Can We Say We Are a Democracy? Essay

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Can we really call Canada a democracy?
Mina Salhia May 20, 2013

Canada's democracy is still referred to by many Canadians a work in progress. To this day Canada's democracy is not a representation of a perfect democracy. There are still masses of improvements needed to be executed, in order to reach and bring together all of the peoples' opinions Canada's democracy consists of many positives but majority of it is still need to be changed.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy ."This quote from Theodore Roosevelt speaks volumes pertaining to the idea that if a society that deems itself to be" democratic" means that its ideologies and its supporting political views should be positively pushing a nation forward. The question is whether Canada really is a democracy if the constituted BRITISH Monarch still ultimately can choose to control Canadian parliamentary decisions. This has been a very controversial topic among the Canadian public as many polls have indicated how Canadians question how the monarch is relevant in making decisions about the contemporary situation in Canada. In fact only 5% of Canadians could indicate Queen Elizabeth as being the "head of state".
The beauty about democracy is the ability for all Canadian citizens to vote for their political party, so by right, doesn't this mean everyone has a say? Not exactly. What is important to realize is that if a citizens vote belongs to a party that is part of the minority, their vote is lost, as the majority always rules the political playground---sometimes for many political terms. For example, in the Canadian context the party that wins the most seats in a general elections forms the government, in our case, the Conservative Party is the party that holds the most seats in the House of Commons. It is very hard for minority parties such as the NDP to obtain even close to the amount of seats to