Canadian Electoral System

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Parliamentary democracy comes to mind when many think about Canada’s political system. Parliamentary democracy is a political system in which the federal government’s power is distributed throughout the body of its citizens. This system will allow the public to vote a party to power in which the leader of that party will become the prime minister. However, Canada’s democracy is often questioned as it is diminishing from the hands of the common people and growing in the hands of the elites; elites being the wealthy and powerful individuals and/or corporations. The democratic principle in Ottawa is no longer faithfully practiced by the federal government and therefore is in decline. This is due to the fact that the electoral system is faulty, there is a rising prime-ministerial government, and the increase in influential corporations that now take democracy into their own hands have become more evident. Although this issue may seem invisible to the common eye today, the truth behind the emerging dictatorship society is startling. The mindset of people today has led people to stop seeking parliament for help allowing Ottawa to act as it pleases. A new paradigm is needed or the people will continue to believe that getting involved with the government is a waste of time resulting in the abuse of parliamentary conventions and procedures at a federal level.
The electoral system is flawed and a reform towards the way members of parliament are elected into power is needed in order to save the democratic decline. It is crucial to realize that the Canadian voting system revolves around first-past-the-post (election won by part with most votes) and not proportional representation (number of seats won are proportional to the number of votes...

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...ay. The conventions are simply being misused in order to satisfy the opinions of the powerful. Moreover, the wealthy elites and established corporations have been able to manipulate the meaning of democracy with money by influencing decisions at a federal level. This issue of declining democracy is extremely important as it’s an issue that affects all the people of the state but at the same time remains hidden due to the lack of civic literacy and interest in politics. It is important to realize that democracy only exists when the people are willing and able to show interest towards the government. These issues exist today and therefore should be articulated to the major population. If people do not get involved, the prime minster will continue his or her actions as there would be no public ridicule and the elites will continue to shadow our opinion with their own.

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