Canadian Government Structure

Much like the United States, Canada has three levels of government that each have different functions and responsibilities. They operate on the federal, provincial, and municipal (local) levels.

The Federal Government

Canada's federal government, called Parliament, oversees the policies and issues affecting the nation as a whole. These include immigration, defense, the economy, and trade with other nations. Parliament is divided into three parts: the Head of State, the House of Commons, and the Senate.

1) Canada's current Head of State is Queen Elizabeth II (the Queen of England and Canada). The Queen appoints a Governor General and 10 Lieutenant Governors to represent her and act on her behalf. The Governor General functions at the national level, and the 10 Lieutenant Governors represent the Queen in each of Canada's 10 provinces.

2) The House of Commons, which makes Canada's laws, is made up of elected representatives, or Members of Parliament (MPs) who each belong to a political party. As of 2017, there are six political parties that are represented in the House of Commons.

Although each political party elects a leader, the party with the most members is the majority party in the House of Commons. And it's the leader of the majority party who becomes the Prime Minister of Canada.

3) The Senate consists of 105 members chosen by the prime minister from various provinces across Canada. Any laws created by the House of Commons must be passed by the Senate.

Provincial Governments

While the United States is divided into 50 states, Canada is divided into 10 provinces. Each province has:

· a Lieutenant Governor, who represents the Queen, and

· a Legislative Assembly that makes the laws for that province.

Similar to Parliament, the Legislative Assembly also has political parties, and the leader of the party with the greatest number of members becomes of the head of government of that province (called the Premier).

Provincial governments function much like U.S. state governments; they create and enforce laws and policies that affect a particular province. These include education, highways and transportation, and health care.

Municipal Governments

Finally, let's take a brief look at municipal governments. Led by mayors and council members, municipal governments run the towns, cities, and districts of each province. Municipalities handle local issues such as parks, local law enforcement and fire protection, transportation and roadways, and water systems.

Lesson Summary

Let's take a couple of moments to review what we've learned about Canada's government and its structure.

The Canadian system of government is both a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II as the Head of State bound by the written constitution, and a parliamentary democracy, in which citizens elect representatives to a parliament that is responsible for making all legislation and decisions for a nation, with the Prime Minister (the leader of the majority party) as the ruling head of government.

The Canadian government functions on three levels:

· The federal government is run by Parliament, which consists of the Head of State, House of Commons, and the Senate. The Senate in Canada consists of 105 members chosen by the prime minister from various provinces across Canada. The House of Commons makes Canada's laws.

· The 10 provincial governments of Canada each have a Lieutenant Governor appointed by the Queen as her representative, as well as a Legislative Assembly that makes the laws for that province. The head of government for each province is called the Premier.

· Municipal governments oversee the towns, cities, and districts of each province and are led by mayors and council members.

 

Unit 8

The European Union (EU) wasted a lot of money last year. The annual report on EU spending said the Union misspent almost five billion euros (around US$6.4 billion). The boss of the European Court of Auditors, the group that made the report, said the EU was very careless and should look after its money better. He said his team "found too many cases of EU money not hitting the target". Vitor Caldeira, the Court's president, said that many Europeans have to be careful with their money because of the financial crisis. He said the EU should take greater care with its budget because of the weak economies in Europe: "These problems matter more than ever," he added.

A spokesperson from the EU told reporters that the spending mistakes were under 4 per cent of the total EU budget. He added this was better than the 7 per cent error rate from five years ago. Some of the mistakes were very big. The EU spent money on the wrong things. One example was they gave money for training electronics employees to other kinds of workers. Another was giving money to forestry projects instead of farming programmes. Mr Caldeira said that only two areas of the EU budget had no mistakes. Marta Andreasen of the UK Independence Party said the mistakes showed the EU was seriously mismanaged. She also said this problem should "set alarm bells ringing".

Unit 9

Russia's place as a world power has shown little signs of stopping since the fall of the Soviet Union. In this lesson, we will develop a basic understanding of the structure of Russian government, one that is quite different from our own.

Emerging from Communism

For more than 80 years, Russia was part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, commonly known as the Soviet Union. Granted, it was the largest, most populous, and arguably, most important part, but it was a part of the greater whole nonetheless. By 1991, Russia was independent under its own name for the first time in decades.

However, the transition from the Soviet Union to the current Russian state was fraught with hazards. In fact, in 1993, a serious coup attempt ended with shots being fired from tanks in the capital. As a result, the president of Russia at the time, Boris Yeltsin, worked to rework the constitution and government of Russia. The resulting arrangement is still in place today.

