System of government and education. Canada is a federation under a system of parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy

Canada is a federation under a system of parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. Its Head of the State and Sovereign is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with the title of Queen of Canada. The Queen`s representative in Canada is the Governor General, a prominent Canadian, appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada. The Governor General is a non-partisan figure who fills the role of providing Royal Assent to bills passed by the House of Commons and the Senate, reading the Speech from the Throne, signing state documents, formally opening and ending sessions of Parliament and dissolving Parliament for an election.

Both the Queen and the Governor General are primarily figureheads with little real power as they almost always act on advice of Canada`s Head of Government, the Prime Minister, who is also the government party leader who controls such tools of governance as party discipline and patronage appointments. Federal legislative authority is vested in the Parliament of Canada which consists of sovereign of Canada, the Senate and the House of Commons. The Senate has 104 members who are appointed on a provincial basis and may hold office until they are 75 years old. The 301 members of the House of Commons are elected by the people of Canada for a maximum term of five years. Each electoral district elects one member of Parliament to the House of Commons on a universal suffrage basis. The leader of the party winning the most seats in general elections is called upon by the governor general to form a government. He becomes the Prime Minister and generally chooses party colleagues from among the elected members to form the Cabinet. Almost all Cabinet ministers are also heads of executive departments of the government for the work of which they ate responsible to the House of Commons. The Cabinet is responsible for determining all important policies of government and securing the passage of such legislation, financial measures and administrative provisions as their supporters may approve.

Under the Constitution Act the organization and administration of public education are provincial responsibilities. The federal government is directly concerned only with the provision of education in the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in Indian schools throughout Canada and a couple of other exceptions. The federal government also finances vocational training of adults and provides financial support to the provinces for operating costs of postsecondary education. Because each of 10 provinces has the authority and responsibility for organizing its educational system as it sees fit, policies and practices vary from province to province, but each has a Department of Education headed by a Minister who is a member of the provincial Cabinet.

Most Canadian children have one year of preschool education before they enter an elementary school at age 6 or 7. At about 14 years of age more than 90% of those who entered year one enter a four-year secondary school. Canada has more than 65 degree-granting bodies. They range from organizations with a single faculty and a student base of a few hundred, to institutions with many faculties and research institutes and more than 40000 students, such as the University of Quebec, the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia. The oldest University in Canada, Laval, in Quebec was founded during the French regime, while universities in English-speaking Canada were established after the American Revolution. English is the language of instruction at most places, French in several and a few are bilingual. Ukrainian-Canadians of whom there are over a million are usually stunned to find out that there is only one course on contemporary Ukraine offered in Canada at any establishment of higher education.