Canadian Politics

Politics

Canada's government is a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system inherited from the British and similar to the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Canada is formally a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II as the head of state. She is represented in Canada by the Governor-General, currently David Lloyd Johnston, who carries out her duties. The monarchy serves mostly as a bygone figurehead, though, and in practice the Prime Minister is largely seen to wield political autonomy and power.
Canada is a federal state and provinces have a great deal of autonomy. Each province has its own legislature and provincial government, and the Canadian constitution defines certain areas of exclusively provincial jurisdiction. For example, each province sets its own drinking age, minimum wage, sales tax, labour regulations, and administers their own road, healthcare and education systems. Two of the three territories' legislative assemblies (Nunavut and the Northwest Territories) are peculiar, as they are non-partisan - no political parties are represented.
There are four main parliamentary parties at the federal level: the Conservative Party (right of centre), the Liberal Party (left of centre), the New Democratic Party (left), and the Bloc Québécois (a left-wing, Québécois nationalist party that promotes the separation of Quebec from Canada and does not run candidates outside of Quebec). Only the Conservatives (currently) and (more often) the Liberals have ever been the national government, though the NDP have governed various provinces. The Bloc - who are for obvious reasons regarded somewhat negatively in other parts of the country - do not participate in provincial-level politics, but another provincial-level sovereigntist party, the Parti Québécois, has won provincial elections and formed the government in Quebec on several occasions. Compared to American politics, all of these parties trend somewhat more "liberal".