HOW ARE GOVERNMENTS

FORMED?

SS 11

Learning Outcome

•Explain how federal and provincial governments are formed in Canada

How has government affected you so far today?

Hint, government is involved in all of these

things. Can you figure out how?

Government is Everywhere!

How did Stephen Harper get to be Prime Minister?

Think, Pair, Share!

Representative Democracy

In a representative democracy, the people pick someone to represent them, so they don’t have to make all the decisions themselves.

In Canada, this happens as the result of an election, where Canadians get to vote.

Yay! I was

elected

Voting usually happens about every four years…. Usually.

In Canada, we use a party system based on the political spectrum.

Riding or ConstituencyFor elections, the country or province is broken up into pieces called ridings or constituencies. A representative is selected from a variety of candidates by the voters.

Did you Know? Constituencies are called ridings because

originally the territory could not be larger than a man could ride

on horseback.

Representation by Population

Ridings can be very small, or very large. That is because they are based on population. For Federal elections (Canada wide) each riding contains approximately 100, 000 Canadians.

Nanaimo-Alberni

Nanaimo-Cowichan

1 Seat

(NWT)

100 Seats

(Ontario)

Provincial Politics

British Columbians elect Members to the Legislative Assembly in Victoria. The winners of each riding are called MLA’s. Most British Columbians refer to the assembly as the Parliament Buildings.

Who is our MLA?

Member of Parliament (MP)

In a separate election, Canadians elect Members of Parliament (MP’s) to go to Ottawa. They sit in the House of Commons, Canada’s Parliament

Who is our MP?

Jean Crowder (Federal NDP party)

The House of Commons

MP’s Win Seats in The House of

Commons

Inside the House of Commons1. Speaker’s Chair

3. Government Seats

5. Prime Minister

6. Leader of the Opposition

7. Leader of the 2nd largest opposition party9. Mace

11. Sgt. at Arms

12. The Bar

15. Public Gallery

2011 Canadian Federal Election Results

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/

Conservative Party: Finally the majority government that they wanted!

First Place! 167/308 Seats!

Conservative Party forms the Government of Canada.

How many seats did they need out of 308 to win a majority?

308 divided by 2 +1 = 155

The Prime Minister

Leader of the largest party in the HOC. He has the most MP’s and therefore the most seats.

Stephen HarperConservative Party

NDP: An Historic Second Place Finish!

NDP = Official Opposition (2nd Place)

The NDP won 102/308 Ridings/Constituencies/Electoral Districts

Liberal Party: Historic worst Place Finish! (3rd)

34/308 Seats

Leader Michael Ignatieff Resigns, after losing his own seat in the House of Commons!

Block Quebecois

Canada’s very own Quebec Separatist Party is decimated!

4/308 Seats!

Gilles Duceppe Resigns

Green Party – Historic Breakthrough!

Elizabeth May makes a historic breakthrough for Green Party’s around the world, by winning the first ever seat in the Canadian Parliament!

1/308 Seats are now Green!

2011Canadian Election Results

# of Seats won in the House of Commons Popular Vote: Percentage of

Canadians that voted for the various parties

Question: Are the seats in the HOC allocated fairly? How many seats would the Green Party have if they were done by the popular vote?

Seats in the House of Commons

There are enough seats in the House of Commons for one representative for approximately every 100, 000 Canadians. If the population of Canada is just over 30, 000, 000, How many seats are in the HOC?

A: 308

Conservatives

LiberalsBloc Quebecois

NDP

Please note, these election results are from 2008

A Majority Government!

A majority government, controls the House of Commons because they have over half of the votes.

It doesn’t matter what the opposition thinks, they

get out voted.

Leader of the Official Opposition

Leader of the second largest party in the House of Commons

Michael IgnatieffLiberal Party

Leader of the 2nd largest party in opposition

Winner of the 3rd most number of seats in the HOC.

Gilles DuceppeBloc Quebecois

Minority Government

A minority government has to be careful. They do not have ultimate power and must get help from the opposition to pass new laws. They have fewer than 50% of the seats.

If the opposition parties gang up on the government party, what happens?

Defeat!

If the government is defeated in the HOC, it means we go back to the drawing board and have another election!

When the Conservatives were a minority government they were on thin ice…

Quick Write

How are governments formed in Canada?