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“Canada is a parliamentary democracy: its system of government holds that the law is the supreme authority. The Constitution Act, 1867, which forms the basis of Canada’s written constitution, provides that there shall be one Parliament for Canada, consisting of three distinct elements: the Crown, the Senate and the House of Commons. However, as a federal state, responsibility for lawmaking in Canada is shared among one federal, ten provincial and three territorial governments.

“The power to enact laws is vested in a legislature composed of individuals selected to represent the Canadian people. Hence, it is a “representative” system of government. The federal legislature is bicameral: it has two deliberative “houses” or “chambers” — an upper house, the Senate, and a lower house, the House of Commons. ^[9]  The Senate is composed of individuals appointed by the Governor General to represent Canada’s provinces and territories. Members of the House of Commons are elected by Canadians who are eligible to vote. ^[10] The successful candidates are those who receive the highest number of votes cast among the candidates in their electoral district in this single-member, simple-plurality system.

“Canada is also a constitutional monarchy, in that its executive authority is vested formally in the Queen through the Constitution. ^[11]  Every act of government is carried out in the name of the Crown, but the authority for those acts flows from the Canadian people. ^[12]  The executive function belongs to the Governor in Council, which is, practically speaking, the Governor General acting with, and on the advice of, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. ^[13]“

Source: The Canadian System of Government. Parliament of Canada. Last accessed Nov. 8, 2019.

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“In terms of the form of government, Canada is a constitutional monarchy based on a British-style parliamentary system. It is also a federation with two constitutionally recognized orders of government. The first order is the central or “federal” government. The second but constitutionally equal order of government consists of the 10 provincial governments, which bear the principal responsibility for a broad range of social policy programmes and services including the bulk of publicly financed and administered health services. The municipal level of government plays an important role in public health in Ontario.”

Source: Marchildon G.P., Allin S., Merkur S. Canada: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2020; 22(3): i–194.

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“Canada has two constitutionally recognized orders of government, the central or “federal” government and 10 provincial governments. While they do not enjoy the constitutional status of the provinces, the three northern territories exercise many of the same policy and programme responsibilities including those for health care.

“As measured by a number of criteria, including provincial control of revenues and expenditure relative to the central government, the country has become a more decentralized federation since the early 1960s (Watts, 2008). This trend has, in part, been driven by the struggle of successive administrations in Quebec seeking greater autonomy for their province from the federal government (Requejo, 2010). In recent years, other provincial governments have also demanded some redress of what they perceive as a fiscal imbalance between the ever-growing spending responsibilities of the provinces, especially for health care, relative to the much greater revenue generating capacity of the central government. Following a pattern set by Quebec, other provincial governments have occasionally demanded less federal conditionality and greater flexibility in terms of the Canada Health Act.”

Source: Marchildon G.P., Allin S., Merkur S. Canada: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2020; 22(3): i–194.

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Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems in the US and sixteen other nations.

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Page last updated Oct. 23, 2022 by Doug McVay, Editor.