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CHAPTER ONE: How effectively does Canada’s federal political system

Govern Canada for all Canadians?

KEY TERMS: You will need to develop a working understanding of the following vocabulary:

TASK ONE: Look carefully at the diagram of Canada’s political system found on page 22. Your task

is to re-create the diagram on the next page. Your diagram should include a visual (free hand or trace

something from your textbook) for each of the main parts of the diagram.

issue, perspective, point of view, quality of life, rights, society, governance, govern,

government, political system, economic system, opinion, criteria, bias, unbiased,

executive branch, legislative branch, constituent, popular vote, minorities, judicial

branch, accountable, civil service, assimilation, slogan, lobbyist, media, bill, law

Many of us are visual learners,

which means that we understand

ideas and concepts if they are

connected to a visual of some

kind (map, picture, cartoon,

image etc.)

Some of us will doodle in our

notes. Try creating pictures in

your notes that might help you

remember ideas and concepts –

just like this task.

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TASK ONE (cont.): Diagram of the Canadian Political System

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TASK TWO: You must develop an understanding of the three main branches of the Canadian

Federal political system. Your task is to create a mind map as a visual organizer for each of the three

branches. Your teacher will do the first one with you – use the templates provided.

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TASK THREE: Determining representation in the Legislative Branch can be complicated. Work

through the following sub-tasks:

SUB-TASK ONE: Make an educated guess about the population of each of the provinces and

territories. Label the provinces and territories and write your guess in the space provided in the

map below.

SUB-TASK TWO: Find the actual population figures for each of the provinces and territories of

Canada. Write the answers below your guesses.

NAME: GUESS: ACTUAL:

NAME: GUESS: ACTUAL:

NAME: GUESS: ACTUAL:

NAME: GUESS: ACTUAL:

NAME: GUESS: ACTUAL:

NAME: GUESS: ACTUAL:

NAME: GUESS: ACTUAL:

NAME: GUESS: ACTUAL:

NAME: GUESS: ACTUAL:

NAME: GUESS: ACTUAL:

NAME: GUESS: ACTUAL:

NAME: GUESS: ACTUAL:

NAME: GUESS: ACTUAL:

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TASK FOUR: Answer the following question in the space below. Which branch of government do

you think is the most powerful within the Canadian political system? Support your choice with at least

two specific pieces of evidence.

TASK FIVE: You need to understand the five basic

law-making steps in the House of Commons and

the Senate. You must explain the five steps in one of

the following three ways:

1) Written 2) Mind map 3) Diagram

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TASK SIX: Review pages 27-30 and read through the information provided to you by your teacher.

Once you have explored the information, answer the following inquiry questions:

How does a government (political party) gain power in Canada? Explain in detail.

How does the Prime Minister get his job?

How can a government and a Prime Minister lose their job?

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TASK SEVEN: Explore the question: What is Wrong With Our Electoral System? Watch the

CBC segment on our electoral system and then read the information below.

Canadian democracy is deeply rooted in our culture and history. But today many Canadians feel their

votes makes little difference, and a disturbing number no longer bother to even cast a ballot. Many

citizens are reduced to voting ‘strategically’, not for their favoured candidate. They are afraid of

‘wasting’ their vote on a candidate with little chance of winning. For many this is a disheartening

dilemma.

However, in most democratic countries voters are not forced into such strategic choices, and can go to

the polls with confidence that their ballots will make a difference. The Canadian electoral system is

called “first-past-the-post’ or ‘winner-takes-all’. There is only one winner in each constituency, and the

winner is the candidate with the most votes. The system disregards all other ballots, even when they

outnumber those cast for the winner. So there is a tremendous gap between what people vote for and

what they end up getting.

Most other democratic countries use a system of proportional representation, which counts every

ballot to elect a group of winning candidates. The result in these PR systems better reflect how the entire

electorate cast their ballots.

Let’s look at the results of the 2000 federal election in Canada and note the difference between the

number of seats and the number of votes each party received.

PARTY SEATS %ofVOTE %ofSEATS PR SEATS

Liberal1 72 41 57 123

Alliance 66 25 22 75

PC 12 12 4 36

BQ 38 11 13 33

NDP 13 9 4 27

Look at these numbers and decide who is over-represented and who is underrepresented based on popular

vote. What is the problem with these numbers?

