Political challenges addressed by Justin Trudeau in Canada

Political challenges addressed by Justin Trudeau in Canada

In the early eighteenth century,  Canadian government had been subjected to many political challenges. This was due to lack of governmental institutions that would address and respond to the political challenges accordingly. Later, several national institutions were founded and designed to address the different political challenges that  faced Canadian government. Some of the governmental institutions  established were;  the senate, federalism, the constitution Act of 1867, and prime minister ( Jenson et al. 2001). These institutions continued to evolve as they responded to various political challenges and opportunities that faced the Canadian government. The main aim of writing this complimentary essay is to generate more personal variation on the prime minister as one of the institutions that were founded to respond to political challenges in Canada. The paper describes the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, the political challenges that the canadian government faced and how the prime minister addressed them.

Initially, the Canadian government was led by the governor-general, who was then in charge of the whole government and could make a decision concerning the running of government affairs. Since there were no other many support institutions, the governor-general was prone to misuse of the post, and many political challenges had witnessed in the kind of leadership. After Canada got independence in 1867, it was led by Governor Generals, one after another, who were not perfect in their direction. Cases like misuse and oppression of the immigrants had highly witnessed in Canada during this time of leadership. Additionally, there was gender inequality in the government where males occupied most seats in the government institution, and women were not allowed to take leadership responsibilities in Canada. There was slow economic growth as the governments did not partner well with the other countries when it came to matters of trade

The situation remained so for decades, until when the government of Canada founded many unitedinstitutions to respond to the increased political challenges and opportunities and ensure it builds a government that everyone is happy to live in it. These Canadian national institutions were founded early in the 1960s where the head of the government was the prime minister. As mentioned earlier, the essay focuses on the prime minister, founded as the head office; it was responsible for dealing with the many political challenges that had faced in Canada. It could address these challenges directly or indirectly depending on the kind of the problem. Indirectly in such a way that it could assign duties to various departments, which in return helped in responding to such political challenges in Canada. The prime minister’s office evolved fast as it continued to react to multiple political problems that were there. The prime minister had entitled with the responsibility of controlling other government institutions with the support of the cabinet, which he/she was to appoint after winning the post.

Also, the Prime minister advised the crown on how to exercise the executive powers in controlling the nation. These executive powers had protected by the constitution in controlling the countries. Besides the office of the prime minister in Canada is the most powerful office which exercises most crucial activities in the government such as appointing the senate members of Canada, choosing judges in the Canadian Supreme Court, selecting general governor and choosing the leaders of various crown corporations, ( Jenson et al 2001). However, these activities had done by the head of the state of Canada, who is the governor-general.  These activities had protected by the Canadian constitution, which gives the general government the power to exercise these duties. In contrast, the general governor only applies the control only under the advice of the prime minister who selects her/him.

Furthermore, the prime minister had entitled to the responsibility of choosing the minister who made up the cabinet. The cabinet ministers, together with the prime minister, manage the government of Canada and the armed forces of Canada ( Jenson et al 2001). Despite the position of the prime minister lacking in the Canadian constitution, its functions are governed by constitutional conventions, as mentioned in the constitution Act 1982. Prime minister office was the head office in the Canadian government, and it was entitled to all the power. Thus the prime minister was responsible for making all sorts of decisions every day that had needed in the management of sizeable Canadian government ( Jenson et al 2001) . He also makes one of the crucial decisions of hiring members of the cabinet, assigning duties and projects to various departments of the government such as the armed force department while the prime minister represents the government of Canada in its interaction with the local government and other countries.

In the Canadian government, the institution of the prime minister was founded and designed to deal with the political challenge of gender imbalance. Earlier before this institution of the prime minister of office was established in Canada, it had believed that there was no gender balance in the government, whereby women had not given a chance to form the cabinet of the government. After the establishment of the prime minister’s office, the prime minister had the power to choose the members of the cabinet of his/her interest protected by the constitution.

