Only 1 Vote, eh? May 2, 2011

Okay, so there's an election on Monday (has anyone in the US heard about this??), and since I'm Canadian and am so very informed on the issues, I should vote. Well, that informed part isn't actually true (especially with how much the US learns about Canada), so I decided to change that with the help of the internet. I started at www.elections.ca to find out who the parties and candidates are. After scouring each of the four main parties' websites: Liberals, Conservatives, Green Party, and NDP (New Democratic Party), I have learned that they all plan on spending a lot of money and yet somehow fixing the deficit. Huh, this is starting to sound similar to US politics. I then searched for a comparison of the parties side by side on popular issues, and after a few sites, I ended up on Wikipedia. This is not unexpected as most research online now ends in a wiki. Similarly common, I ended up researching completely different topics than I intended. I took wiki's Canadian government 101 and decided to share the results with you, though I've restricted today's activities to the federal level and kept it to snippets:

• The crown still rules, though only as a figurehead. The queen appoints the Governor General (GG - my acronym, purely out of laziness) to act on her behalf, based on the recommendation of the Prime Minister (PM) about every 5 years though it's based on 'her majesty's pleasure' (ha).
  
• Legislative: Parliament is made up of the Crown (GG), Senate (105 appointed seats), and House of Commons (308 elected seats). The Senate is appointed by the GG based on the PM's recommendation and holds the position until they resign or are 75 years old. The House of Commons has 308 elected Members of Parliament (MP). Legislation starts in the House and once approved, the Senate and Crown review and rarely reject it, though with more committees and complicated processes.
  
• Judicial: Supreme Court with 9 justices appointed by GG.
  
• Executive: The GG also appoints the PM. This person is the leader of the party that holds the majority in the House of Commons.
  

There are a few things that I find interesting with this system.

1. An election occurs only when parliament is dissolved by the GG, or if 5 years go by. It is not regular and rarely makes it the full 5 years without a vote of no confidence and new election. What a waste of campaigning money!
   
2. The PM holds a lot of power by appointing the Senators only when a seat opens up, instead of at regular intervals.
   
3. You only get 1 vote. (well duh you say...but think of the implications of the PM being selected based on the party that holds the most seats in the House). It means that when you vote for your local MP, you are also voting for the Prime Minister, not separately, so you have to decide whether you want to vote for the local candidate, the overall party, or the party leader. Kind of makes me less inclined to vote.
   

Now truth be told, I haven't researched this much about any American politics or elections, so maybe I'm growing up. Ick! Today I am more Canadian than I was yesterday, but I really haven't come to much of a conclusion. If only there were uniforms so I could vote based on jersey color like how I choose my March Madness brackets. Guh! Saturday Night Live, how do I choose??