POG 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Constitution Of The United Kingdom, Collective Responsibility, Responsible Government
19 Jun 2018
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Department
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POG110
Lecture 3
History and confederation
Confederation- ON, QU, NS join together
Principles of confederation
Federalism- power divided between at least two federal governments
Quazai federation
POGG- responsibility for power over good government
Federalism- first principle
British parliamentary system- second principle
- Three parts- house of commons, senate, crown (monarchy)
- House of commons- 338 representatives sit in commons, elected, based on presence by
population, common people (elected officials),
- Senate- upper chamber, senate powerful in theory but not in practice, have some
important responsibilities but more responsibilities than power, appointed by PM
- Crown- constitutional monarchy, constitution lays out rules, also a monarchy, things are
the way they are because of the way they were, we still have a crown and monarch,
- For anything to become a bill, must start in house (voted on etc.), then senate, then
monarch and monarch signs it (giving the bill royal descent)
- System present in many former British colonies
- House of commons elected, senate and crown appointed/inherited
Responsible government
- Inherited by Britain
- Democratic power here
- Ministers head the government, responsible for legislature
- We vote for people in legislature, minister responsible for keeping legislature happy
- To be a member of cabinet, have to be a member of the legislature
- To be a member of legislature, have to seek a bi-election
- Collective responsibility- cabinet as a whole responsible to legislature
- When you’re a member of cabinet, you’re responsible for a lot of bureaucrat- minister of
health, education etc.
- Ministers are elected and if something goes wrong, ultimately you’re responsible
- If your minister of something and something goes wrong, ministers are responsible and
could possibly lose job- individual ministerial responsible connect with collectively
ministerial responsibility
What did confederation not do
- Canada’s independence 1982
- Confederation 18-something
- Confederation did not bring Canada independence from Britain
- Governor general still in power- Queen’s representative in Canada
- Quazai government
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- Power of disallowance- Canadian legislature would pass rules and governor general
allowed it
- Only constitutional document- power to change it found in Britain, Canada cannot
change it
- Now we have supreme court of Canada as final court of appeal, but in confederation final
court was in Britain-if there is a conflict between British and Canadian legislation, Britain
legislation wins
- Not until 1931- were we close to independence- statute of west minister- no longer
appointing governor general or using power of disallowance
- Ability to change own constitution- 1982
- We did not have our own flag till
- Until 1980 we sang god save the queen in hockey games
Theories of confederation
- Debate about nature of Canadian Federalism- what it is and what it wants to be
- Lots of disagreement
- Agree that John A Macdonald wanted a Unitary state
- Wanted central government to be as powerful as possible
- To John A Macdonald and allies- federalism was no good, let’s avoid bloody war US had
by having a central government
- Maritimes does not want to join Unitary state because smaller population
- Quebec did not want a unitary state because they wanted to protect language and religion
- Compromise- created the federal system we have today
- Different visions this reflected
Confederation as a Canadian version of Imperial government
- Canada had scraps of power, but most power in Britain
- Macdonald- let’s run it with an imperial government- replace London with Ottawa-
Ottawa will have power of disallowance
- Canada is rejecting America Federalism
- Only have federalism as political necessity
Based upon US Federalism
- Thesis forwarded by Robert Vipond- scholar who wrote a lot
- Macdonald and allies did want a central government- if Macdonald had his way federal
government would have central power but a lot of people did not agree with him
- Cartier, an ally of Macdonald from Quebec- pro confederation said we are going to have
a strong provincial government to protect language and religion
- Despite power of disallowance etc. Macdonald did not get everything he wanted, he told
people we’ll make sure you have your strong local governments
- United states was first place to constitutionally guarantee power to two governments-
despite war, states recognize their individual power and when Lincoln abolished slavery,
south said no we are going to keep it, we have division of power- so war happened
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Federalism- power divided between at least two federal governments. Three parts- house of commons, senate, crown (monarchy) House of commons- 338 representatives sit in commons, elected, based on presence by population, common people (elected officials), Senate- upper chamber, senate powerful in theory but not in practice, have some important responsibilities but more responsibilities than power, appointed by pm. Crown- constitutional monarchy, constitution lays out rules, also a monarchy, things are the way they are because of the way they were, we still have a crown and monarch, For anything to become a bill, must start in house (voted on etc. ), then senate, then monarch and monarch signs it (giving the bill royal descent) House of commons elected, senate and crown appointed/inherited. Ministers head the government, responsible for legislature. We vote for people in legislature, minister responsible for keeping legislature happy. To be a member of cabinet, have to be a member of the legislature.