The cabinet members were required to help the prime minister in making the decision and assigning duties to the other institutions/departments in the government; they were supposed to be thirty to ensure sufficient work in running the government. In addressing this challenge that had been there for decades, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a new focus on gender representation in his leaderships. He made a world record and history in Canada and across the world when he appointed fifteen men and fifteen women in cabinet position, making the first-ever gender-balanced federal cabinet in the Canadian government. He did this in the year 2015 immediately after being appointed as the prime minister of Canada.

It is true to say that Justin fought and almost finished the problem of gender imbalance in the nation of Canada, which was a big problem. This problem is believed to be a significant challenge in the countries of the northern regions such as America and Canada itself. It seems that Justin always dreamed of eradicating this notion ”  men are more superior than women, and therefore women are not supposed to be included in the government” since after winning as the prime minister of Canada, he started bringing gender balance in the government cabinet and commanding other institution to do that, for instance, the police departments

Since taking that first step in ensuring gender balance, the liberals under Trudeau have also made steps in ensuring gender balance had emphasized in every sector. They have made a national notion “gender-neutral,” which states that gender balances should also be conducted in the primary policies,( Smith, 2009). This requirement had protected by law, and thus women had to be included in the departments of armed forces. Women were also to be given significant posts in that department itself, hence ensuring there is gender balance.

Besides, the government under Justin promised to improve allocation and spending towards the health of women internationally and form a full department of women for ensuring gender balance ( Smith, 2009). These changes helped in eliminating the political problem that had been there in Canada. Also, the future governments that are to come it may be difficult for them to move away from these changes without criticism. According to Susan Smith, the long-serving principal in the Bluesky Strategy Group, the tone set in Canada by electing the gender-balanced federal cabinet had a massive impact in corporate Canada. She said that the rest of the country was forced to examine itself and make necessary changes towards the matter since prime minister had done thus helping the country to progress.

However, after the many positive changes imposed by Justin concerning gender balance, some people in Canada feel that there is still room for improvement. They are not pleased with the rate at which the MPs had elected by the Justin government and sarcastically suggest that it will take another 90 years for gender equality to be reached in Canada ( Smith, 2009).  According to reports from the Equal Voice spokesperson Nasha, the current progress of having women in government is slower than many people in Canada would like to see.

Another challenge that was there and needed to be addressed by the prime minister was the oppression of immigrants. Justin, in reign as the prime minister, allowed many refugees to settle happily in Canada (Seligman, 2018). He even brought more than fifty thousand Syrian refugees in Canada. Justin could tweet “welcome to Canada,” and these motivated refugees to come to Canada. For example, in the year 2018, Canada welcomed many refugees than any other country across the world. People who ran from their countries because of war, terror, persecution would land in Canada, and Canadian always welcomed them regardless of faith (Seligman, 2018). The welcome is because, under the leadership of Justin, Canadians believed that diversity was their strength. Justin tweet “Welcome to Canada” prevented people from misusing the home seekers; since he was the head of the government, the citizens would respect the tweet and treat the refugees as fellow citizens.

Andrew Griffith, a former citizenship and immigration department director-general, reported to the CTVNews.ca that the issue of welcoming many refugees in Canada had posed a significant problem to the government on the matters concerning immigration, but that never despised the welcome message by the prime minister. He further stressed that it was a generosity act and showed how welcoming the refugees contributed to the growth of the economy in Canada. Justin’s message continued to gain support through some prominent people in Canada. Melanie Gallant, recently in 2018, told CTV News that many refugees in Canada helped in economic and population growth and encouraged that it would be good if all the leaders of the present time and future would embrace this leadership role.

There are criticisms from few people that prime minister’s tweet acted as a spending agent for many home seekers crossing to Canada irregularly, resulting in delays of processing citizen’s needs as well as overburdening the system and resources. However, they thought that it was wrong since many refugees contributed to globalization, whereby the person in charge of the department of international trade considered opening up new markets by looking for more other trading partners.

