What Do Canadians Think of Trudeau?

jimintoronto said:
I think it might be helpful to our American members to understand what a Canadian Prime Minister is and what they do. In order to be made Prime Minister, a person must first stand for election in a national election, in a district somewhere in Canada. That person must be the leader of a political party, chosen by the members of that party, as leader. If that person is elected in their voting district, AND their party wins the majority of the 341 seats in Parliament, the party leader will be invited to form a national Government. The Prime Minister selects his Cabinet from the elected Members of his party, to fill Ministerial positions. So in our Parliamentary system, both the Prime Minister, and the Cabinet Ministers are elected to represent specific districts in the country. Members of Parliament in our current House are from five political parties. The current Government is made up of members of the Liberal party, but because the Liberals did not win a clear majority in the last election, they have to forge alliances with at least one of the 4 opposition parties, to be able to have enough votes to get proposed legislation passed through the House. In this case the Liberals have made an agreement with the New Democratic Party to work together. The NDP is the leading opposition party in the House.

Unlike the US President, the Canadian Prime Minister must be in the House each day to take part in Question period, where the PM has to answer direct questions from Opposition party members. Question Period is the first 90 minutes of each day's session of the House. The PM also must face direct questions out side of the House, from the media. Canadian Prime Ministers are expected to be fully bi-lingual, able to speak and read BOTH of our official languages fluently, with no teleprompter, or cue cards. In most cases the PM will switch from one language to the other in media interviews, depending on which language the question was asked in. National elections in Canada have no set date, but the usual time period between elections is about 5 years. Unlike the US system, a Canadian Governing party MAY be thrown out of office if the majority of the opposition members vote "No Confidence " in the Government , usually on a financial bill. If the governing party is voted out, a national election would be held with in 60 days. Canada has a permanent Voter's List that is updated every year. When a Canadian submits their annual income tax return to Revenue Canada, their name and address is automatically sent to Elections Canada to be included in the Voters List. By doing that we can easily send out the Voters Information Cards to all voters 3 weeks before the day of the election.

Our ballots are one single page, with the names of those who are running in your district. No voting machines, no additional "propositions ". Mark your choice with an X, drop it in the ballot box and off you go. In most cases, because we have a 5 day advance poll system, lineups are short and you are in and out in ten minutes, or less. By midnight on election day, the results are in. In Canada corporations cannot contribute to any political party, and individual donations cannot be greater than $1500. A voter does not have to be a member of a political party , in order to vote. Most Canadians are not a member of a political party, and many of us have voted for different parties over the years.

You will notice that I have not mentioned the current P.M. by name. I did that to avoid the "no politics " edict. If any one has questions about our electoral system, I will be glad to try to answer them here. JimB.
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Very much the same is Australia except for the bilingual bit and also this

"In Canada corporations cannot contribute to any political party, and individual donations cannot be greater than $1500."
 
JustDave said:
I didn't even get a chance to read the thread about the Jan 9th investigations by the US House, before it was yanked out of existence. I know that is a political issue, but it's probably the most important thing happening in the US since the Cuban Missile Crisis, and we can't talk about it.
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There are political message boards, mostly aligned with their parties. You can google "party message boards (or forums)" to find them. There are a few really large boards.
 

Flarbalard said:
Is the Governor General considered the Queen's representative and what do they do?
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The GG is the Queens direct representative in Canada. She/He is primarily a figurehead, BUT the GG does have special powers regarding the way in which Parliament is conducted, if a "motion of nonconfidence " is declared. If such a motion is passed, the GG manages the procedure to ensure the smooth passage of the newly elected Government. The GG represents the Crown in Canada, and overseas. A recent example was when our GG attended the recent celebrations in London for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee to represent Canada. By tradition the GG position rotates between a male and a female, and between a Anglophone, and a Francophone person. The current GG is a Innu woman from Nunavut. JImB.
 
oldman said:
When I asked the question, I wasn’t referring to his policies, but more to what type of person do you see him as? I don’t expect anyone here to have a one on one relationship with him, but you can generally tell if a person has his constituents best interests at heart, or is he more about himself?
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The current PM 's Father was Prime Minister for 3 terms in the 1960's and 1970's. Pierre was first elected to Parliament at about age 29, as a back bencher from Montreal. Pierre quickly moved up to a Cabinet position as Attorney General. He ran for Liberal party leader, and was elected by the party. He won his first election as PM by a wide margin and the Liberal party began a long run as "the natural governing party". His bachelor life was interesting, and he was romantically involved with a number of famous and beautiful women, including Barbra Streisand and Leona Boyd who was a world famous classical guitarist. He was a well educated man, whose family wealth came from a large chain of gas stations in Quebec. Pierre was well educated and fluently bilingual. His policies were middle of the road, but he irked a number of US Presidents because of his refusal to bow to their demands about Cuba. His marriage to Margaret produced three sons. One son died in an avalanche in British Columbia while skiing . The two remaining sons are Justin ( the current Prime Minister age 42 ) and the younger son who is not involved in politics at all. When Pierre died at age 74, it was revealed that he had produced a daughter from a affair with a woman in his late 60's. Pierre's legacy is that he modernized our immigration system, and he famously said that " The Government of Canada has no place in the bedrooms of Canadians " This was a reference to the decriminalization of abortion and the decriminalization of the laws around homosexuality in Canada. His son has been elected PM three times now. At age 42, Justin is one of the youngest national leaders in both the G 7 and the G 20 groups. Growing up Justin was surrounded by the political world and it's leaders, including the Queen, Presidents, Prime Ministers and Cabinet Ministers.

JimB.
 
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