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The State of Canadian Democracy


“The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within.” a quote from Gandhi (Democracy quotes). Good evening, I will be speaking behalf of all Canadians about the state of Canadian democracy. Here in the West we feel democracy is an integral part of our society and we value it greatly. Regardless of what one may think about democracy, we feel democracy is the best system and its influence will grow throughout the world. Throughout the speech I will be discussing the strengths and weaknesses of Canadian democracy. First I will be examining what is democracy and the overall state of democracy in Canada. Next I will be discussing if the Canadian Prime minister if he is an elected dictator and also a look into the different electoral systems. Finally I will be taking an in-depth look into the Canadian Charter of rights, the significance of judges in parliament, lastly the impact of the media on Canadian Democracy.
First and foremost I would like to define the word democracy. To most of us it means equality, freedom, liberty, freedom of speech many more things that can be associated with the word democracy so as a result there is no agreed definition on the word democracy. But to explain and analyze democracy a little better is that it has three models: representative democracy, direct democracy and lastly deliberative democracy. These entire democratic groups share one thing in common is that it shares the desire to make decisions in a way that allows every member to participate in a democratic decision making process (Free and Fair Elections?, White, 2008). Deliberative democracy is that when people discuss “what issues need to be debated and talking about possible solutions until they agree on the best solution or option for the group”(What do we mean by democracy?, 13). Direct democracy basically means that all of the people decide on the issue by voting on specific...