【英语趣味课堂】加拿大政治-Canadian Politics

 Todd: OK, now Steve, the Canadian political system and the American political system are quite different. Could you explain to me how the Canadian political system works?

 

Steve: Sure. Basically in Canada there are 10 provences and three territories. We call the three territories, territories because they have less than 50,000 people living in them. They're really far north, where it is cold and obviously not so comfortable to live. The other ten provences are British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Foundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Each Provence has their provincial¹ government but as far as federal government the capital is in Ottawa, and there's actually an election coming up, probably sometime this year. Each province is given seats in the federal cabinet and seats are given based on population so Ontario and Quebec which have the largest populations have the most seats in Federal Parliament and so wherever you live you basically vote for the politician who is running in your particular geographical² area, and the political party which wins the most seats forms the government that rules the country.

 

Todd: OK, and the leader of the country comes from that party?

 

Steve: Yeah, the leader of the country is elected within the party. They elect the leader (OK) So each party, when they want a leader, they have a leadership convention, and they elect a leader to lead that party, but the leader of the party must also run in their own constituency or riding, so if they don't win they can't be the Prime Minister, so, yeah, the main political parties, right now the government is Liberal Government. Other prominent parties are the New Democratic Party, sometimes called the NDP, and the New Conservative Party. Also a powerful party is Bloc³ Quebecois, which has most of its seats obviously in Quebec, so there are four main political parties.

 

学习内容：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

political system

 

How does the Canadian political system work?

 

A 'political system' is the framework for how politics work in a country.  Notice the following:

 

It is difficult to understand exactly how the political system works here because there is so much corruption⁴.

The last few elections have made a mess of the political system.

territory

 

In Canada, there are ten provinces and three territories.

 

In this case a 'territory' is a place that is owned by Canada and part of the Canadian continent, but does not have enough people to be considered a state. Notice the following:

 

Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States.

There are many British territories around the world.

coming up

 

There's an election coming up sometime this year.

 

If something is 'coming up' it will happen in the near future. Notice the following:

 

Your birthday is coming up soon, right?

I have my final exams coming up next week.

win the most seats

 

The party that wins the most seats becomes the ruling party.

 

A 'seat' refers to a representative within the Federal Parliament.  So the example is saying that whichever political party has the most representatives in the House of Commons is the ruling party. Notice the following:

 

It will be a surprise to see who wins the most seats in the next election.

The New Conservative Party won the most seats during the last election.

riding

 

The leader of the party must also run in their own constituency or riding.

 

A 'riding' is an geographical location, such as a city, that has representation in the House of Commons in Canada. Notice the following:

 

Our riding usually votes for the New Democratic Party.

It was a very close election in our riding.

1 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

2 geographical   

adj.地理的；地区(性)的

参考例句：

• The current survey will have a wider geographical spread.当前的调查将在更广泛的地域范围內进行。
• These birds have a wide geographical distribution.这些鸟的地理分布很广。

3 bloc   

n.集团；联盟

参考例句：

• A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
• There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。

4 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。