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“If they don’t get involved in politics, I don’t want to listen them. I don’t want to hear somebody complaining if they haven’t voted, at the very least, or they haven’t gotten involved and done something to better the situation.”

Donn Lovett knows politics better than most. He’s one of Alberta’s most successful campaign managers, having worked on campaigns at all three levels of Canadian politics. And though blunt, his comment isn’t unfair: To ensure politicians – and the people who support them, like Donn – do listen to our opinions and ideas, we must be engaged in our political system.

How to do that? Well, how about we start with understanding our system of governance.

Take it away Janet Austin:

“In Canada, we have got what’s called a constitutional monarchy, which is different than a republic, which is the kind of government structure that you see, for example, in the United States.”

What does that mean? Well, our head of state isn’t the person we often assume; it’s not the prime minister, it’s the King.

Janet continues, “Here in Canada, we have a separation between the role of the Head of State (the King) and the head of government who, at the federal level, is the prime minister.”

The King is represented in governmental matters at the federal level by the Governor General and at the provincial levels through the various Lieutenant Governors – like, during her term, BC’s Janet Austin.

As Janet tells us, “There are a number of different aspects to my role. I have a constitutional responsibility, I have ceremonial responsibilities, and I also have the opportunity to bring profile to certain issues that are important to me and that are of contemporary relevance.”

And that might not sound important, but Janet says think again.

“I believe very strongly that our constitutional monarchy actually distinguishes us. I think it provides a measure of stability in our society that many countries around the world don’t enjoy.”

Though our constitutional monarchy dictates that Lieutenant Governors are the provincial heads of state and that the Governor General is the federal head of state, their power is limited.

How so? Well, for starters, unlike the King himself, it’s not a role you’re born into.

Our heads of state positions are appointed by what’s known as the King’s Privy Council, which includes senior members of federal bureaucracy and the federal government, including the prime minister. And, it should be said here, the prime minister’s choice for the Lieutenant Governor and the Governor General positions usually wins the day.

Why? Well, it’s because the prime minister, in all actuality, does run the show. And by show, I mean Canada.

You see, the constitutional part of our constitutional monarchy is what limits the power of the King and his head-of-state representatives. And it’s what gives real authority to our three branches of government: The executive, the legislative and the judiciary.

 

The executive, of course, is headed by the ruler of the governing party. That’s the prime minister at the federal level and the premiers at the provincial level. It’s where the power’s at, you know?

But to run the executive branch, said leader must first become the leader of their political party, as political science professor Dr. Will Greaves explains.

“In Canada, we have three main parties that are represented across the country – the Liberals, the Conservatives and the New Democrats (NDP) – as well as regional parties, like the Bloc Quebecois. They can be really significant players that affect the national landscape, even though they’re regionally concentrated.”

But you know that. However, Will says, you might not realize is this:

“A very, very small minority of Canadians are registered members of any of Canada’s major political parties. And I think one of the features of our political system that people are not sufficiently aware of is how critical the political parties are as gatekeepers. They are institutions that mediate society’s relationship to government. They play this critical role in terms of selecting who will be in a position to have their name on the ballot and who’s actually going to serve in government.”

That means a very small number of Canadians choose to have a say in who gets to lead a party into an election and, possibly, lead the province or country. After all, we don’t vote specifically for our premier or prime minister.

In Canada, as you probably know, we vote for our local representative and the political party with the majority of elected representatives forms government, whether that’s Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons federally or Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) provincially.

Of course, in Ontario, they’re not MLAs, but rather called Members of Provincial Parliament because, you know, Ontario just has to do it differently. Well, so does Quebec, who refers to their provincial representatives as Members of the National Assembly because, well, Quebec sees themselves, at a minimum, as a nation within a nation, as former prime minister Stephen Harper once declared. Hence their legislature being referred to as a national assembly.

Anyway, because the leader of the governing political party has the power to appoint cabinet – essentially mini-bosses of various government services – most elected representatives (in the governing party at least) suck up to the leader. That means the leader, basically, runs both the executive and the legislative branches of government if they have a majority of seats in parliament.

Now, if you’re a leader of a political party that didn’t win the majority of the seats, it gets really confusing. But fret not! If you can form a minority government you can still serve as a quasi-overlord of the executive and the legislative branches of government.

Minority governments are when one party governs without a majority in Parliament by cooperating – sort of – with opposition parties. Cooperating with other parties is called having the confidence of the house and that fanciness basically means you just can’t lose an important vote – like a budget bill or Throne Speech.

If you lose?

An election is called or, in some rare cases, another party gets to see if they can get the confidence of the house in order to govern.

Now, if you’re not totally lost, this is where I should also add that, federally, in addition to the largely ceremonial role of the Queen’s Representative, the governor general, the legislative branch of government is also partially overseen by the Senate. Which is not like the US Senate.

Our Senate is appointed by – again, in all reality – the prime minister. And though the Senate can (and does) slice and dice a government’s agenda (Senators may have been appointed by a previous prime minister from a different political party or they could just be cranky…they’re often cranky), they’re more like a policy speed bump (or as senators like to suggest, a chamber of sober second thought) for legislation passed by the House on route to Royal Assent, the final stamp of approval from the figurehead representative of our figurehead King.

Make sense? Let’s keep going.

Because we haven’t covered the third branch of government: The judiciary. The courts exist to weigh-in on the constitutional legality of laws passed by the legislative branch of government and have the final say on the interpretation of a law.

Did I mention the prime minister, basically, appoints the members of our Supreme Court?

