How is the Canadian government structured and elected? This is a good question that brings along a couple of opinions as well. Every four years the federal election happens and the citizens vote for who they want as prime minister. But I think itβs important to bring up the elephant in the room which is that it hasnβt yet been four years but actually only two. Now, this is a talking point in itself that Justin Trudeau called an election in the middle of a pandemic, and if you watch the debate youβd know that this was a topic that the other leaders wouldnβt stop mentioning. But to be fair to them, I agree and think calling an election is one of the least priorities for us as a country. To go back to the main question, in Canada we live in a parliamentary democracy which in short allows us citizens to elect representatives and the party with the most number of representatives forms government. However, we also have whatβs called a constitutional monarchy where the queen is head of state but is guided by our constitution. Along with this comes some principles that include free and fair elections, accountability and transparency, the rule of law, citizen participation, political tolerance and human rights and equality, without these things itβs not a democracy.
Click the diagram to watch a video on how the government is structured
Before the election, I didnβt really know who I wanted or thought was going to come out on top, but what I did think is that if Trudeau remains prime minister, we wonβt move forward. After hearing the results of the election my first thought is nothing changed and the Liberals still havenβt got what they wanted, a majority government. But this means that Trudeau is still prime minister and in my opinion, this isnβt necessarily a good thing. But why do I think this? As Iβve already mentioned an election has to happen every four years so I think it was quite a selfish thing to do by calling an election now and in the current state, we are in. A lot of the effort that has gone into the election couldβve gone elsewhere such as the climate crisis and other problems. Not only do I think this was selfish it was also a huge waste of money and time. In this election, over 600 million Canadian dollars were spent just to end up in pretty much the exact same spot. Once again this money couldβve gone to climate change, the pandemic and homelessness, but instead, he was selfish and wanted to have basically more power. But at the end of the day, I canβt change this and will have to deal with it for the next few years.Β
Itβs always been between either Liberals or Conservatives, we try one, donβt like it, then try the other, itβs an endless cycle. What I think is needed is some change and if the real election was based on our school-wide one, change is what we would have. Instead of the expected Liberals or Conservatives winning it was actually the NDP who had the most votes. Now, this is quite unlikely to happen in the real world because people just donβt think a party other than the Liberals or Conservatives stands a chance at winning. Even though itβs unlikely for the NDP to actually win the election I think that is what is needed, a change.Β
So to summarize my opinion on our government’s structure, I think itβs important to let the citizens have a say but I also feel like it isnβt perfect or even close to perfect due to the fact that our votes kind of seem wasted if itβs not for either Liberals or Conservatives.Β
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