Canada Responsible Government Essay

Responsible Government in Canada

Politics is a part of everyday life. While this may seem like a mundane and obvious statement, the implications of it are much greater than one may think, especially in a country like Canada. Canada is a democratic nation state, run by a federal government. This government, which between it’s branches and divisional levels, is responsible for and, most importantly, to its citizens. The term for this type of responsibility is responsible government. However, it is poorly practiced, increasingly so as the years go on, and has not been adequately addressed since the Upper and Lower Canadian Rebellions of 1837-1838. This is why the statement ‘Politics is a part of everyday life’ is so important but seldom recognized;

Moreover, this ignorance makes it harder for Canadians to hold their politicians accountable in their duties and role. Keeping Canadian citizens ignorant of their crucial role in our government through a lack of education makes it easier for politians to act in their own self-interest without consequence. Political and civic education needs to not only be designated more compulsory instructional time in schools but also needs to be more thorough and intensive. Students need to learn about more than just their basic rights and the bare minimum of how our government is structured; they need to explicitly learn about responsible government and how citizens are the foundation upon which the state is built and they need to be given Canadian examples of when and how the government has or can breach their role as a responsible

This divide of constitutional powers was decided upon, in part, to maintain autonomy between the already divided regions of Canada and in turn to attempt to reinforce responsible government (H. Teixeira, personal communication, March 7, 2023). This division of power did not only occur between the central (federal) and regional (provincial) governments but within the central government as well. The federal government is divided into 3 branches of power each governed by different parties: the juridical by the Supreme Court of Canada, the legislative by the Senate and House of Commons, and the executive by the Governor General, Prime Minister, and the Cabinet (Parliament of Canada, n.d.c). Voting is determined by the single-member plurality, or less formally the first-past-the-post, system at both the federal and provincial level. In this system, each district or riding will vote for an individual to represent them as their MP in the House of Commons, then the leader of the political party that holds the most seats typically becomes the PM. However, the party does not need to hold the most seats overall, known as a majority government, they can also win by holding more seats than any of the other parties, even if they are outnumbered overall, known as a minority government (Elections Canada,