Canadian Democracy A Lack of Transparency and...

Introduction A democratic government has long been favoured as the most fair and representative government for a country to have. This essay will explore the advantages and disadvantages of both minority and majority government (for example efficiency, compromise, and power) and argue that in fact neither offers a fair representation of Canadian’s due to lack of both transparency and accountability. Parliamentary Government In Canada there are three branches of government: the executive branch which enforces Canadian laws and carries out government business; the legislative branch which debates and passes laws; and the judicial branch which interprets the laws and dictates how punishment should be carried out. In parliamentary†¦show more content†¦Furthermore, Prime Ministers who lead minority governments must be very cautious in who they select for their cabinet ministers so to ensure the House members will support the government; however as Jackson, D., Jackson R.J. (2002) states â€Å"even with such precautions, minority governments have tended to be quite unstable and pass less legislation than governments based on single-party majority control of the House† (p. 137). Majority Government A majority government occurs when a single party wins 155 (50% plus 1) or more seats in the House of Commons and the rest of the seats are split up amongst the other parties in the House of Commons depending on which party’s MP received the majority vote in their electoral riding. In fact, as Jackson, D., Jackson, R.J. (2002) have pointed out â€Å"most elections have produced a majority government, based on the support of only one party in the House of Commons† (p. 137). A majority government has much different advantages and disadvantages than the minority government; one major advantage for the party with the majority government is that they don’t require the support of any of the other parties in order to pass their bills. 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