Election in Canada

Description of election in Canada.......

Canada holds elections for legislatures or governments in several jurisdictions: nationally (federally), provincially and territorially, and municipally. Elections are also held for self-governing First Nations and for many other public and private organizations including corporations and trade unions. Formal elections have occurred in Canada since at least 1792, when both Upper Canada and Lower Canada had their first elections.

The Parliament of Canada has two chambers: The House of Commons has 308 members, elected for a maximum five-year term in single-seat constituencies, and the Senate has 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister. Senators are given permanent terms (up to age 75) and thus often serve much longer than the prime minister who was primarily responsible for their appointment.

National elections are governed by the Canada Elections Act. Using the plurality voting system, Canadians vote for their local Member of Parliament (MP), who represents one specific constituency in the House of Commons. Generally, the leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Commons becomes the prime minister. Although most MP's are members of a political party, candidates may stand for election as independents unaffiliated with any political party. In addition, after they are elected, sitting members of parliaments are also permitted to "cross the floor" and switch from one party to another without having to first resign and stand for office. 

Some sitting members may also be dismissed from their party and forced to sit as independents. Because of this, the distribution of seats by party affiliation often fluctuates in between elections.

By-elections can be held between general elections when seats become vacant through the resignation or death of a member. The date of the by-election is determined by the Governor General, who must call it between 11 and 180 days after being notified of the seat vacancy by the Speaker of the House of Commons.Every Canadian citizen 18 years of age or older has the right to vote except for the Chief Electoral Officer and the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer. In the Canada Elections Act, inmates serving a sentence of at least two years were prohibited from voting, but on October 31, 2002, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Sauvé v. 

Canada that such a law violated the section 3 of the Charter, and was rendered of no force or effect.The length of election campaigns can vary, but under the Elections Act, the minimum length of a campaign is 36 days. There is no explicit maximum length for a campaign, although section 5 of the Charter requires that the Parliament sit at least once every twelve months, and thus a campaign would have to conclude in time for returns to be completed and parliament to be called into session within twelve months of the previous sitting.the 2003 establishment of the federal party, which resulted in the formal disbanding of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Some provincial parties (such as Alberta) formally n British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec the provincial Liberal parties are independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada, while in the other provinces, the provincial Liberal parties are autonomous entities that retain formal links with the federal party.