Structure of the Federation

At the core of the Russian system is the idea that it is a federation. A federation exists when a central government places significant powers within local or territorial governments. As you probably know, Russia is the world's largest country by land area, and that sort of size doesn't come without difficulty. While Saint Petersburg and Moscow may appear to be great Western metropolises, many people in the Far East live in a manner that is largely unchanged since the time of Russia's monarchs, the Tsars. As a result, the federation places power in gigantic chunks of Russia. This provides enough self-government to help ease over any tensions due to language, culture, or ethnicity.

That said, some detractors point to the fact that this is not exactly a perfect system. The real power is not held by the heads of each region, nor is it held by the smaller governments that exist independently of the larger constituent republics. Instead, power in Russia is heavily concentrated in one place.

Strong Presidency

The office of the President of the Federation is the single most powerful seat in Russia. When Yeltsin resigned, he handed over power to Vladimir Putin, who used constitutional machinations to stay in power even past the term limits of the office. Technically, the president is not part of the executive branch. However, he maintains extensive executive powers. He can appoint or dismiss judges, ambassadors, and military leaders and also has significant power over the legislature. As long as he consults with the relevant committees, he has the power to do whatever he wants with regards to foreign affairs.

Additionally, in the event that he is unable to continue his duties, he is replaced by the prime minister, who is actually the head of the executive branch. The strength of the presidential office and the executive branch has helped to ensure stability, if not always freedom.

Legislative and Judicial

You're probably getting the idea that the presidency and executive branch of Russia hold much of the power in that country. You'd be right. Still, the legislative branch has some surprising parallels to the United States. It has two houses, a lower house known as the State Duma, as well as the Federation Council of Russia, the upper house.

The State Duma is elected by the people of Russia voting on groups of candidates put forth by each party. This means that people vote for a party, not for a particular candidate. As a result, it is based on the proportion of population, similar to the U.S. House of Representatives. However, whereas the U.S. House of Representatives has seats allotted to states, the State Duma treats it as one big whole from which to draw candidates according to party lists. You don't vote for your representative but instead for your party to have a seat in the Duma. The State Duma has the typical range of powers you'd expect to find in a legislature with a strong executive branch, but there is one notable exception: a two-thirds vote of the State Duma can dismiss the president.

Meanwhile, the Federation Council of Russia is much more similar to the United States Senate. Every constituent part of Russia, from the cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg to giant republics like Sakha in Siberia, each sends two senators to serve in the body.

The Russian judiciary is largely similar to what one would find in other countries. Members are appointed by the Federation Council, with the blessing of the president. However, there is something truly unique for all you comparative law nuts out there. Most countries protect the constitution through their own court systems, whether it ends up in a court hearing appeals or double-checking the application of the law. Russia has a special court, the Constitutional Court, that only hears cases that are deemed as important from a constitutional perspective. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court functions like the appeals courts of most other countries.

Lesson Summary

In this lesson, we took a look at the structure of Russia's government. Starting with the evolution from the USSR to the current Russian state, we saw this was not always a peaceful transition. Stability, if not always freedom, has been preserved with the establishment of a strong office of the president as well as a strong executive branch. Sitting at the head of it all is the President of the Federation. Still, the legislative and judicial branches have been structured to be of special use in a country as large and diverse as Russia.

The State Duma, the lower house, is voted on by allowing people to vote for particular parties, while the Federation Council of Russia, the upper house, has two representatives from every governmental unit within the country. Finally, the Supreme Court looks at cases about the application of law, while the Constitutional Court examines issues with the constitution.

Lesson at a Glance

With the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the creation of Russia as an independent state in 1991, there was much transition with the restructuring of its government. Although its structure is similar to that of the United States, it is the President of the Federation within the executive branch that is the single most powerful seat in Russia.

