Mind you, our parliamentary prime ministers also have a good deal LESS power than your president does. It's a different approach to governing.

They cannot veto legislation, they can only act as party leader in parliament to influence by persuasion the rest of their party members and other seated members regarding proposed legislation, and their influence, needless to say, is usually considerable in that case...but once parliament ratifies a new piece of legislation, it's law. The prime minister cannot then veto it.

Your presidents have considerably too much power, in my opinion. Your executive office needs to be tamed. Under G.W. Bush it's been right out of control, and your Congress has been rendered into a shadow of what it should be.

A government such as Mr Bush's would have been voted out in Canada sometime well prior to 2004, probably prior to 2003. The Iraq War would never have been allowed to happen at all, because there was no legal or rational basis for waging it.