Here are some things to think about:

· The Liberal Party formed a majority government with just 41 per cent of the popular vote.

· The Bloc Québécois received slightly fewer votes than the PCs, but the BQ won more than three

times the seats. Most parties benefit in some ways under the current system but are penalized in

others. To take one example the Liberal Party is generally over-represented, but is drastically

under-represented in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

· The Liberals received one out of every five votes in Alberta but won only two of the province's

26 seats.

· The Canadian Alliance received one out of every five votes in Ontario, but won only two of the

province's 103 seats. Another way of making the point about the gap between votes and seats is to

compare the votes each party needed to elect a member.

· The Bloc Québécois received one seat for every 36,258 votes;

· The Conservatives received one seat for every 130,583 votes.

These disparities raise disturbing questions for Canadian citizens. If we believe in democracy, why do we

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tolerate an electoral system that frustrates the voters' intentions. If we believe in the principle of ‘one

person, one vote,’ why tolerate a system which treats voters unequally? Every vote is counted, but not

every vote counts.

Sources: mapleleafweb.com, fairvotecanada.org

THINKING CRITICALLY

Look at the results from the Wood Buffalo Riding. Answer the following questions:

Which candidate would win the seat for Wood Buffalo? ______________________

Approx. what percentage of the vote did the winning candidate receive? ______ %

Imagine that every one of Canada’s

constituencies (ridings) had similar results.

How well do think the results would

reflect the wishes of Canadian voters?

SUB-TASK ONE: Write a short paragraph which completes the following topic sentence

(use specific evidence to support your claims):

The problem with Canada’s ‘first-past-the-post’ electoral system is…

ELECTION RESULTS for WOOD BUFFALO RIDING

VOTES PARTY

Candidate 1 10 001 Liberals Candidate 2 10 000 Conservatives Candidate 3 10 000 New Democratic Candidate 4 9 999 Green Candidate 5 9 998 Action

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TASK EIGHT: Read through page 44 in your textbook and summarize the aboriginal perspective

about the Canadian political system.

TASK NINE: The Media is often called the ‘watchdog’ of government. Do you think this is a good

name of the mainstream media? Support your response.

TASK TEN: Answer the following questions.

What is a lobbyist?

If you were going to create your own lobby group, what issue would you build it around?

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TASK ELEVEN: Place yourself on the following spectrum dealing with the effectiveness of the

Canadian political system. The key inquiry question for the chapter was:

How effectively does Canada’s federal political system govern Canada for all Canadians?

If you select ‘10’ you believe Canada’s political system is perfect. If you select ‘1’ you believe

Canada’s political system is terrible and should be completely overhauled.

Once you have placed yourself on the spectrum you must explain and defend the position you identify.

Provide a rationale for your placement and use specific evidence to support your choice (see

personal response rubric).

CANADA’S POLITICAL

SYSTEM IS COMPLETELY

INEFFECTIVE AND SHOULS

BE OVERHAULED!

CANADA’S POLITICAL SYSTEM HAS SOME IS

REASONABLY SUCCESSFUL SYSTEM OF

GOVERNMENT, BUT IS NEED OF SOME

CHANGE TO BETTER SERVE CANADIANS.

CANADA’S POLITICAL

SYSTEM IS PERFECT –

DON’T CHANGE A THING!

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TASK TWELVE (use chapter 8):

1) What is a political party?

2) Look at the pictures of the main political parties in Canadian Federal politics. Circle the party

leaders who are still the leaders of their parties. Write the names of any new leaders.

3) Name the two main political parties in the United States?

__________________________________ _________________________________

4) What is a political party platform?

5) Use your textbook, and other resources as necessary, to choose a political party platform you agree

with most. Please explain why you would support the party you chose. Hint: you may want to go

back and look at the political and economic spectrum quiz you took in chapter 6.

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6) As a grade 9 student, can you join a political party? Explain.

TASK THIRTEEN:

1) Who is this person? Do you agree with the person being named as

‘The Greatest Canadian’ (as a result of the 2004 competition

sponsored by the CBC)?

Here are the other nine finalists. How would you rank them?

Watch the following clip:

http://archives.cbc.ca/politics/parties_leaders/clips/11120/