This 7 page paper examines the powers of the Canadian Prime Minister and the President of the United States, and argues that the President is the more powerful of the two, even though by law, the Canadian government gives more power to the Prime Minister. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_HVCanUSA.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
between the two nations. Both are powerful democracies with strong economies, but their two leaders do not seem to be equal. This paper argues that although by law the Canadian
Prime Minister is granted more powers than the President of the United States, in actual fact, the President is the more powerful of the two. The Prime Minister One thing
that is common to both countries is that the duties and responsibilities of the Prime Minister/President have changed over the years, from what they were, as originally established by Parliament
or the Constitution. Custom, legal interpretation and other factors have led to a modification of executive powers, especially in the United States. In Canada, which has a parliamentary system,
"the executive and legislative branches of government are fused, with the prime minister and cabinet (all elected members of Parliament) responsible to Parliament" (Anderson, 2003, p. 26). This is not
the way it actually works: "In reality, the propensity for Canadas electoral system to confer super-majority governments results in the Canadian prime minister enjoying a level of authority and control
over legislation and government policy virtually unparalleled in other democracies" (Anderson, 2003, p. 26). The Parliament is comprised of the Queen (who is represented by the governor general), the
House of Commons, which is elected, and the Senate, which is appointed (Anderson, 2003). As in the United States, it is expected that the Senate will be a more deliberative
body and curb the excesses of the lower chamber, which is usually filled with younger, more eager legislators (Anderson, 2003). In Canada, though, as in the U.S., both houses usually
work together and few bills proposed in the Commons are held up in the Senate (Anderson, 2003). The Canadian Senate differs from its American counterpart in that it does not