 

Keys

Unit 1

Task 1: a; b; d; e; f; I;

Task 2: 1.250; 2.12; 3.150 million; 4.German; 5. 500; 6.best-seller; 7.Frensshe; 8. 1867/the nineteenth century;

Task 3: 1. I love you. See you later.; 2. Are you OK? Please call as soon as possible.; 3. My holidays were great - and yours?; 4. Would you like dinner tonight?; 5. I need to see you before I leave

Task 4: 1.d; 2.a; 3.a; 4.b; 5.d; 6.c; 7.b; 8.b; 9.b; 10.b

Task 6: studying; associated; memorization; differently; students; commitment; fluency; disadvantage; knowing; investment

Task 7: classes, additional, change, advantage, soak, everyday, popular, offer, influence, grade, compared, government, spread, attended, jobs, business, public, qualified, overtake, expanding

 

Unit 2

Task 2:

1. look (at something through) rose-coloured glasses 2. poverty 3. media

4. individualistic 5. kid 6. going (to the) dogs 7. appreciate 8. authority

9. unthinkable 10. cane 11. youngster 12. antisocial 13. hardship

14. social networking sites 15. outlook

Task 3: 1. Liam, John, Sally 2. John, Sally 3. Liam, John

Task 4: 1. F 2. F 3. F 4. D 5. T 6. T 7. T 8. T

Task 5:

1. The idea that young people are more individualistic, or even selfish, than in the

past, and that their sense of right and wrong isn’t as strong as that of older people.

2. He thinks a sense of separation can be increased if older people don’t understand

certain kinds of technology that young people are very familiar with. He gives social networking websites as an example.

3. John doesn’t wish that his kids, who are now young adults, were more like he was at their age.

4. The similarity lies in the idea of ‘respect’. The media, according to Liam, create the idea that young people don’t have enough respect for other members of society, while Sally believes some young people lack respect for authority.

Task 6: 1. depression, anxiety 2. comfort 3. slogan 4. take over 5. take a stand 6. ignore

Task 7: I’ve never understood; they have the right to; It was a living hell; not safe during break; bullies that got me; changed me for life; to speak up for myself; scars have gone but

Task 8: b; a; d; c; c; a; b; d; c; a; b; d

 

Unit 3

Task 1: 1.f; 2.a; 3.b; 4.c; 5.g; 6.h; 7.d; 8.e; 9.j; 10.i

Task 3: T; T; F; F; F; T; F; T; F; T.

Task 5: 1.a; 2.c; 3.a; 4.a; 5.b; 6.c; 7.a; 8.d; 9.c; 10.d

Unit 4

Task 1: the quality of; worked closely with; followed many of; very unpopular; awful and mediocre; real talent is rare; wasted on projects; teach students little; of a child’s ability; his or her genes; should be fired; reason for a lot

Task 2: 1.d; 2.h; 3.f; 4.b; 5.j; 6.g; 7.e; 8.a; 9.c; 10.i

Task 3: F; T; F; T; T; T; F; F.

Task 4: 1. overcome; 2. study; 3. concentrate; 4. organize; 5. taking; 6. learn; 7. doing; 8. revise; 9. review; 10. taught

Task 5: studious; distractions; background noise; project or assignment; revise; curriculum; review; struggle

Task 6: learn about; find out; know; learned; now; study; learn how; learn from

Task 7: 1.a; 2.b; 3.c; 4.d; 5.d; 6.c; 7.a; 8.b; 9.c; 10.a; 11.d; 12.b

 

Unit 5

Task 1: 1.b; 2.g; 3.j; 4.k; 5.d; 6.i; 7.l; 8.a; 9.f; 10.e

Task 2: 1. Economical; 2. Financial; 3. Economical, financial; 4. Financial; 5. Economic; 6. Economical; 7. Economically; 8. Economical; 9. Financially; 10. Financial

Task 3: economic; economize; economical; economically; economy; economical; economics; uneconomic; economists; economizer

Task 6: beat; rose; rate; early; proof; help; slowed; lifted; stable; expected; exclude; dozen

Task 7: 1.e; 2.i; 3.a; 4.f; 5.c; 6.j; 7.h; 8.d; 9.g; 10.b

Task 8: F; F; T; F; F; T; T; F.

 

Unit 6

Task 1: 1. Global; 2. Expanded; 3. Trade; 4. Expansion; 5. Decades; 6. Aimed; 7. Enterprises; 8. Efficient; 9. Market; 10. Interdependence; 11. Globalization; 12. Consumption; 13. Economic; 14. Welfare; 15. Produce

Task 5: 1. Political; 2. Economic; 3. Sociocultural; 4. Technological.

