What Are The Pros And Cons Of The Canadian Parliamentary System

The parliamentary system that has been established within Canada, despite the pros and cons of the system, is still one of the best political structures for government. It is clearly superior to the United States Congressional system on the three following levels: Fusion of powers (allowing more coherence), the solidity of the responsible government set forth by Canadian administration as well as the doctrine of party discipline. Together, they enable the Prime Minister to have greater power since he is chosen from the legislative but also must have the House of Commons’ vote of confidence which enables greater consistency (and faster decision-making) between branches of government as the legislative and executive are fused together. A strict

A key notion to understand when one is talking about the Canadian Parliamentary system is the concept of the Fusion of Powers which represents the combination of the executive body of government with the legislative one. It allows for greater coherence in leadership since a prime minster (representing the executive portion of government) can directly be accountable to the legislature and therefore can easily propose since he must have a vote of confidence from the House of Commons. This is for this very reason that a strong party discipline is key in such a system in order to prevent any political discordance. The Prime Minister needs to be in rule with his party’s doctrines in fear of losing a vote of confidence which would oust him out of office and therefore degrading a party’s image. With coherence, the ruling party in parliament can, with the prime minister, enact the laws it so chooses as long as the prime minister is of course in par with the principles of his party. Therefore, the government is a responsible one as it is directly accountable to the representatives of the citizens in the country and ultimately to its party. Having that party discipline enables a government to pass laws without delays or without the political

This aspect of government allows for the executive and legislative powers to be united and therefore it prevents the occasional deadlock that the congressional counter-part often has when trying to pass new bills. In the American system, omnibus legislations (regrouping of many different issues in one single bill) must be used in order to be able to get members of congress to agree and pass new laws. What omnibus bills basically amount to are reduced debates about the contents of the different facets in the bill. Those bills are enormous in nature as it is regrouping a wide range of different topics and making it impossible to thoroughly analyze all parts of this bill and especially when the budget of a nation is at stake. This process could be deemed as un-democratic because it creates confusion over specific parts of certain legislations and the purpose of a bill should be that it can be understood and easily read by the people. As mentioned before, the fusion of powers allows the prime minister of Canada to wield greater power for the simple reason that since he is a part of Parliament, he is able to pass laws much quicker as he is directly accountable to the parliament and he has their trust. This process of party discipline is crucial since it creates a unity among the members of the parliament and therefore allows for an increased efficiency in policy-making compared to the United