POL 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Distinct Society, Long Knives, Cabinet Of Canada

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Politics and Public Administration
• Course: POL 101
• Professor: All

Document Summary

What is a constitution: fundamental rules (written & unwritten) about public decision making, establishes rules about: Powers & responsibilities of three branches of government (prime minister, supreme court,parliament) Allocates powers to different levels of government. Enumerate rights of citizens: rules about how we make the rules example: if we wanted to change legislation regarding driving speed, the constitution tells us what the procedures are for changing these rules. For example: constitution talks about the crown and its power. Minister has taken power and although the constitution still refers to the crowns power we know that pm has taken place of the crown: judicial decisions that interpret constitution. Together these four elements make up the rules about making rules. The constitution was not a canadian act until 1982 instead we were under bna 1867 which stated we could not change the constitution without going to the crown.