Has feminism changed the Canadian Politics?

Running head: POLITICAL SCIENCE
Political Science
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1POLITICAL SCIENCE
Other Perspectives
a) Has feminism changed the Canadian Politics?
- The history of feminism in Canada has always been a gradual struggle that is aimed
towards the development and establishment of equal rights. As per Sangster (2018)
feminism is all about believing that men and women are equal. The very first wave of
feminism took place in the later 19th century in Canada. It was focused on empowering
women and increasing their role in the public life with the goals like increased property
rights, women’s suffrage, increased access of women to get education and giving women
recognition as “persons” under the Canadian law. Feminism indeed had changed the
Canadian Politics. Earlier, politics in Canada was a male-dominated discipline. The
thought of feminist potentially made a great impact on the Canadian politics and at the
same time, have redefined the Canadian politics and questioned the prevailing basic
assumptions upon which the power was based earlier (Sangster, 2015). Feminism has led
the Canadian people to question the roles of gender by means of drawing the attention to
the universal gender-based power relations that are otherwise overlooked. The
participation of females in the Canadian politics within the legislatures has increased as
many have condemned the male domination of the professional politics. The feminist
groups in Canada have very recently emphasised on including females in the formal
politics and have actively supported the female candidates. This has resulted in increase
in the number of Canadian women in the legislature. The success of feminist in Canada
relative to the United Kingdom is associated with its proportional representation instead
of the “first past the post”. This is because there were some barrier that were posed for the
minorities.
Political Culture

2POLITICAL SCIENCE
a) Discuss how Canadian political culture is different from American culture.
- There are significant difference in the political culture of Canadian and America. The
main reason behind this difference lies in their respective history. According to Dagnino
(2018), the political culture of America operates on the basis of both Pragmatic and
Utopian levels and the same goes for the American parties as well. On the other hand, the
Canadian political parties, notwithstanding their ideological variety are basically
pragmatic, instead of Utopian. Furthermore, Canada is a constitutional monarchy that is
governed by a prime minister as well as a parliament (Russell, 2016) America on the
contrary, has a republic monarchy that is governed by Congress and President. It is to
note that the American Congress and the Canadian Parliament have same functions and
structures but they do operate in different manner. The American Congress is made of
two different bodies the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Canadian
Parliament is also divided in two bodies, namely, the House of Commons and Senate.
However, unlike the American Congress, the members of the House of Commons of
Canadian Parliament are elected publicly. In America, president is the head of the
government but in Canada, prime minister is the head. However, the most significant
difference in between the American and the Canadian political culture is that of the
division of power among the governing bodies. America divides the government into a
total of three equally powerful branches. On the other hand, Canada political system was
founded on the consolidation of power. Prime minister has the authority of overriding the
majority opinion and they decide the government policy personally.
Political Parties
a) Discuss the pros and cons of brokerage parties. Refer to a specific party in your
discussion.