Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Excessive Powers of a Prime Minister
In a political setup, power refers to the authority vested in various individuals who help in governing the society. Canada, among other democratic countries, has political institutions in which power has been divided. However, the division of authority between these political institutions is determined by the constitution. These legislative bodies are the legislature, executive, and judiciary (Thomas & Biette, 2014). Fundamentally the power should be equally distributed. However, the current transformation has vested a lot of authority to the prime minister who is the heart of the government. It subsequently led to a very powerful prime minister. Taking the case of Canada, this discussion will demonstrate the enormous amount of power vested in the prime minister in such forms of governments.
To start with, the prime minister is the head of the government. In Canada, the prime minister is the leader of the political party that wins most seats in the House of Commons (Savoie, 2013). Despite having no constitutionally documented roles of the prime minister, he or she is the most influential person and sometimes erroneously referred to as the head of state. Apart from being the chief of the government, he or she is a cabinet chair and a party leader. However, it is their responsibility to make a gender balance as well as representing the regional interests considering the ethnic minorities as a cabinet chair. The cabinet is the decision-making body and, therefore, being the chair, there is a lot of power vested in him or her as the final decision wholly depends on him.
Over time, there are a lot of responsibilities given to the prime minister in Canada that is not noted in the constitution (Howe, 2008). The undocumented powers have made the Prime Minister Exercise power and authority discreetly without supervision or consensus from other branches of the government. The prime minister’s powers exist in the constitution conventions. Many of the Governor General’s tasks are done on the prime minister’s advice (Aucoin et al, 2011). Therefore, he has a final say on the work done by the governor general. A good example is dissolving the parliament and the triggering of the federal election done by the governor general after consulting the prime minister.
In the sector of appointment, the prime minister has a broad range of power. The judicial appointment decision is made by the governor general after seeking advice from the Prime Minister (Gidengil & Bastedo, 2014). The selecting panel submits a list of three unranked candidates from which the prime minister chooses one of them to be the judicial appointee. Since there are no public hearings, the decision is purely under discretion, and there are no stipulated guidelines that the prime minister follows for the appointment. He or she also has the power to recommend the appointment of senators to get to the minimum 105 members required (Aucoin et al, 2011). Since the constitution does not clearly state the relationship between the prime minister and the governor general, there is a lot of ministerial powers unveiled.
The prime minister is very close to the crown. To a great extent, they enjoy the responsibilities of the head. As discussed earlier, the prime minister helps the governor general on the recommendation of various issues. Therefore, there is a close relationship between the powers of the Crown and the prime minister. The privilege sets the prime minister at the top of the Canadian politics. The constitution is the most powerful law of the Canadian government. Therefore, no individual has the power to challenge the document. However, the prime minister has the powers to convene meetings of provincial premiers to negotiate on constitutional change in addition to any national affair (Thomas & Biette, 2014).
According to Savoie (2013), the prime minister and the sitting government control the day to day affairs. Therefore, they set the daily agendas that are easy to control and to formulate. Since he or she is in charge of appointing and removal of the cabinet ministers, they command loyalty. In the process, the loyal ministers may be rewarded with the coveted positions (Finn, 2015). As a result, much commitment is shown by the interested members and to avoid being barred from vying through the political ticket earlier used. The party leaders are chosen by the party members and, therefore, the members of the parliament cannot stand against a leader elected by the majority party members. Therefore, the prime minister has a lot of influence on the agendas made and has an easier time to operate them.
The prime minister, therefore, is in charge of making major decisions. Considering that he determines the appointment of the judges and the senators, the appointed people tend to side with the prime ministers to secure their trust with the prime minister. In some cases, they consider his decisions and points over some issues to defend their positions as he has the power to appoint and dismiss the cabinet ministers (Gidengil & Bastedo, 2014). The cabinet ministers may, therefore, be forced to be biased towards the sitting government. On the other hand, the summoning and the dissolution of the parliament depend on the advice of the Prime Minister (Howe, 2008). Therefore, the prime minister might consider interrupting the passing of a bill to law and trigger federal elections.
Media plays a greater role in politics. It is the mirror of the society from where the citizens receive information about day to day political affairs. The prime minister, being the focal point takes advantage of the powers of the media to achieve the political ambitions (Aucoin et al, 2011). The prime minister has the benefit of obtaining more power and opportunities with the media than any other political figure. In such a case, they have the ability and the advantage to make their views better known and to support the governing party. Constant exaggeration and emphasis on the powers vested in the prime minister by the current government make them very powerful. Considering that the media gives an illusion that the prime minister is more powerful than any other political figure, makes people overestimate their powers and eventually triggers the prime minister to be powerful as well.
After the ruling of Sir Pierre Trudeau, the Westminster system accumulated a lot of power and authority upon the Prime Minister (Finn, 2015). Apart from the decision making, the prime minister is accountable for all the decisions made. The head of the government, therefore, can acquire all information on the first hand efficiently (Thomas & Biette, 2014). However, they are charged by no one as no higher power can punish them in case the decision takes a wrong turn. Therefore, the decisions made may be good or bad, and the office will go unpunished since they are the highest rank. The decisions made have an advantage of the support from the cabinet where the prime minister has appointees who tend to be biased to secure their favor and positions.
The Westminster democracy has played a great role in wresting power away from the crown and vesting it upon the Prime Minister (Finn, 2015). Therefore, the prime minister can use and retain the crown powers, which happens in most cases as he person holding the position deems right. The crown powers have enabled the prime ministers to advance their partisan interests. Since the democratic institutions have been eroded, there is a significant effect on the democratic governance. The lack of transparency, less scrutiny of public policy and lack of accountability are challenges that work for the actions of the Prime Minister (Thomas & Biette, 2014). There is also little debate associated with the powers and the decisions of the prime minister since most of the members of the parliament are in support of the sitting government for personal interests.
In conclusion, the Canada case shows that there is a lot of power vested in the position of the prime minister. He is the head of the government, the chair of the cabinet and the leader. His or her powers are not documented in the constitution, but he or she stands out to be a very powerful political leader in the Canadian politics. His roles of appointing the judges, cabinet ministers and the senators give them a lot of commands for loyalty. His or her power to ban ministers from vying in the subsequent elections helps them to gain support from a large number of members who may also be interested in winning favors out of their loyalty. As the chair of the decision-making body, the prime minister also influences most of the decisions made as he or she makes the final determination. As the advisor to the governor general, the prime minister is accorded a wide range of Crown powers.
References
Aucoin, P., Turnbull, L. B., & Jarvis, M. D. (2011). Democratizing the Constitution: Reforming Responsible Government. Toronto: Emond Montgomery Publications.
Finn, E. (2015). Canada after Harper: His Ideology-Fuelled Attack on Canadian Society and Values, and How we can Resist and Create the Country we want. Toronto: Lorimer
Gidengil, E., & Bastedo, H. (2014). Canadian Democracy from the Ground Up: Perceptions And Performance. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press
Howe, P. (2008). Strengthening Canadian Democracy. Montreal, Québec: Inst. for Research on Public Policy (IRPP).
Savoie, D. J. (2013). Whatever Happened to the Music Teacher?: How Government Decides and Why. Toronto: Mcgill-Queens University Press
Thomas, D. M., & Biette, D. (2014). Canada and the United States: Differences that Count. Toronto: University of Toronto Press