Democracy and Prime Minister Essay

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Canada is a multicultural, open-minded country with an interesting culture and great cities. This makes it very attractive to people from other countries, like me. The political system in Canada is an interesting aspect of this country, being fair and democratic since 1967, with elected Members of Parliament in the House of Commons and a seemingly democratic Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. Though contrary to popular belief, our Prime Minister holds many powers over us that dictate what we do on an everyday level.
In my opinion the Prime Minister is what some people call a democratic Dictator. He has some powers that don't seem to be fair or justified to his people, and belong more to those of an Autocrat. However, Stephen Harper still represents the Head of a democratic Parliament and he cannot pass laws alone. Nevertheless, the Prime Minister has many powers. For example, he controls the distribution and our viewing ability of all kinds of media and official documents. This means that he is able to censor and change articles in newspapers or control content shown on TV if he disagrees with it. In addition he has access to documents and the power to change and censor them as well. The fact that one person controls this extent of censorship demonstrates how unfair Harper's Power really is, especially with reference to the election time. In this period of time media becomes a useful medium to sell policies and make promises.
Furthermore, the Prime Minister has the power to stop and prorogue the government whenever he wants or has need to. He is able to sue and even cut M.P.'s without any reason which seems unjustified to me because Harper can decide and rule things over the head of the M.P.'s and they are unable to contradict him. This shows his dictatorship on the government, since no one has the power to speak against him and halts many important processes such as the creation of a new bill.
Besides this, the Prime Minister has the Power of Patronage on the government, which means that he can appoint any politicians he would like to the Senate. Senators are paid $132,000 a year and are not required to retire until they turn 75. This is an unfair act because Harper can easily appoint People of his own party to the Senate whenever there are open seats. This in turn means that most members in parliament are in agreement with Harper’s decisions and wont argue them, giving Harper an assured win in all things
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