Power in a political spectrum is by defined as a significant amount of authority held by variety of individuals that assist in governing a particular society, as stated by Britannica (Political Science, Power, 2009). In several democratic countries, including Canada, this supremacy is divided into different political institutions to ensure the accurate handling of this power. In the Canadian political system, the distinction in the roles of these bodies and the amount of power granted is determined by the Constitution. These foundations include: the executive branch, the bureaucracy, judiciary branch and finally the legislative branch. Generally, the amount of power for each member of these institutions is to be uniformly divided; conversely, the fairly recent transformation has increasingly concentrated the majority of power towards the heart of the government, the Prime Minister. According to Thomas Hockin, the media, the Prime Minister’s control over the appoint process and the reduction of the role of the crown led to an overly powerful Prime Minister (Hockin, 1977, p.4). On the other hand, some people believe that the separation and division of power provides the Prime Minister with little or no power at all; the option of having the entire government removed due a non-confidence vote ensures the power given to the leader is not being abused and is properly utilized. 

In this paper, I will demonstrate the enormous amount of power and authority held by the Prime Minister by examining: firstly the taking over the role of the Crown; secondly, the exceedingly boosted up portrayal of the PM by the media; thirdly, decision making without consensus with other branches of government; fourthly, the transformed nature of the government towards the American Presidential-ship; and finally the prime minister’s exercise of power through leadership selection mechanisms. The Canadian parliamentary system as a whole evidently exhibits the extreme sum of power in the Prime Minister’s hands. 

In this essay, I will demonstrate the imperfections in the Westminster system due to changes made during and after the ruling period of Pierre Trudeau with the end results of the Prime Minister having too much power and authority compared to the past Prime Ministers, other branches of governments and the Crown.