Canada's electoral process is based on the British parliamentary system.. that means its ' first past the post ' voting.. If you have five candidates in a riding, the one with the ' most ' votes gets it, even if, cumulatively, more people voted for the other four..

other problem is that you don't vote directly for the leader..he is elected in his own riding just like everyone else..so the problem becomes do you vote for the candidate you like or the party you like in order to get the leader you want.. often times you can have a lousy local candidate but you got to hold your nose and vote him/her in to get the leader in as Prime Minister..

lots of talk and debate to change the system to proportional voting.. where each party puts up a list of candidates [ leader at the top, of course ] and then you just vote in each riding..depending on the number of votes each party gets, the seats in parliament are then assigned from the available lists until all the seats are filled..[ seems to work in a number of European countries ]..

Don't know if its a problem or a good thing, but we're a splintered constituency.. there are 5 main parties [ plus a number of fringe groups ] whereas the US has just the 2 Republican/Democrats, though I know there was a move to establish a third option under Ross Perot a bit back - didn't Ralph Nader try to get in on that? ]

as for regional balance..its all based on population.. the more people you have in your province, the more ridings you get [ though, to make sure each region is represented little provinces like Prince edward Island are guaranteed a minimum number of seats in Parliament which leads to the clumsy ' balance; of a province of some 300,000 people having 4 representatives when Ontario with the biggest population having 103 representatives.]..

I'm sure that in the US regional interests affect voting and policy and bills..with lots of backroom dealings to make sure the locals are cut out of any gravy train, if possible..

hey, politics is one big crock, no matter what system you have.. none are prefect...

I knew Candada was a parlimentary system but I'm somewhat ignorant as to how that system distributes representation i.e. my remark about Montreal over riding the western provinces.

What reading I have done on Canada's system was on the disgruntled western Canuck whose votes were essentially being over ridden by people back east who might never set foot in the western provinces.

Agreed that all politics are pretty jacked up, but the superiority of a more representative government is that it fosters more individual freedom.

Extreme example would be San Francisco versus the fictional Mayberry of Andy and Opey. Proper representation allows for both to exist. The homosexual community of SanFran doesn't want some bible thumpin' maniac telling them what to do though the shoe fits the other foot as well. (If one doesn't like my fictional town, pick any medium town in the bible belt.)

It boils down to a states' rights issue, which, despite both the Left and the Right using the states' argument erroneously in the past, is still a cornerstone of our freedom. And the principle in general a cornerstone to freedom everywhere.

If I remember my book learnin' the biggest difference between US and Canada systems is that States' Rights in America take precedence over Federal Rights..that is individual states have greater jurisdiction with a ' weak ' central authority..whereas in the True North, we have a Confederation where the Federal Government has precedence over the individual Provincial governments..
basically a different division of responsibilities..can't say what works better,, but, since the British system has been ' evolving 'for far longer than the US has been around, I guess there's something to say for its effectivness..though, of course, the US/Republican system has been tested in many countries, too..
all boils down to the ideal of one man one vote, with even the little guy having the same 'clout' as the bigguns - wonder where that went wrong?..hahaha

we keep this up much longer I'm going to have to dig out my old civics textbook...

Not a big fan of this magazine but The Weekly Standard's cover story is on the Great White Waste. That being Canada. I saw it on the shelf at Borders and there's some pretty good stuff in there, much of it, attitude wise anyway, echoing what I was saying.

Basically that Americans for the most part don't even think of Canada. If this thread fires back up I'll pull some of it out.

Nothing New Then.. US only thinks of Canada when we do something spectacular or piss you off..

somehow the fact that we're America's largest trading partner falls off the radar.. At any given moment thousands of trucks and rail cars cross back and forth across the border bringing goods into each others domains.. Big 3 Auto makers produce certain linesof cars for each ocountry exlusively in one for shipment to the other.. Canadian oil is the second biggest supply the US gets, after the Middle East and way more than Venezuela..

when the Golbal Warming bomb hits big time America will be looking to invade the True North for our vast supply of clean drinking water, and then we'll have to beat you guys up again...

until then, I guess we'll just have to keep watching Hollywood Bruckheimer blow-em-up-good movies starring Ben Affleck and Britney Spears you keep sending us...

I've got to admit Rocketeer that some of the most beautiful strippers I've ever seen....er,ah,...I mean ...heard about,have been from Canada!