CRITICAL READING PAPER

Critical Reading Paper - Canada's Demographic Deficit



Critical Reading Paper - Canada's Demographic Deficit

Introduction

Given the likelihood of electoral reform in the near future and, therefore, more frequent minority governments, Canadians should ask themselves if the Prime Minister of a defeated government should have the right to dissolve the de facto legislature. Certainly, it is appropriate to discuss the issue of fixed election dates that would remove the Prime Minister the right to hold elections as he sees fit if the majority or minority government has the confidence of meeting, it is even more pressing to do so in the case of a prime minister whose government no longer has that confidence. In considering this question it is necessary to consider whether the fact that the Crown has the discretion to grant indefinite or refuse the dissolution is based in a representative democracy.

Discussion

What is democracy and if so, how the experience is different does in Canada? Today, this concept has become far too complicated to be explained simply in terms of popular participation, few voters remain convinced that their individual actions have a meaning other than symbolic. More anecdotally, democracy is the desire for people to break or limit an overly coercive authority, to protect or improve their material living conditions through the stability, transparency and a sense of mutual dependence, and to encourage both in the government and among citizens the impression that everyone plays roles whose importance should be recognized by all (Pilon, 2011). In Canada, this process is an attempt to balance the particularly precarious concepts of popular sovereignty, social diversity and political consistency, and what, in a world of increasingly complex.

Democracy is first victim of its own success: the more it is accepted as the criterion of legitimate governance, unless we agree on the meaning given to it, or we should give him. One can easily see that democracy is viable in many forms. It may indeed be based on the principle of responsible government (Britain, Canada) or the separation of powers (United States), on a proportional representation or first past the post on the unitary or federal, and the supremacy of a constitutional or parliamentary sovereignty (Pilon, 2011). According to the French philosopher Montesquieu, the best political systems are those that incorporate the distinct cultural characteristics of the nation. However, all social norms (such as parental authority or the caste system, for example) can not or should be readily accepted by democratic states.

In a democracy, citizens have the sovereign power and express their will by the vote, according to the principle "one person, one vote". Other criteria are added to this basic principle such as: equality before the law, the real guarantee of fundamental rights including freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of association, the absence of arbitrary arrest and freedom of the press. Democracy requires a judicial system based on laws established freely by the people or its representatives and respected by the government (Pilon, ...