“The founders of Confederation gave the Senate the important role of protecting regional, provincial and minority interest” (Parliament of Canada, 2015). Basically, every region had the same number of seats in order to ensure them an equal voice in the Senate. As new territories and provinces entered Confederation, seats were added. Today, there are 105 seats that represent the Senate. The Maritimes Division has 24 seats, the Ontario Division has 24 seats, the Quebec Division has 24 seats, the Western Division has 24 seats, and additional representation; such as Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Yukon Territory and Nunavut has a total of 9 seats (Pouliot, 2015). Moreover, the Constitution also allowed the Senate to temporarily …show more content…
The Senate has various responsibilities to fulfill when discussing regional issues. Whenever a specific bill is being studied, committees are expected to invite provinces and territories to make a presentation (Pouliot, 2015). To further explain this, whenever Senators examine bills and issues, they must consider the affect the bill or issue will have on the province or territory that they are representing. After they gather all the evidence and findings, they then get together as a committee to discuss whether the bill or issue would be effective or not. There was a case in October 2001, where the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance started a researched that examined the effectiveness of, and if improvements were possible to, the equalization policy that is used today (). In March 2002, the Committee stated that recognizing the importance of Equalization programs is important. The Equalization program was designed to help provincial governments to provide Canadians with comparable levels of provincial services at comparable levels of taxation (Parliament of Canada, 2015). The Committee concluded that this program would help the essential public services across the country in a positive …show more content…
During these meetings, Senators discuss policies, legislation and plan strategy. Senators are also in contact with individuals in their given province or territory, individuals who are involved in businesses and community groups. The reason why Senators are in contact with them is because they listen to their concerns as citizens and then addresses these issues in parliament hearings. Throughout history, the Senate’s role has been used in other ways as well. There has been numerous times when a ruling government did not appoint an elected member to the House of Commons from a specific province. When this occurs, there can be regional imbalance and in order to avoid that, the Prime Minister appoints Senators from that province to the Cabinet (). Another role that the Senate plays is ensuring that people’s rights and interests that are often neglected or broadly overlooked are an essential focus. These individuals in society are often the poor, the youth, and the elderly, people who are dying and veterans. Over the years, many of these groups have received enormous benefits from the government because of Senators. In 1999, a group of Senators took up a study called ‘Of Life and Death’. This study originally occurred in 1995 and it was based on euthanasia and assisted suicide. With the help of this research, Senators conducted a study of their own called ‘Quality End-of-Life Care: The Right of Every Canadian’, which was
Most individuals with a general background knowledge of the United States Federal Government system are aware that in order for a bill to become a law, it must first pass a majority vote in Congress. There is, however, a very important step in the legislative process that sometimes goes unnoticed. The committee system of the legislation process ensures that the appropriate attention is given to each bill introduced to Congress. Each member of both chambers are assigned to committees and subcommittees, and are expected to become subject matter experts in their respective roles as committee members.
However, there are inherent problems with this type of senate reform, where it asks both federal government and certain provinces to lessen their power so that all provinces have an equal platform to broadcast their issues and regional interests. The idea that these two conflicting governments are involved in the national legislation process would form problems, and even this idea of change would change the normal practices of parliament. This idea a triple E Senate calls for constitutional changes, which are difficult to do, and why so far the Prime Minister has only made informal changes since they would need a 7/10 provincial approval with at least 50 percent of the Canadian population on top of the approval of both parts of parliament. It calls for a complete overhaul of the current senate, to become better suitable for regional representation of the Canadian population (gibbins
Admiralty Outline Overview Admiralty is federal law, originating in Article III, 2 of the Constitution. i. First Congress Cases of Admiralty/Maritime in Judiciary Act. ii. Supreme Clause. b. If say that case is an admiralty/maritime case, governed by admiralty law, is to say that substantive admiralty law applies. i. Differences: statute of limitations, comparative laws for recovery, etc.
Under the Articles each state could send between 2 and 7 delegates to Congress. In the Constitution each state was allowed 2 members in the Senate and 1 representative per 30,000 people (this number has now increased greatly) in the House of Representatives. As I stated earlier each state wanted to be represented according to different factors. The states with bigger populations wanted representation to be based solely off of population. The states with smaller populations wanted there to be a fixed number of representatives per state, regardless of size or population.
