supreme Court (nine, three of whom must come from the Quebec bar) are
appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the federal Cabinet and hold office
until they reach age 75
● Constitution says all of our courts shall be provincial, but also that judges of all these
courts (county courts up) shall be appointed by the federal government
● Judges of the provincial superior courts can only be removed on address to the Governor
General by both Houses of Parliament (the same applies to judges of the Supreme Court
of Canada and the Federal Court)
● Judges of the country courts can only be removed if one or more judges of the Supreme
Court of Canada, or the Federal Court, or any provincial superior court, report after
inquiry that demonstrates guilt of misbehaviour, or inability/incapacity to perform their
duties
● Stages of becoming a law (legislative process)
○ House of Commons (intro, first reading, second reading, third reading) → Senate → Royal Assent →
Law
■ Second reading is the most important principle and object of the bill are debated and either
accepted, rejected, or amended)
● 6 months → reasoned amendment → referral to a committee
○ Meant to remove all flaws of a law
○ PM or smn else introduces law
○ Goes through various stages and committees to make sure a) it’s a valid law b)
it’s the right thing to do and c) when it’s implemented, it won’t be a mess
■ This process of different readings is meant to gather input in, and refine
it so that the next reading of the law is better
■ Then the Senate performs another review of it
● Policy proposals
 ○ Typically the politicians will divide into committees in a specific area; this is where people can come
rally
■ Eg a law passed in a pharmaceutical area
■ Typically politicians don’t have the expertise to understand nuances of pharmaceutical products
and research + development involved
● Industry people can come educate them on that
● Why doing something one way is better than doing it another way
○ All different parties debate policies
■ Eg marijuana legalization is being debated right now (how to sell it, health issues, how to prevent
organized crime around it, implications in workplaces, impact for people who rent apartments,
private area, driving and smoking)
■ Various experts trying to find the implications
● Private laws
○ Matters of interest or benefit to a person or persons, including corporations
○ When a member of parliament can introduce something
■ Very focused, eg salmon run in BC with logging taking place around that
○ Member might want a law around that particular issue
● Public bills (2 types)
○ Government bills, which are introduced and sponsored by a minister
○ Private members’ public bills sponsored by a private member
○ Only a minister can introduce a bill for the appropriation of public monies or for taxation, and only in the
House of Commons
■ Key diff is that public bills are the ones the gov introduces, and they’re the only ones that can
deal with the spending or the obtainment of money
■ Only the government itself can introduce a bill involving taxation, or the budget itself
● Parliamentary committees (composed of members from all parties)
○ Standing committees focus on a substantive sphere of government policy (eg public accounts
committee)
○ Special committees examine specific issues (eg pensions, child care)
○ Legislative committees examine specific government bills after they have passed second reading
○ Committee of the whole all members from either the Commons or the Senate
● Some of these laws have loopholes in them
○ Eg used to be a law that if a company researched and developed a product, they’d get it a tax refund
○ If someone else pays you to do it, though, you can’t get the refund
○ But loophole: you could get the refund if the company paying you was a foreign company
■ Very profitable
■ Gov picked up on it, and corrected it
● When Canada first started, politicans were often older ppl because the thought was they would have had a career
in the past and then became poliicans (not that way anymore)
○ Idea now still is that senators should be highly accomplished outside of politics, and be able to bring all
that wisdom into the political area
● Public servants are the ones who implement the laws
○ Set up the beauracrcy for where lobbyign can take place
○ The way something is implemented (that isn’t set up properly, and is maybe having an adverse effect)
■ Eg: many years ago, there was a restriction of foreign investment in Canadian start up companies
● Idea was we wanted Canadian startups to remain Canadian
● But entrepreneurs and investors lobbied against that because when it was implemented, it
created a handicap to startups bc they don’t have the capital to grow and compete on a
world stage
 ○ They became limited
● Business lobbied the government and argued that it was to their detriment (not having
access to global knowledge, global investors)
● Sometimes what seems like a good idea turns out that the implementation was flawed,
and business has the opportunity to lobby to change that
● Sources of Legislation
○ Pubilc
○ The Government
○ The Public service
○ Palriament
○ Judciary
● Public Poicy
○ Whatever govrnments choose to/not tdo
○
● Once a law is passed, courts can challenge it
● They decide if it aligns with Constitution or not - if not, it’s invalid
○ Eg Transmountain pipeline
■ Court challenge around whether the trans mountain pipeline had incorporated all the citizens’
concerns; the court decided that it was not
■ The Courts stopped the development on that and told the Government that they must address all
of these concerns before proceeding
● Idea of the commons
○ Back in the day, people had livestock and a pasture that was common to everyone
○ National Parks, environment, water
■ Things everyone can draw upon, and therefore it’s considered PUBLIC GOODS
○ Business tends to be about supply and demand
■ Matching a product or service to the need or want of a person
● All about efficiency, profits
○ Market Process and State Process don’t approach problems the same way
■ Government is not so much concerned about the effectiveness or efficiency ; they're more
concerned about the process
■ Business is mainly concerned about end results