I do grasp the USA system of governance, Janie, and I actually think it is quite good in some respects. I particularly admire, for instance, the idea of having 2 elected levels of Congressmen: the representatives and the senators. That's an excellent idea. In the Canadian parliament we have only one elected group: MPs (members of Parliament) and one appointed group: senators. Both vote on passing legislation.

Since the senators are appointed by the ruling party, the public has no say in who gets to be a senator. The ruling party naturally appoints people who will support it in future against the other parties. This opens the door to all kinds of dirty dealing and influence peddling by the party in power.

The American system is WAY better when it comes to that.

And it has some other very good points.

No, what I was referring to was not so much the president's actual powers in a technical and legal sense...but the way he is seen in a psychological sense by the population. Americans take their presidents far more seriously than we take our prime ministers, they expect more of their presidents and idolize them more...and that can lead to presidents having perhaps more influence over the public than they ought to. That's what I'm referring to.

Not the rules. The psychology. It's like an imperial presidency in the USA. The Canadian prime minister is just one of many MPs, the one who has been chosen to lead his party. He's still, however, just an MP. He has to get elected in his local riding, just like any other MP. His position, accordingly, is intrinsically more humble than the position of president is in the USA.