This came to be known as the Sober Second Thought and allowed in-depth study and review on national issues by Senate Committees. (Supreme Court 2014, pg. 720) The Senate Committees are non partisan groups, which draw upon the knowledge of its members to provide careful studies on national issues. These Committees are made up of between five to fifteen senators ranging from prior positions of federal and provincial ministers, lawyers and business people, ethnic representatives, and former members of provincial assemblies. (Government of Canada, Senate Work) The three basic tasks that they must cover is to accept or change legislations, to study policy matters and offer improvements, and to asses the governments budget proposals. Popular studies that have been done were on unemployment, foreign affairs, the aging population, Aboriginal affairs, and matters concerning science and technology. Many of the studies lead to important changes in government legislation as they are able to make aware political, economic, and social concerns that aren’t always always expressed within the House of Commons. One example of Committee work was the 1982 studies by the Committee on Foreign Affairs on Canada- U.S. relations. (Government of Canada, How is the Senate’s Work Relevant to our Everyday Lives) In that study the senators presented a bilateral free trade
Senate... senate shall be composed of two senators from each state”, Stated document D. This clearly explains that Representation in Congress should be based on population in the House of Representatives and equality in the Senate by sending two senators from each state no matter the size of the state.*The Great Compromise guard against tyranny by Hensing a double security by having two systems within the
Canada itself claims to be democratic, yet the Canadian Senate is appointed to office by the current Prime Minister rather than elected by the citizens. The original purpose of the Senate was to give fair representation between provinces and to the citizens. Having failed its purpose, clearly there are issues within the Senate that need to be addressed. Because of the Prime Minister appointing the Senators, they will now serve the Prime Ministers needs rather than the people who they should have been listening to. As if this were not enough of a show of power for the Prime Minister, the Senators cannot be lawfully kicked out of office until the age of seventy-five. An example of Senate idiosyncrasy in Canadian government is Ross Fitzpatrick, who was appointed to office by former Prime Minister Jean Chretien of the Liberals in June 1990. His official opponent, Preston Manning, rightfully questioned the circumstances regardin...
First, some background on the subject. Canada is divided into 308 ridings, and each riding elects one person to represent all the citizens in that riding. The party that wins the most ridings forms the government, and if that party has gained more than half the seats, as is usually the case, they form a majority and have the ability to pass any bill in the House of Commons that they wish, regardless of the opinions that other representatives have. This SMP system has remained unchanged in Canada since Confederation in 1867. On the other hand there is proportional representation, which is broken down into two main forms: Mixed Member Proportionality (MMP) and Single Transferable Vote (STV). MMP was first put into use ...
Frist, federalism is the division of power between the provinces and the federal government (Cutler 2010, 3). As well, Federal systems tend to be made up of multiple parts, which do not necessarily work together (Brock 2008, 3). There has been an increase on the study of federalism in recent years, which has created a more in-depth look at how federalism impacts the government. (Farfard Rocher 2009, 294). There are two aspects of federalism and both of them put limitations on the influence of the prime minister. The first is called political asymmetry; this encompasses the various attitudes of the different provinces such as the culture, economic, social and political conditions and how it shapes the relationship between the provincial and federal governments (Brock 2008, 4). This can create a problem for the federal government because it means that they may ha...
Canada runs on a democratic model of governing based on the British parliamentary system. Its parliament is thus divided into two chambers: the House of Commons and the Senate. Elected politicians are seated within The House of Commons while the Senate occupies qualified citizens which are appointed by the Prime Minister. Parliament’s purpose is to hold responsibility for passing legislations and the choosing of government, referring to the political party with the largest amount of seats. Depending on the results of the election, Canada has the potential of having either a majority, minority or in the rare case a coalition government. Customarily, an election in Canada usually ends up forming a majority government. The party with more than
However, equalization today is not the same as in 1957 due to updating and renewing (Equalization is renewed every 5 years). The Principle idea that all citizens within Canada should have the same quality of public goods no matter what the provincial government’s revenue capabilities are remains the same.
Canada has a central government designed to deal with the country as a whole. Things like national defense, banking, currency, and commerce are controlled by the central government. All other matters are left to the provinces to deal with. Such as education, hospitals, and civil rights are responsibilities of the states. The Canadian Parliament consists of two houses. Their Senate is made up of 104 members who serve until the age of seventy-five.
A party must obtain a minimum of 3 percent of the vote in order to qualify for parliamentary representation. Each province is to have a minimum of two seats in the Congress of Deputies, plus one additional seat for every 144,500 inhabitants or fraction over 70,000 inhabitants (U.S. Library of Congress). Members of Congress are elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional representation to serve four-year terms. Each province is allotted four seats in the Senate, regardless of population. Members of the Senate are directly elected by popular vote for 208 seats and 51 are appointed by the regional legislatures to serve four-year terms (CIA World Factbook).
Today, medical interventions have made it possible to save or prolong lives, but should the process of dying be left to nature? (Brogden, 2001). Phrases such as, “killing is always considered murder,” and “while life is present, so is hope” are not enough to contract with the present medical knowledge in the Canadian health care system, which is proficient of giving injured patients a chance to live, which in the past would not have been possible (Brogden, 2001). According to Brogden, a number of economic and ethical questions arise concerning the increasing elderly population. This is the reason why the Canadian society ought to endeavor to come to a decision on what is right and ethical when it comes to facing death. Uhlmann (1998) mentions that individuals’ attitudes towards euthanasia differ. From a utilitarianism point of view – holding that an action is judged as good or bad in relation to the consequence, outcome, or end result that is derived from it, and people choosing actions that will, in a given circumstance, increase the overall good (Lum, 2010) - euthanasia could become a means of health care cost containment, and also, with specific safeguards and in certain circumstances the taking of a human life is merciful and that all of us are entitled to end our lives when we see fit.
More than forty thousand merchant ships, and countless number of smaller coastal craft, ply world oceans which comprise nearly seventy percent of the earth’s surface. Each year approximately ten million containers of cargo, containing raw materials to finished goods are transported by seas. The ships are owned by different states, private companies or individuals and manned by mixture of seafarers from different countries, mixed together from various nationalities. These ships are perhaps the most autonomous entities on earth as rule of law allows frequent change of their allegiance or identity by choosing a flag to suit their requirement.