In the British parliamentary tradition, the Cabinet is an executive committee of elected members of Parliament chosen by the Prime Minister to formulate government policies and priorities. Most members of a Cabinet are political heads of government departments, but a Cabinet can also include ministers without portfolio.
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glo_cau
caucus
The caucus is a regular private meeting of all the members of the House of Commons and senators of a political party. Caucus meetings allow members to participate in the development of party strategy, to air frustrations, and to inform the party leadership about how its positions are being received. The caucus usually meets once a week when Parliament is in session.
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glo_tor
Tory
Tory is a nickname for members of the Conservative Party. The term came to Canada from Britain, where it historically referred to supporters of conservative causes and, ultimately, to the British Conservative Party itself. In the United States, it was used as an epithet for the supporters of Britain during the American Revolution, those who are called ΓÇ£LoyalistsΓÇ¥ in Canadian history.
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glo_Roc
Rockefeller, John D.
John Davison Rockefeller (1839-1937) was an American industrialist whose immense fortune rose from a near-monopoly on oil refining in the US. As a philanthropist, he endowed an institute for medical research with 500 million dollars in 1901 and also gave generously to educational, scientific, and religious funds.
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glo_Bal
Balkans
The Balkans are the countries of the peninsula of southeastern Europe bounded by the Danube and Sava Rivers on the north, and by the Adriatic, Aegean, and Mediterranean Seas, the Sea of Marmara, and the Black Sea. Balkan countries include Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Rumania, European Turkey, and the countries that joined to form Yugoslavia (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, and Macedonia). Internal conflicts in the Balkan region have sometimes escalated to involve international powers. During the First World War, the Balkans were the scene of particularly intense fighting.
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glo_UN
United Nations
As the Second World War drew to a close in 1945, representatives of the Allied powers, including Canada, met in San Francisco to draft the charter for the United Nations, an international body dedicated to promoting peace, cooperation among nations, and global economic development, health, and education. Canada has continued to play a leading role in United Nations activities.
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glo_Att
Attorney General
The Attorney General is the chief law officer of the Crown, responsible for the prosecution of offenses on behalf of the Crown and serving as the legal advisor to the Crown in respect of any civil matters.
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glo_Aud
Auditor General
The Office of the Auditor General conducts audits on the federal governmentΓÇÖs departments, agencies, and many crown corporations. The Auditor General is independent of the government, and reports the results of annual examinations to the House of Commons.
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glo_Sup
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court for all legal issues of federal and provincial jurisdiction. The Supreme Court is comprised of a chief justice and eight puisne (junior) justices, appointed by the governor-in-council.
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glo_Minwopro
Minister without portfolio
A minister without portfolio is a Cabinet member without specific responsibility for a particular government department. Such a minister is often appointed to Cabinet to ensure representation from a particular province or region.
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glo_Senator
Senator
A senator is appointed by the Prime Minister to sit in the Senate, the second chamber of the Canadian Parliament. Canada has 104 senators. In theory, the Senate has the power to stop any bill passed by the House of Commons, but it rarely does so. Senators are valued for their political experience, however, and frequently advise the Prime Minister and other members of the House.
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glo_Senate
Senate
The Senate is the second chamber of the Canadian Parliament. Canada has 104 senators. In theory, the Senate has the power to stop any bill passed by the House of Commons, but it rarely does so.
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glo_civilser
civil service
Government employees make up the civil (or public) service. The Public Service Commission controls the recruitment, selection, appointment, classification, and organization of the civil service in order to ensure that it operates in a non-partisan manner.
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glo_port
portfolio
A portfolio is the departmental responsibility (such as Finance, Intergovernmental Affairs, etc.) of a Cabinet minister, who is said to ΓÇ£holdΓÇ¥ the portfolio.
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glo_SctyState
Secretary of State, Department of
The Department of the Secretary of State was the office of the federal government concerned with civic and cultural affairs. Under recent governments, the duties of the Secretary of State have been redistributed to other ministries.
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glo_Opp
Opposition
All of the members of Parliament who are not of the government party are members of the opposition. The party with the second-most members (after the government) is the Official Opposition. The leader of that party is called the Leader of the Official Opposition.
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glo_BritEmp
British Empire
The British Empire was the collective term for the territories under the leadership or control of the British crown. BritainΓÇÖs overseas empire dated from 1583 when Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland as EnglandΓÇÖs first colony. The Empire reached its height in 1897, the year of VictoriaΓÇÖs Diamond Jubilee. The signing of the Statute of Westminster in 1931 ended the use of the term ΓÇ£British EmpireΓÇ¥ in favour of the name ΓÇ£British Commonwealth of NationsΓÇ¥.
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glo_High
High Commissioner, the
The High Commissioner is the highest-ranking diplomatic representative of one Commonwealth country to another. Canada was the first country within the British Empire to post a High Commissioner to London in the 1880s.
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glo_Imp
Imperialism
Imperialism is the act of creating colonies through military or economic control. In the late 19th century, European powers and the United States entered a period of colonisation of underdeveloped countries. At the time, Canada was caught between a growing sense of its own strength and its historical, economic, and sentimental ties with Britain. French-Canadians and others favoured greater Canadian independence, while Imperialists favoured continued ties with the British Empire. Tensions between the differing views erupted during the Boer War and the First World War.
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glo_coal
coalition government
When political parties temporarily unite for a common aim, they form a coalition. During the First World War, BordenΓÇÖs Conservatives recruited members of the Liberal Party to form the coalition Union government.
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glo_Sol
Solicitor General
The Department of the Solicitor General is the federal office concerned with correction and law enforcement.
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glo_con
confidence
A vote in the House of Commons on the support for the government is a confidence motion. An opposition party may table a vote of non-confidence in the government. If the government loses such a vote, it must resign. If the government fails to receive a majority of votes for an important piece of legislation (such as a budget), it is seen to have lost a vote of confidence, and usually resigns.
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glo_pleb
plebiscite
A plebiscite is a vote by the entire electorate on a national issue, such as constitutional change.
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glo_tar
tariff
A tariff is a fee or charge that a government imposes on goods imported or exported across its borders. Governments use tariffs to raise the cost of imported goods above domestic products, thereby protecting domestic industries against foreign competition.
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glo_Rhodes
Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship is an academic trust open to male Commonwealth citizens aged 19 to 25 for study at Oxford University. Candidates must demonstrate ΓÇ£quality of both character and intellectΓÇ¥ and ΓÇ£literary and scholastic attainmentsΓÇ¥.
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glo_sep
separatism
Separatism is the general term applied to the creation of Québec as an independent nation.
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glo_min
minority government
When a party wins more seats than any other party in a federal election but less than half of the total number of seats, it forms a minority government.
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glo_Hou
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the component of the Canadian Parliament which consists of the elected representatives from all federal constituencies.
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glo_Leg
Legislative Assembly
The term Legislative Assembly is often applied to the parliamentary bodies of provincial governments. It was also used as the name for such bodies in the colonies of British North America before Confederation.
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glo_01conpty
Conservative Party
Canada's Conservative Party emerged in the 1850s shaped by Sir John A. Macdonald. For Macdonald, the Conservative Party stood for a strong British connection, a powerful federal government, national development, and the economic protection of the National Policy. During World War One it became the party of conscription. Controversial prime ministers such as Richard Bennett, John Diefenbaker, and Brian Mulroney pulled the party in different directions until by 1988 it had become, ironically, the party of free trade. In the 1993 election, the Conservative Party was reduced to two sitting members. The Party officially adopted the name Progressive Conservative Party in 1942.
