Okay, turns out I know nothing about the history or politics of Canada

[cosmolinguist]

So they call it a "Senate" in Canada, but it sounds like it's just the House of Lords!

I'm embarrassed by how surprised I was to learn this, especially in a conversation in the pub with a Canadian who, y'know, thinks highly of me.

At least they don't have bishops in the government!

But man. I need a good recommendation for a book about Canadian history and/or politics. They didn't teach me anything in school.

Comments

[matgb]

Was talking to magister a few days back about Canadian politics and my favourite, all time, election result:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_1993

It's a "what happens when you have 4+ parties competing nationally under FPTP" combined with "populist right wing parties splitting the Tory vote can cause amusing things". It's the closest model we have to look at for what might happen in the UK next year, although unfortunately it's unlikely Campbell's fate will happen to Cameron.

But yeah, the Canadian Senate is basically the House of Lords with a proper set of rules and some sensible additions (like a retirement age, and a restriction on numbers, and a requirement the peers come from different parts of the country, etc). It's not a good system, but it's one of the better ideas for a revisionary second chamber out there.

[cosmolinguist]

The link came in handy! Because I ended up reading it (well, the first half of it) on the bus to see my Canadian friend again today, and he started talking about Meech Lake. :)

[po8crg]

I think I still have a Canadian politics textbook from when I was an undergrad. It'll be two decades out of date and probably boring, but it might be a good start.

[calissa]

They call it a Senate in Australia, too :)