Good point, Ebbie. Yes, that does have its effect. Your president is definitely in for four years, short of death or a successful impeachment (and that's very unlikely). A Canadian prime minister is in a more vulnerable position unless his party has been elected with a majority government. If so, he's basically all set for the next 4 to 5 years, but he must call an election before 5 years have passed. Many Canadian governments have been minority governments (since we have a genuine 3 to 4 party system going most of the time in this country). A minority government can find itself forced to go to the polls at any time if the other parties gang up on it over some major piece of legislation, and that makes the future uncertain for our prime ministers much of the time.