POLS 2300 Lecture Notes - Constitutionalism, Think Tank

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLS 2300
• Professor: Nanita Mohan

Document Summary

Developments are seen both as an opening of the canadian political parties to more participation and a widening of the gap between canadian and american political cultures: changes to leadership selection rules have moved parties from having closed caucus selection (only a handful an elected members involved) to full scale leadership contests (open to any paid member of the party, legislation that bands contributions from corporations and unions and limits annual individual contributions to 1100 has greatly altered the role of fundraising and money in canadian politics. First past the post (single member plurality: current system used in all provinces and federally, in every electoral district, the candidate with the most votes wins a seat, an absolute majority of votes in an electoral district is not needed, rewards parties with concentrated support punishes parties with support spread over electoral districts.