Formally speaking, Canada is a federal constitutional monarchy of the (British) Commonwealth with a parliamentary, not congressional, system. The head of the federal government and the primary decision maker is the prime minister, the leader of the party with the majority of members in the federal House of Commons (divided into geographic areas called "ridings" from which members are elected on a "first-past-the-post" basis).
Executive and legislative functions are conjoined in the Canadian Parliament, and a prime minister with a full majority in the House of Commons is formally much stronger than an American President (even when the President’s party controls both Houses of Congress) because of the prime minister's tight control over his or her own Cabinet of Ministers (almost always consisting entirely of sitting M.P.'s); over the other members of Parliament in his or her own party; and over his or her own party-structures. The prime minister is the main focus of the Canadian political system, even though he or she exercises authority with the symbolic permission of the monarch (Queen Elizabeth II, who is represented by the governor-general at the federal level, and lieutenant-governors at the provincial level).
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