Canadian Political System: Parties, Elections, and Governance

This report provides an overview of the Canadian political system, examining its historical roots in the British model and its federal parliamentary democracy. It explores key aspects such as political participation, the electoral process, political parties, campaign financing, and the role of direct democracy. The report analyzes current political issues, including the SNC-Lavalin affair and its impact on the Trudeau government, alongside the role of campaign finance regulations. It also considers the rise of figures like Jagmeet Singh. The analysis incorporates a variety of sources, including political cartoons, news articles, magazine articles, press releases, and blog reports, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the Canadian political landscape and its influence on the lives of Canadians. The report concludes with an overall assessment of the Canadian political system and its strengths.

Running head: POLITICAL ISSUES
POLITICAL ISSUES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The Canadian state developed on the British model of government and therefore has
similarity with the British system of administration and politics. The politics in Canada follows
the parliamentary system of the British with resemblance to the constitutional monarchy, where
the monarchy rules over the land and the government governs it. The Canadian political system
also follows the Federal system from the United States and has independent provincial
governments which share power between the state and the provinces. The Canadian system
follows the Federal parliamentary democracy with multi party systems which reflects the
democratic nature of the state. The Canadian politics experiences nail biting debates between
ideologies of leftist and rightist political parties, between the federal and the provincial
governments. This article will look into the political system of Canada, the political participation,
the electorates, the political parties, their election campaigns, the financing of campaigns, the
direct democracy and the referendum and the process of elections in Canada. The paper will also
look into the several aspect of the functioning of the political parties, their performance and the
way they influence the governance of the political system in the country. The paper will
conclude with an overall analysis of the political system in Canada by evaluating the aspect of
the political participation and the political functioning of Canada (Ourcommons.ca., 2019).

Running head: POLITICAL ISSUES
A Political Cartoon
The above cartoon was drawn by Tim Dolighan and was presented in the Toronto Sun.
The cartoon mocks the Lavalin Affair depicting claims of fraud and corruption by the Justin
Trudeau government and the involvement of unfair practices in order to influence the judgment
of the attorney general in favor of the SNC-Lavalin in October 2017. The Globe and Mail first
reported the incident on February in 2019 and from anonymous sources and reported that the
Prime Minister’s Office had pressurized the then Attorney General Jody Wilson Raybould to
influence and abandon the proceedings of the court against SNC-Lavalin. The report reveals that
the SNC-Lavalin was charged with criminal offences owing to corruption and that they had
approached the Prime Minister’s Office to make an agreement regarding the proceedings of the
court and was aiming to secure a deferred prosecution agreement which otherwise would lead to
a guilty criminal verdict and bar them from federal contracts for at least a period of ten years,
eventually leading the company to a bankruptcy. The cartoon above depicts the status of Trudeau
with respect to the Lavalin affair and rightly upholds the conflict of the Trudeau government and

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the immense political pressure faced by the Prime Minister and his office with respect to the
Lavalin scandal. The Trudeau government has faced immense political pressure and protests
since the report has been made public by the media and several episodes of public hearing took
place under the supervision of the Justice Committee and the Canadian Senate. The proceedings
and hearing followed several resignations from the cabinet ministry and the Prime Minister’s
office leaving Trudeau in an uncomfortable position.
Dolighan, T. (2019). March 23, 2019. Retrieved from
https://torontosun.com/opinion/cartoons/march-23-2019
A news Article
New Democrats try to bolster donations with fundraising matching strategy ahead of
Sept. 30 deadline
There are regulations laid down regarding campaign financing and guidelines have been
laid down that are to be followed while campaigning. Being a large democracy the election
campaign budget of the political parties are immense. However with the election campaign
finance rules arrangement has been made to contain the campaigning budgets to limit the misuse
of funds and assets. The Canada Elections Act decides the amount of money that can be used by
calculating the number of potential voters and a total sum of money is set at an approximate
value of per dollar per potential voter can be invested by any single party in an election
campaign (The Canada Guide, 2019). The donations from the public are also limited to 1500
dollars per person per year. Any corporate donations or donations from institutions are illegal in
Canada and are not allowed for any form of election campaign. However the corporations and

Running head: POLITICAL ISSUES
unions can spend an amount of 150, 000 dollars for advertising politically themed promotions in
support of the campaigns.
The article was published in the National post which reveals the policy adopted by the
New Democrats to publicize the donation campaign. The article states about the efforts made by
the New Democrats in the boosting their donation numbers in the campaign and therefore has
floated a mail that promises the donators that every dollar they donate would be matched and
their website have marketed the campaign by captioning the donation programme as “Double
your impact” through which they are trying to push the donators to make a contribution before
the donation deadline expires. The NDP had managed to pull in 4.96 million dollars from their
contributors and trying their best to match their contributors who have surpassed the New
Democrats to a great extent. The strategy seems to focus on the regular contributors but also
wants to look into the valuable contribution that can be made by casual contributors.
National Post. (2019). New Democrats try to bolster donations with fundraising matching
strategy ahead of Sept. 30 deadline. Retrieved from https://nationalpost.com/news/new-
democrats-try-to-bolster-donations-with-fundraising-matching-strategy
A magazine article
Liberal budget draws battle line for fall election campaign
There are regulations laid down regarding campaign financing and guidelines have been
laid down that are to be followed while campaigning. Being a large democracy the election
campaign budget of the political parties are immense. However with the election campaign
finance rules arrangement has been made to contain the campaigning budgets to limit the misuse
of funds and assets. The Canada Elections Act, decides the amount of money that can be used by

