Canada
America is famously known to have gained its independence in the American Revolution by breaking free from British rule. Canada on the other hand, gained its independence through evolution instead of revolution. It wasn’t until after World War II that Canada became the stable political and economic country that it is today. Canada’s governmental structure is a Liberal Democracy which is a representative democracy under a parliamentary system; the Prime Minister is the head of the government, similar to a president in the United States.
The British North America Act in 1867 can be referred to as the birth of Canada as we know it today. This Confederation combined four provinces and set the foundation for the Canadian government, by British legislation. Since 1867, Canada has expanded to ten provinces and has one of the strongest and most stable national governments in the world. Using the principles and foundation from the British rule, Canada has been able to evolve into its own nation. Although technically they are under monarch rule, the Queen is merely a figure head and has no real political power in Canada today. Much like the government of the United States, the Canadian government shares responsibilities through the federal, provincial, and territorial levels of government along with three branches of federal government: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.
Canada’s legal environment is similar to the many of the European systems that were originated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These legal systems were in turn brought over to North America through colonization and established in countries like Canada and the United States. Canada’s legal system comes from the common law tradition developed in Great Britain. Because of the common law system, many past decisions are used as foundations for future decisions and are based on precedent. Similar cases will be ruled the same way so there will be predictability in the legal system. Much like many other countries today, laws are becoming more complex and the need for laws and regulations to be so specific has led to more law being passed now than ever before. The legislative structure for making and changing laws in Canada is based on the same principles as the United States. The federal and provincial governments each have law making bodies and more specific laws are delegated to departments to make regulations.
Much like other prosperous and strong countries, Canada has a very stable legal environment. They have a structured government which makes this possible. One of the main reasons that foreign investors are attracted to do business with Canada and companies in the country is because of the stability of its political and legal systems. The framework of Canada’s government along with those of other economically strong countries, are the reason for its long standing contributions to the international market.
Although Canada does possess a strong political environment, there are some issues that are present. A threat to Canada’s political stability is the diversity of cultures within the country; mostly focused on the everlasting conflict between French-speaking Canadians and English-speaking Canadians. The province of Quebec has been a cause for concern in the political environment for Canada because of the want to become a separate nation from the rest of the country. Quebec is a mostly French speaking part of the country and there has been a strong separatist movement for roughly fifty years. The conflict between the English and French speaking Canadians has impacted international business because of the risk of Quebec becoming a separate nation. Also, this has hampered international business because Canada has two official languages which brings rise to bilingual labeling laws.
The culture and languages not only negatively affect the country’s political environment, but that in turn negatively impacts the way other countries and