highschool/Grade 9/Civics/CHV205/Unit_2_Governments.md

Unit: 2 Government And Elections

Terms

• Not sure if needed, just good background knowledge:

Term	Definition
Election	a formal decision making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office
Responsible government	A government that is responsible to the epople, executive that requires support of an elected assembly
Riding (consitiuency)	The body of works on a specified area who elect a representative to a legistative body
Political party	An organization of people with similar views on public issues who work to elect their canidates
Party Platform	The proposals put forward by a political part during an election campaign
Bill	A written proposal for a law
Act	A written law passed by parliament

Levels Of Government

Level Of Government	Description	Responsibilities
Municipal	- is a type of local council authority that provides local services, facilities, safety and infrastructure for communities	- Libraries - Snow Removal - Transit - Building Permits - Property Taxes - Water - Waste Management
Provincial	- is responsible for areas listed in the Constitution Act, 1867, such as education, health care, some natural resources, and road regulations. - Sometimes they share responsibility with the federal government	- Schools - Education - Health Care Delivery - Social Assistance - Natural Resources - Licences
Federal	- This level of government deals with areas of law listed in the Constitution Act, 1867 and that generally affect the whole country.	- National Security - Defence - Military - International Relations - Citizenship & Immigration - Money - Banking - Postal Service

Branches Of Government

• Prime Minster: The leader of the nation, head of the federal government, and the leader of the party with the greatest number of seats in parliament
• Premier: Head and leader of provinical government and provinical party in power

Executive Branch

• Carries out the plans & policies of the government
• Branch of governement that has the power to carry out the palns & policies of the government

Outline Of The Branch At The Federal Level

• Queen (represented by the Governor General) \(`\rightarrow`\) Prime Minister \(`\rightarrow`\) Cabinet \(`\rightarrow`\) Public Service

Outline Of The Branch At The Provincial Level

• Queen (represented by the Lieutenant General) \(`\rightarrow`\) Premier \(`\rightarrow`\) Cabinet \(`\rightarrow`\) Public Service

Legislative Branch

• Branch of governement that has the power to make, change and repeal (remove) laws.

Outline Of The Branch At The Federal Level

• Governor General \(`\rightarrow`\) Senate (upper house) \(`\rightarrow`\) House of Commons (lower house)

Outline Of The Branch At The Provincial Level

• Lieutenant Governor \(`\rightarrow`\) Legislative Assembly

Judicial Branch

• Branch of governement with power to interpret the law, decide who has broken the law, and what penalties should apply.

House Of Commons

Roles In Government

Role	Description
Governor General	Federal representative of the Queen
Lieutenant Governor	Provincial representative of the Queen
Prime Minister	The leader of the nation, head of federal government, and leader of party with the greatest number of seats in parliament
Premier	Head and leader of provincial government and party in power
Caucus	A group of representatives from the same political party in parliament
Cabinet	The group of ministers that decides what the government policy should be. They usually have responsiblity for particular departments of government, such as foreign affairs, defence and justice
Ministers	Member of the cabinet
Public service	The people hired to work for the government
Members Of Parliament	Person chosen in elections to represent the citizens, and to debate and vote on public issues in parliament
Speaker Of The house	Elected member of parliament, applies rules of parliament fairly & firmly to all members, including the Prime Minister

Right V.s Left Wing

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
- more liberal		- more conservative
- support change in order to improve welfare of all citizens	- tradition is important but change is supported if most people want it	- tradition is important and change should be treated with caution
- government should play a larger role in people’s lives (social services, benefits	- government should play a role only in that it improves the lives of citizens	- government should play a small role - private business should ensure needs of citizens are met
- law and order are important to protect right of all citizens fairly and equally	- law and order are important to encourage and protect right of invididuals	- emphasis of law and order to protect soceity and its traditions
- more freedom to individuals and less power to police		- less freedom to individuals and more power to police

Majority And Minority

• Vote/motion of non-confidence (can only occur in a minority government when less than half 50% of the MPs support the govt. on a bill. Govt. loses the confidence of the house and the governor general will dissolve parliament and call an election.
• This why minority governments do not always make it for a full term.

How a Bill becomes law

1. Different MPP’s and experts on what should be on the bill. After they finish, it gets introduced to first reading
2. A MPP stands up in the legislature and talks about the overall bill and appeal to the different members. No debates or anything, so questions will have to wait until later. Then they vote if it gets to go onto second reading
3. In the second reading, MPPs gets to debate and discuss the entails of the bill, and whether or not it should pass or fail, however, nothing can be changed Then they vote if it makes into the Parliament Committee.
4. In the Parliament Committee, they now vote, and can make changes, amends, take away, approve, put in, parts of the bill. They ask different MPP, experts, and even the public has a say in this. Then the reworked bill gets passed onto third reading.
5. In the third reading, the MPP’s vote on to see if the bill passes or not. If it does, it gets sent to lieutenant governor.
6. The lieutenant governor signs the bill on the behalf of the queen. This is called royal assent. Now the bill becomes an act (official law).

Different Electoral Systems

• First Past The Post / FPTP: the candiate who has more votes than any other single candidate win the the election.
  • Benefit: Produces more majority than minority governments
  • Problem: Produces results that our increasingly at odds with voters desires.
• Preferential Voting: a system of voting whereby the voter indicates his order of preference for each of the candidates listed on the ballot for a specified office so that if no candidate receives a majority of first preferences the first and second preferences and if necessary third and other preferences may be counted together until one candidate obtains a majority.
  • Alternate short definition: Preferential voting is a system whereby a candidate must poll an absolute majority of the total formal votes (ie in excess of 50%) in order to be elected to the vacancy.
• Proportional Representation: an electoral system in which parties gain seats in proportion to the number of votes cast for them.

Differences

• One is where you must have the majority, which is harder to get with many candidates, and one is where you get the majority of the seat votes, and if you reach a certain point, you are elected.

Which Is More Democratic?

• I personally believe the preferential voting, as you should be having the majority in order to win, however, with alot of people, that can be very hard to achieve.