As an international student with no voting rights and still limited English skills, I found myself less interested in politics and economics than I had been in Japan and knew little about them in Canada. Ultimately, I hesitate to say that but during the online English lesson, I regret myself because I don’t know even who the current prime minister of Canada is. I was blamed by my best friend, he was like “That is too awkward.” I felt I need to learn basic knowledge of Canadian Politics at least as an adult living in that country. So today let me look up some info about really basic fundamental knowledge of Canadian politics.

Let's start with this. The current Prime Minister of Canada is Justin Trudeau. Canada's 23rd Prime Minister. He has been in office since 2015. He was re-elected in 2019 for a second term. Trudeau was born on December 25, 1971, in Ottawa, Canada, and is the son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. That means he is just 51 years old. Quite young. 

Before entering politics, Trudeau worked as a teacher and also had a successful career as a public speaker. He entered politics in 2008 ,was later elected leader of the Liberal Party of Canada in 2013.

As Prime Minister, Trudeau has pursued a progressive agenda focused on issues such as climate change, social justice, and economic growth. His government has implemented policies such as the legalization of recreational cannabis, the introduction of a carbon pricing system, and the expansion of social programs such as the Canada Child Benefit. Trudeau's progressive social policy included strong advocacy for feminism and abortion rights and introduced the right to medically assisted dying. Everything seems controversial and I can not even imagine that the right to medically assisted dying is on the table. If we try to treat these issues in Japan, there should be a manifold defiant. 

The biggest difference is referred to the party system. Japan has a multi-party system with several political parties, but the dominance of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been a defining feature of Japanese politics for decades. The LDP has held power for most of Japan's post-World War II history. In lieu of that, Canada has a more diverse party system, with multiple major parties that have formed governments at different times, such as the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc Québécois. what is interesting is that In Canada, individual councillors seem to have a lot of discretion, which is quite different from Japan, where it is difficult for a councillor to change the system by himself/herself. Sounds nice and that has to motivate people to vote in the election.

Today’s pick-up new vocals are “in lieu of”, “manifold” and “defiant”. “In lieu of” L-I-E-U sounds interesting like French, that means similarly “instead of”. For example, we decided to go shopping in lieu of watching a movie. The next one is ‘manifold’ which is an adjective meaning “many” For example, the implications of this decision were manifold.

The last one is “defiant” similarly meaning “resilient” to be specific, proudly refusing to obey authority. interestingly you can use this word to express someone’s personality, like “You're very defiant”. 

How was the episode today? Hope you get interested in Canadian politics.