as someone from the UK we don't really have a jist of your political/social system as it's largely seen and associated with America. Maybe you could give me a bit more insight into how you differ from them?
On a totally general level, Most/any knowledge of Canada comes from South Park and media stereotypes if i'm honest
We don't have a
real democracy, and so far it has worked in our favour. We don't vote directly for who runs the country, we vote for political parties to win their ridings, which are basically just neighbourhoods or regions. For instance, a guy named Jack Layton (cool-ass mofo) was the head of a left-wing party called the NDP in my riding. If he won in my neighbourhood, he would get a seat in parliament, which is basically a representative on the federal level that can vote and address issues specific to their ridings.
The party with the most seats in parliament wins the federal election, and their party leader becomes prime minister. Right now a guy named Stephen Harper is at the head of the Conservative party, which governs the country atm.
This system is better than the one in the US mainly because you don't have 2 parties to choose from. You have several, and you vote for your riding, so your vote directly affects how you carry out your daily life. My riding's current political party is the Liberal party, so if I have any issues in my neighbourhood, I can contact my riding councillor and they can address it almost immediately. This type of regionalized political structure gets shit done for regular civilians like me MUCH faster than they would in the US.
That's just a summary, it's a lot more complicated than that. We have minority and majority governments, premiers who govern provinces, and a senate (that doesn't hold nearly as much power as the US equivalent).
Also, if shit goes wrong, we push right to a federal election. We don't fuck around and keep the same assholes in office.
Socially, there are a lot of differences, the main ones being that we generally lean more towards socialist ideals. Our healthcare is, for the majority, paid for by a mixture of insurance and government, and our tuition fees don't typically exceed 8 grand a year, even for top schools. We have 2 official languages and as I think lame mentioned above, 2 very different cultural shifts. Toronto is also the most culturally diverse city in the world. If you go downtown it looks like a cultural rainbow
Right now there's a big scandal involving our mayor smoking crack and trying to cover it up by illegal means. I personally don't mind, the city itself hasn't suffered, just the image of the mayor. If you have more specific questions let me know!