There was a more significant political challenge that senators in the government were not allowed to be independent. In 2014, before Justin became the prime minister, when he was a leader of the third party played a crucial role in removing all senators of his party from the national senate. After becoming the prime minister in 2015, he emphasized on building a non-partisan legislature with a new and independent advisory board to deal with senate appointments. The outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper had left some outstanding vacancies in the upper chamber, which eventually within three years Justin filled them by appointing the independent senators. This act allowed the majority of senators to be independent during the Justin leadership, unlike other regimes.

The increased independence of the senators provided a new look that had hardly witnessed in the former parliaments. What has seen as an impossible occurrence happened thirty times in the parliament under the reign of Justin? When the senate sends thirty-eight pieces of government legislation to the typical house with changes and government accepted thirty-five of them (Seligman, 2018).This act motivated the independent senators on their work.  According to reports, the senate felt less partisan and more independent. Independence was depicted by the government accepting more amendments from the committees. For example, the senate, its bills had approved in the national government, something that has never happened in the Canadian government before.

Finally, considering climate change and the environment, it was a challenge in the Canadian government as it had not considered as an activity that was worth the government to focus on. For the first time in Canada, climatic change had considered when Justin Trudeau took leadership. He started by choosing Catherine Mckenna as the climate and environment change minister, who was the minister since the post had noted in the cabinet title. In the year 2015, after Mckenna was appointed,  she traveled to Paris, where she joined 195 representatives from different countries for a conference about climate change.  Additionally, she signed the Paris Agreement, which focuses on lowering global warming to below two degrees Celsius.

Afterward, the government of Canada as a whole entered an agreement on reducing emissions and strengthening carbon tax. It had reported that the government allocated some funds towards low carbon infrastructure, prevented more marine areas from pollution, and passed legislation to oversee environmental assessment processes. During the meeting, the government requested Catherine to declare about climate change, and in response, she asked leaders to be united together and be serious in handling climatic change. Justin’s leadership considered issues of climate change to a greater extent as a challenge that was faced by the citizens, and it had much focused on it.

However, none of these three moves towards environment change has not opposed. These moves are the ecology assessment process; marine preventive measures and penalties on pollution have faced opposition, where the former leaders feel that it is challenging for the Justin government to reach the Paris targets in matters concerning climate change ( Vince et al 2017). According to Michael Chong, who was conservative mp from 2015 during the debate for climate change meetings, it was all words with little action on the issues concerning climate change for liberal government.

In conclusion, the Canadian government had many political challenges that forced it to establish many institutions that would help in responding to those challenges appropriately. In this writing, I have emphasized the prime minister office, whereby I have highlighted Justin Trudeau as the twentieth third Prime Minister (Seligman, 2018). The office of the prime minister in the Canadian government is the head office. Thus it is responsible for making essential decisions and controlling the other local governments. The political challenges and opportunities that it was founded to address were gender inequality issues in the government departments, lack of independence of the senators in the government, among many others. Justin, under his leadership, is seen to be the prime minister who responded very well to these issues as he emphasized on eradicating them, (Seligman, 2018). Finally, it is right to say that the office of prime minister under Justin has tried as much as possible to respond to these many evolving political challenges.

References

Jenson, J., & Phillips, S. D. (2001). Redesigning the Canadian citizenship regime: Remaking the institutions of representation. Citizenship, markets, and the state, 69-89.

Smith, J. (Ed.). (2009). The Democratic Dilemma: Reforming the Canadian Senate. Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University.

Vince, J., & Hardesty, B. D. (2017). Plastic pollution challenges in marine and coastal environments: from local to global governance. Restoration ecology, 25(1), 123-128.

Seligman, S. (2018). Canada’s Israel Policy under Justin Trudeau: Rejecting or Reinforcing the Legacy of Stephen Harper? American Review of Canadian Studies, 48(1), 80-95.