Look, this is a long, drawn-out and probably confusing breakdown of our structure of government (once more with meaning now: a Westminster-style constitutional monarchy!) but here’s what you really need to know:

When a handful of members of a political party elect a leader and that party goes on to form government? The prime minister, federally, and the premier, provincially – but especially the prime minister federally – have a lot (and I mean a lot) of power.

Which is funny because most people think the President of the United States has more power in their system than the prime minister has in ours. And maybe the President of the United States is the most powerful person in the world, if you still think the US is the most powerful country in the world.

But in terms of pure power? Pure influence? There is a strong case to be made that a prime minister in a constitutional monarchy like ours impacts our system of government in far bigger ways than a president does in a republic-style of government, like in the US.

Surprised? You’re not alone, says political science professor Dr. Will Greaves.

“A lot of Canadians do misunderstand some of the basic workings of the way in which our political system operates. It’s really due in large part, I think, to our proximity to the United States and the fact that Canadians consume so much American media.”

Will continues, “We all have watched American television shows. We’ve all learned about the presidency and Congress. And, frankly, many Canadians probably know more about how the American political system operates than they do about their own. And sometimes they assume that Canada’s system works in similar ways.”

Don’t lie! You did think our system works like America’s system, right? If you did, Will says, think again.

“In so many ways, pretty much from the most fundamental aspects, the Canadian system operates differently. How decisions are made is different in Canada than in the United States. Who makes them is different. The constraints that exist on power, the mechanisms of accountability, the way our constitution operates and the rights it gives Canadians: All of these things are very different in Canada than in the United States.”

Not helping matters, as Will adds, is the fact our system is “still evolving. Partly that’s because the Canadian system is, in many ways, much younger (than America’s system). Our constitution only dates from 1982 and it’s still an evolving process. We’ve seen really quite significant change, particularly coming out of the courts, in the last number of years. So if (the system) is also moving, changing and evolving, it’s a real challenge for people to fully understand the way in which that system operates.”

Yet to criticize our system of governance or advance change within it, we need to understand how it works. Like division of power!

The biggest check on a prime minister’s Overlord-ness is the limits of federal jurisdiction, as Dr. Will Greaves explains.

“The provinces – and the democratically elected, legitimate political leaders of the provinces – are not second rung actors in our political system. They don’t work for the prime minister. They’re not inferior to the prime minister. They’re his constitutional equals in their own areas of jurisdiction. And because those areas of jurisdiction include so much of natural resource policy, economic policy and environmental policy, the provinces are absolutely critical.”

In other words, the federal government oversees only some decisions that make our society tick. Immigration and citizenship, defence, trade, regulation of transportation like railways and airlines, national parks, the postal service and pandemic mandates…in areas of federal jurisdiction like national parks and plane rides: These are all areas where the federal government gets the final word.

The provinces? Well, they too can have authority in some of these same areas where the constitution says their power overlaps with federal powers – regional pandemic quarantines, say, or provincial highways.

But the constitution also gives the provinces exclusive powers, like most of our functional health care and education systems and, as Will pointed out, natural resources. For that reason, it’s really hard for a prime minister – the federal government – to make unilateral decisions without the support of individual provinces on issues like the environment or the economy.

And maybe that’s a great thing or maybe it’s not, but it’s definitely messy, as Dr. Will Greaves tells us.

“It’s that complexity that has produced the kind of acrimony that we’re seeing now. And so you’ve got parties and leaders running provincially on the backs of policies that are sometimes unpopular with people (nationally). And the federal government is currently trying to chart a public policy course in a different direction (that isn’t popular in some provinces). And this has produced some of the real tension and some of the real challenges that exist right now in Canadian politics.”

But what makes decision-making even more complex? Adding municipal governments to the mix! They do fun things like pick up the trash and maintain the local park and decide, (after about 25 years) whether a certain building should be built. Or not.

Which isn’t to say municipal governments don’t matter, as Will points out.

“We would be wise to emphasize this more (that municipal politics matters). It’s the scale of change that is the most meaningful to people in their everyday lives. And when you change something in your community, that can make a huge difference materially in the quality of your life, your family and the people around you.”

True! Mayor and council – a municipal version of parliament – impact our daily lives in tangible ways, even if their power and scale of impact is limited.

So, to engage with our system, where’s the best place to start? We asked Michael Davis, a political adviser who has worked at all three levels of government.

“All three (levels of government) are very, very different. And each one has advantages and disadvantages. The federal system, I think, has more impact on some of the bigger issues, but it’s hard to access. There’s a lot of players. It’s very complex. It’s very expensive to get involved. At the municipal level, you can get involved in a lot of places very, very easily. If you step up, you can participate and you can have a lot of impact from the municipal level. The provinces are somewhere in between.”

Look, all of what we covered? Our system of government? It sounds complicated and is complicated. In fact, if you’re not totally lost, you’re probably like, what the heck mate?! But, again, this stuff matters, argues our former prime minister, Kim Campbell.

“All levels of government are very important. They have distinctive responsibilities and not one of them can be done away with and not one of them is anything but important in affecting how people live.”

Indeed.

Our system is the messy combination of different upbringings and experiences, perspectives and fears, hopes and dreams. When we don’t understand it, we tend to get angry at the wrong person – or advocate for the wrong solution with the wrong audience. Then everything just gets more confused and nothing really changes, making society as a whole angrier and more disgruntled.

So, don’t be angry, okay?!

Take the time to learn our system of governance so you can effectively advocate for your ideas, creating a better balance between the needs of people and nature in the process.