Task 6: cultural, values, national, consumers, financial, global, capital, political, governments, information

Task 7: 1. shrinking; 2. consciousness; 3. economy; 4. cross-border-trade; 5. globalization; 6. national economies; 7. exchange; 8. mass culture; 9. global village; 10. free trade

Task 8: 1. globalization; 2. interpret; 3. opponents; 4. dominating; 5. profits; 6. environment; 7. predict; 8. developing; 9. supporters; 10. increasing; 11. prosperity; 12. economic

Task 10: b, b, a, c, d, c, b, в

 

Unit 7

Task 1: 1.c; 2.a; 3.f; 4.e; 5.h; 6.b; 7.d; 8.g; 9.j; 10.i

Task 2: 1) constitutional monarchy; 2) a parliamentary democracy; 3) Prime Minister; 4) Parliament; 5) Head of State; 6) House of Commons; 7) Senate; 8) Lieutenant Governor; 9) Premier; 10) Muniсipal governments

Task 3: d; a; d; c; b

Task 4: 1) the historic step; 2) abuse of power; 3) to his removal; 4) vote in favor; 5) not act now; 6) be derelict in our; 7) of a lengthy; 8) his political rivals; 9) probe the greatest; 10) reacted angrily to; 11) afforded more rights; 12) bunch of fools

Task 6: 1.i; 2.d; 3.g; 4.b; 5.a; 6.j; 7.e; 8.f; 9.c; 10.h

Task 7: 1.a; 2.c; 3.c; 4.d; 5.c; 6.b; 7.b; 8.b; 9.c; 10.d; 11.d; 12.d

 

Unit 8

Task 1: 1) economically; 2) union; 3) wisest; 4) creation; 5) democratic; 6) cooperate; 7) overcome; 8) socialist; 9) equally; 10) medical

Task 2: 1) citizens; 2) working; 3) profitable; 4) currency; 5) government; 6) economy; 7) promote; 8) recession; 9) successful; 10) authorities

Task 3: 1) since; 2) up; 3) -; 4) of; 5) in; 6) in; 7) amongst; 8) at; 9) -; 10) as

Task 4: 1) c; 2) d; 3) a; 4) g; 5) j; 6) b; 7) f; 8) h; 9) e; 10) i

Task 5: 1) c; 2) g; 3) d; 4) f; 5) h; 6) e; 7) a; 8) I; 9) b; 10) j

Task 6: 1) a, b, d, g, j; 2) c, e, f, h, i

Task 7: 1) connects; 2) united; 3) join; 4) joined; 5) joined; 6) united; 7) connect; 8) join; 9) connected; 10) united

Task 9: F; F; T; T; F; T; T; F.

Task 10: 1.e; 2.c; 3.h; 4.g; 5.a; 6.d; 7.b; 8.j; 9.f; 10.i

Task 11: 1.b; 2.d; 3.c; 4.a; 5.b; 6.a; 7.c; 8.a; 9.d; 10.c

Unit 9

Task 1: 1) Russia; 2) Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 3) Soviet Union; 4) Boris Yeltsin; 5) evolution from the USSR; 6) President of the Federation; 7) State Duma; 8) Federation Council of Russia; 9) Supreme Court; 10) Constitutional Court

Task 2: c; a; c; c; c

Task 4: T; F; T; T; T; F; F; F.

Task 5: 1.e; 2.j; 3.b; 4.g; 5.c; 6.a; 7.i; 8.d; 9.h; 10.f

Task 8: 1) head; 2) guarantor; 3) sovereignty; 4) interaction; 5) domestic; 6) elected; 7) ballot; 8) terms; 9) elections; 10) Constitution; 11) separation; 12) opposition

Task 9: 1.c; 2.c; 3.a; 4.a; 5.a; 6.b; 7.c; 8.c; 9.b

 

Unit 10

Task 2: 1-d; 2-e; 3-a; 4-b; 5-c; 6-f

Task 3: 1.d; 2.c; 3.a; 4.b; 5.g; 6.e; 7.f

Task 4: 1) provide public services; 2) respond to public needs; 3) equating responsibility; 4) involved civil service reform; 5) planning future programmes; 6) deciding priorities; 7) oversees expenditures

Task 5: 1.c; 2.a; 3.a; 4.a; 5.b; 6.d; 7.c; 8.d; 9.a; 10.a; 11.b; 12.c

Task 6: F; F; T; F; T; T; F; T.

Task 7: 1) is to become; 2) only celebrated her; 3) her party voted; 4) the minister of; 5) take over as; 6) he was quitting; 7) the prospect of; 8) to be done; 9) have a joint; 10) the popularity of; 11) to rebuild trust; 12) shares photos of

Task 9: 1.h; 2.d; 3.j; 4.a; 5.f; 6.b; 7.i; 8.e; 9.g; 10.c

 

 

 

 

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