Running head: POLITICAL ISSUES
calculating the number of potential voters and a total sum of money is set at an approximate
value of per dollar per potential voter can be invested by any single party in an election
campaign. The donations from the public are also limited to 1500 dollars per person per year.
Any corporate donations or donations from institutions are illegal in Canada and are not allowed
for any form of election campaign. However the corporations and unions can spend an amount of
150, 000 dollars for advertising politically themed promotions in support of the campaigns.
The magazine article reveals the election campaign policies set out by the Trudeau
government and tells about the liberal promise over the Conservative opposition regarding the
financing of the election campaign where the Liberals promise to spend billions contradicted by
the Conservatives who pledge of fiscal prudence. The magazine article by CBC news discuss
about the election budget presented by Finance Minister Bill Morneau which states
that the federal government will be spending around 22.8 billion dollars in
the next six years in new sectors of expenses which has been strongly
opposed by the conservatives as an attempt to cover up the Lavalin scandal
which has jeopardized the hopes for the Liberals.
CBC. (2019). Liberal budget draws battle line for fall election campaign | CBC News. Retrieved
from https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/morneau-budget-snc-lavalin-1.5063854
Press Release
Justin Trudeau delivers remarks to supporters in Toronto
The press release was published by the Liberal party on behalf of their leader Justin Trudeau at
Toronto on 5th of April. 2019. The press release was aimed to reach out to the supporters of

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Toronto at a fundraising campaign. The press release details the upcoming events that have been
planned by the Liberal party ahead of its election campaign. The press release outlines the
schedule that would be followed by the party over the period of next 30 days and includes events
that are hosted over Lunch and Evening meetings. The press release has been briefed as a
fundraising programme and has stated that they believe in positive politics and the fund raising
programmes with the cabinet ministers would increase the transparency of the political parties.
The events are open to all Canadian citizens who have purchased a ticket or have donated to the
party fund.
The press release states that the Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau would be delivering
remarks to supporters on 5th of April at an open Liberal fund raising event in Toronto and request
the media to be present to cover the remarks of Justin Trudeau. The event will commence from
6.30 pm at Speducci Mercatto, 44 Milford Ave.
A press release is presented to notify the public and the press about an upcoming event
that would require a public coverage and is presented mainly as an informative piece of
information.
Liberal.ca. (2019). Justin Trudeau delivers remarks to supporters in Toronto. Retrieved from
https://www.liberal.ca/media-releases/
https://www.liberal.ca/media-releases/
A Blog report
Canada’s next Prime Minister could be the son of Indian immigrants

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The blog talks about the Indo-Canadian Leader Jagmeet Singh, who have been the first Sikh
person to lead one of Canada’s major political parties with the aim of delivering a different
political dimension altogether. He would be running the election against the current Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau of the government in 2019. The blog reports that the next Prime Minister
of Canada can be of an Indian origin. The blog reports that Singh can bring about the difference
in the politics of Canada owing to his rising Popularity and the differences that have been made
through his work in human rights.
The blog was published by the Canadim, a Canadian Immigration Law firm that has been
working with immigration laws and immigration in Canada. The blog outlines the probability of
Jagmeet Singh being the next Canadian Prime Minister. The Blog also reports that the Indo-
Canadian have been the first in history to attend the Parliament of Canada by winning the
provincial election from Ontario and is one of the rising politicians with a notable popularity in
the region.
Canadim. (2019). Canada's next Prime Minister could be the son of Indian immigrants. Retrieved
from https://www.canadim.com/blog/canada-next-prime-minister-son-of-indian-immigrants/
https://www.canadim.com/blog/canada-next-prime-minister-son-of-indian-immigrants/
Conclusions
The political systems of Canada have been one of the strongest and have led the country
to a robust democracy by allowing freedom of expression and formulation of political parties.
The strength of any democracy comes from within the nation’s ability to perform according to
will of the people with respect to governance. Canada is one of the oldest democracies with a
history of functional democracy within the country for over 100 years. The Canadians have a

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free will with political rights vested upon all citizens of the country and politics play a vital role
in shaping the lives of the people of Canada. Thus we can understand a country like Canada has
developed only because of its robust democratic system with political rights in the country.