Is this how Canadian elections work?

[Almighty Colin]

Since I have so many Canadian friends here :-) Is this correct? Any interesting things to add or change?

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There are 301 ridings in which elections are held for the House of Commons. The party with the most members in the House of Commons forms a cabinet and the head of the cabinet is the "Prime Minister".
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Q. So ridings are geographical regions?
Q. Does the party that forms the majority in the House of Commons choose a cabinet by simple vote?

[Evil Chris]

Yes and Yes, Colin.

There are 301 seats. The party that wins the majority of seats in a federal election chooses the cabinet ministers that form the government. Currently it is the Liberal party. The party that wins the 2nd most number of seats is called the official opposition.

Funny thing... if the leader of the winning party does not win their particular riding he/she cannot assume the role of prime minister. This is very rare, and when it does happen, they usually conduct a by-election in a different riding where they will most certainly win.

We also have appointed senators (ordinarily 105 of them) and they are appointed by the Governor General of Canada on the advice of the Prime Minister. The Senate possesses all of the powers of the House of Commons except that of initiating financial legislation.

[Almighty Colin]

Thanks, Chris. Interesting :-)

[Evil Chris]

My pleasure..

Here's some good reference. http://www.parl.gc.ca/

Edit: After this next federal election, there will be a total of 308 seats in the House of Commons.



Last edited by Evil Chris at May 27 2004, 12:18 PM

[DrGuile]

I believe Chris got the 2nd one wrong.

The cabinet is decided by the Prime Minister, not by vote.




Another interesting thing is that in the last Quebec provincial election, the party that had the most seats did not have the most votes (since there are more votes in urban ridings than rural (mostly)).

So the prime minister of quebec was elected with less votes than its competitor.

........just like in the last US election ;)



Last edited by DrGuile at May 27 2004, 11:51 AM

[Evil Chris]

Originally posted by DrGuile@May 27 2004, 12:49 PM
I believe Chris got the 2nd one wrong.

The cabinet is decided by the Prime Minister, not by vote.

What 2nd part?
I never said that cabinet ministers were selected by vote. They're selected by their own party (ultimitely the PM).

[DrGuile]

Originally posted by Evil Chris+May 27 2004, 12:22 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Evil Chris @ May 27 2004, 12:22 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteBegin--DrGuile@May 27 2004, 12:49 PM
I believe Chris got the 2nd one wrong.

The cabinet is decided by the Prime Minister, not by vote.

What 2nd part?
I never said that cabinet ministers were selected by vote. They're selected by their own party (ultimitely the PM).[/b][/quote]
Colin's question was:

Q. Does the party that forms the majority in the House of Commons choose a cabinet by simple vote?


you said 'yes'

[RawAlex]

Basically, we vote on the local level, the party with the most elected members ends up with it's leader as the prime minister. The prime minister also has to be elected in one of the ridings. It has not happened very often that the party that gets the most seats doesn't have it's leader elected as well (not sure the last time).

Effectively, we elect dictators. They have the most seats, the prime minister... all the power is on one side.

System is from Britain, and is similar to systems in most other commonwealth countries (including aus).

Alex

[Evil Chris]

DrGuile... I see that now. whoops. I read his question too fast. hehe...