Democracy in Canada Social Sciences Essay Research Paper

Democracy in Canada: Real or Not?
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Institution
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Democracy in Canada
There are many forms of democracies in the world today. In some countries, the citizens are involved in everything the government does. Others, on the other hand, prefer a democracy where the citizens are not as active as much, and the government is left to do as they please. However, these countries hold elections, and the winner assumes the governmental offices. There are still those who believe that a country needs to have many elective positions. These countries involve their citizens in many election processes and some instances, even judges are elected. Moscrop (2017) writes that the goal of such a system is to ensure that “popular control of who governs extends widely across the state.” Models of democracy differ greatly, but, in the end, they do help ensure and enhance sanity and rationality in nations around the world. What about Canada? Is it a democracy? Does the country’s system of government and other facets and aspects of it, qualify it to be a democracy? Well, this paper sets out to prove that Canada should not be considered a democracy and this claim is founded or grounded in Canada’s first past the post system, Canada’s unelected Senate, absolute power that is vested in Canada’s Prime Minister and the Cabinet which is uncharacteristic of a democracy, and decreased voter turnout.
Firstly, Canada uses the first past the post system (FPTP) of voting, which is undemocratic and propagates undemocratic views and values. The FPTP system of voting alienates or makes it difficult for smaller parties to share in the legislative seats. For example, if a small party garners 13% of the total votes cast, chances are high it will get less than 5% of the legislative seats. This means that there is a percentage of the population whose voice goes unheard. Aside from the above, the FPTP system also seeks or leads to the exclusion of minorities from fair representation. With such a system, parties only aim or seek to outdoor each other. So, many parties will only gift their candidature positions to individuals who have sure won. For example, it would not make sense for either the Democrats or the Republicans in the US to nominate a black person in a region with a history of electing white individuals. Well, in Canada, the minorities find themselves voiceless as this system keeps working to their disadvantage. An article from the National Post (2015) reports that “visible minorities constitute 19 percent of the Canadian population, but only nine percent of MPs; women constitute 51 percent of the population, but only 25 percent of the Commons.” This scenario is as a result of a system that appears to incline towards the so-called favorites while neglecting the minority groups. However, Canada is a democracy, right?
Secondly, Canada has an unelected Senate, which is made up of 105 senators. Munroe (2018) highlights some of the powers of the Senate as offering “sober, second thought,…investigation of Canadian national issues,…representation of regional, provincial and minority interests,…moreover, acting as watchdogs on government.” She continues and says that “all federal legislation must be passed by the Senate as well as the House of Commons.” Well, how does an unelected Senate pass federal legislation? This is a good example of a country that is not democratic. The Senate is a team of people who have been appointed to their positions. These people’s interests could be tied together with the interests of the person who appointed them. From the powers or roles of the Senate stated above, they are supposed to represent the interests of their regions, provinces, and the minority. However, having not been elected, it is possible for these individuals to ignore what citizens in their regions or provinces are saying. As already stated, their interests could be in line with that of the Gove...