POLI 1119 Lecture Notes - Westminster System
Document Summary
Charter of rights, and established aboriginal treaty rights. Canada could not agree on amending formula before this. Some of the many amendments that it did. Amending formula: constitutionally the most important because it has been a stumbling block in canada when. Conventions: unmodified rules for managing political system. Federal government was politically bound to ask the provinces constitution would lack the politically legitimacy: no legal recourse only political. Can be quite powerful (blocked trudeau from unilaterally changing the constitution) Can be very convoluted because it can be poorly understood: while not legally binding, many of the key components of the constitution of canada are convention for example, selection of the prime minister and cabinet. This exists because it is based on constitutionally convention. The relationship between executive and bureaucracy, how government runs, is also based on convention. Speaks to depth of legitimacy in a westminster system; that governments cannot simply ignore or override these conventions.