How Government Works
This term describes a government where one party wins more than half the seats in the legislature.
What is a majority government?
This person is the current leader of the federal New Democratic Party (NDP).
Who is Avi Lewis?
This international organization, headquartered in New York City, was founded in 1945 to maintain international peace.
What is the United Nations?
This is the name of Canada's upper house of Parliament, whose members are appointed rather than elected.
What is the Senate?
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce held their wedding in this famous venue.
What is Madison Square Gardens?
This is the minimum number of seats a party needs to form a majority government in the 343-seat House of Commons.
What is 172?
This Prime Minister held office for a combined total of over 21 years, making him the longest-serving Prime Minister in Canadian history.
Who is William Lyon Mackenzie King?
This UK politician served as leader of the Brexit party, rallying public support for a "Leave" outcome, and now serves as leader of the Reform Party.
Who is Nigel Farage?
This Trudeau-era cabinet minister was responsible for the creation of the polarizing consumer carbon tax, later scrapped in 2025.
Who is Catherine McKenna?
Released in 1982 and featuring iconic tracks like "Billie Jean" and "Beat It," this blockbuster album remains the best-selling album of all time worldwide.
What is Thriller?
This voting system, used in Canadian federal elections, elects the candidate with the most votes in each riding even without a majority.
What is first-past-the-post?
Prime Minister Harper invoked the famous political attack slogan "He's just visiting" in the 2011 federal election against which candidate?
Who is Michael Ignatieff?
This free travel zone in Europe allows people to cross borders without showing passports or stopping at checkpoints.
What is the Schengen?
This former Liberal cabinet minister was famously arrested and charged prior to politics when he hung a 15-square-metre banner that labeled Canada and George W. Bush as "climate killers".
Who is Steven Guilbault?
This city was destroyed in 79 CE because of Mount Vesuvius.
What is Pompeii?
The House of Commons cannot legally sit without this ceremonial object made of silver-gilt.
What is the mace?
This Prime Minister negotiated the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.
Who is Brian Mulroney?
This country has been waiting the longest of any current candidate to join the European Union, holding official EU candidate status since 1999 with accession talks now stalled.
What is Turkey?
This Canadian bill, passed in 2025, aims to speed up approval of projects deemed of national interest and eliminate certain interprovincial trade barriers.
What is the One Canadian Economy Act (Bill C-5)?
This is the only mammal capable of true, sustained flight.
What is a bat?
This procedural act by the Governor General formally ends a session of Parliament, requiring all bills not yet passed to be reintroduced from scratch in the next session.
What is prorogation (proroguing Parliament)?
This Prime Minister successfully championed the adoption of the red-and-white maple leaf flag in 1965.
Who is Lester B. Pearson?
For decades, these two NATO allies engaged in the polite "Whisky War" over tiny Hans Island, with each country's military periodically swapping the other's flag for their own and leaving a bottle of local liquor.
What are Canada and Denmark?
This 1970 crisis saw Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoke the War Measures Act after the FLQ kidnapped a British diplomat and a Quebec cabinet minister.
What is the October Crisis?
This Finnish company was once the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer before losing its dominance to Apple and Samsung in the late 2000s.
What is Nokia?