Canada is a confederation of ten provinces and three territories. This confederation was established in 1867 with the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario.

Canada has a parliamentary democracy at both the federal (national) level and provincial/territorial level. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada (and of the United Kingdom) and she is represented by a Governor General (appointed for a five year term, currently Michaëlle Jean). As a constitutional monarch, the Queen is not political and has no direct governing role; she reigns but does not rule.

The head of government is the Prime Minister (PM) who is normally the leader of the political party that  won the most seats in a general election. (Note that a PM does not have to hold a seat in the House of Commons.) If the Prime Minister's party wins more than 50% of the seats, Canada has a majority government. Since we have a multi-party system, you can also have situations where  a minority government is formed by the party that gains the most seats but not more than 50%. Generally, this means a somewhat more volatile government. General elections are held when the governing party chooses to hold one or if the governing party loses a vote of confidence or a vote on a bill involving allocating government money. A governing party cannot go longer than 5 years without calling a general election.  Proposed legislation would set fixed election dates unless the governing party loses a confidence vote in the House of Commons; under this proposal, the next election would be October 19, 2009 (unless the government loses the confidence of the House, which is likely to occur in a shorter term within a minority government).

The Canadian Parliament is made up of an upper and a lower house. The lower house is called the House of Commons and its 308 members are called Members of Parliament (MPs). MPs are democratically elected from ridings (e.g. electoral districts), roughly allocated based on population. The upper house is called the Senate and its 105 members (Senators) are regionally apportioned and appointed by the Prime Minister. They serve until age 75; the current government has proposed that senators' tems be limited to eight years. The Senate's function is often referred to as "sober second thought"; in order to become law, all bills msut be submitted to, and passed by, both the House of Commons and the Senate (either of which may recommend changes to the other) and finally, given royal assent by the Governor General on the Queen's behalf.

In 2006, the major federal political parties are:

  • Conservative Party ("Tories"): center right; 125 seats in the House of Commons, 23 senators; governing with a minority government. Strongly associated with the color blue.
  • Liberal Party ("Grits"): center; 102 seats in the House of Commons, 65 senators; red
  • Bloc Quebecois: Quebec nationalist, 51 seats in the House of Commons; light blue
  • New Democratic Party (NDP): center left, 29 seats in the House of Commons; orange

There are a number of other federal political parties (such as the Green Party, and the Communist Party of Canada-Marxist-Leninist) which do not have seats in the House of Commons.  There is also one independent member of the House of Commons, and 9 senators who are not aligned with one of the major parties.

Each province or territory has a provincial legislature and holds its own elections for these legislators, who are referred to as Members of the Provincial Parliament (MPPs, Ontario only), Members of the National Assembly (MNAs, Quebec only), Members of the House of Assembly (MHAs, Newfoundland & Labrador only), or Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs, all other provinces and territories).  The provincial or territorial legislatures operate in a similar manner to the Parliament of Canada, but without an 'upper chamber'.  The head of government of a province or territory is called the premier of that province (as a group, the heads of provincial governments are all called premiers, and meet collectively as a body referred to as the 'Council of the Federation)  The Queen is represented by a Lieutenant-Governor at this lower level. The Liberal Party and New Democratic Party both have provincial counterparts in most provinces. Parties that operate only provincially include the Progressive Conservatives (in several provinces), Parti Quebecois (in Quebec only), the Saskatchewan Party (Saskatchewan only), the Yukon Party (Yukon only).

The most notable Prime Ministers of Canada include:

As of August 2006, the Prime Minister is Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party. He governs with a minority government.