The British monarch is head of state, represented by a ceremonial governor general, currently Mary Simon, who is appointed on the advice of the prime minister. Simon is the first Indigenous governor general and has made reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians a major theme of her tenure. The prime minister is the head of government and is invited to the post by the governor general after elections; the office is usually held by the leader of the majority party or governing coalition in Parliament. Justin Trudeau remained prime minister after the Liberal Party maintained control of government in the 2021 federal elections.

The Canadian Parliament consists of an elected 338-member House of Commons and an appointed 105-member Senate. Lower-house elections are held every four years on fixed dates; though early elections may be called by the governor general if the government loses a no-confidence vote, or on the advice of the prime minister. In August 2021, Trudeau called for snap elections to be held the following month. There were almost no changes in the number of seats held by parties in Parliament in the September vote: the center-left Liberal Party won 160 seats in the House of Commons and maintained its minority government; the Conservative Party took 119 seats; the Bloc Québécois secured 32 seats; the left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP) won 25 seats; and the Green Party won 2. In March 2022, the NDP and the Liberals announced a “supply and confidence agreement” that will allow the Liberals to govern with the parliamentary support of the NDP until 2025.

Electoral laws are generally fair and well-enforced by the relevant bodies. Some critics expressed concern about the 2014 Fair Elections Act, arguing that its stringent voter identification requirements placed Indigenous Canadians and Canadians from vulnerable groups at a disadvantage. In 2018, the Liberal government passed legislation that relaxed some of the criticized provisions; restricted spending by political parties and other actors during elections; gave voting rights to all Canadians living abroad; improved the privacy of voters’ information within the databases of political parties; and increased the power of the commissioner of Canada Elections to investigate violations of election rules. It further banned foreign donations for partisan campaigns and required major online platforms, such as Facebook and Google, to create a registry of digital political advertisements.

In March 2022, as a stipulation of the agreement between the NDP and the Liberals to govern in alliance, the Liberals promised to amend the Elections Act. Specifically, the agreement states that the parties will work toward reforms such as extending the number of days voting stations are open, allowing voters to cast a ballot at any polling station in their electoral district, and improving how mail-in ballots are processed. If the amendments are passed, voting in federal elections will become significantly easier and participation in elections could increase. However, there was no substantive progress on these changes in 2023. Another amendment to the act, adopted in June 2023, exempted political parties from having to comply with privacy laws in the collection and use of citizens’ data during election campaigns.

A small number of parties have historically dominated elections. However, Canadians are free to organize in different political parties, and the system is open to the rise and fall of competing groups. A total of 21 political parties were registered in the 2021 federal elections.

Opposition parties have a realistic chance of gaining power through elections. In 2015, the Conservatives lost power to a Liberal majority government, and in 2019 and 2021, the Liberal Party’s control of Parliament diminished to a minority government.

People’s political choices are generally free from domination by actors that are not democratically accountable.

Members of religious minorities and Indigenous people are seated in the Parliament, as are many women. Further, Trudeau’s cabinet has full gender parity, though women make up only 30 percent of the House of Commons. The rights and interests of LGBT+ people are protected. In January 2022, a law came into effect to ban conversion therapy in Canada, and the federal government introduced its first 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, a policy brief to further strengthen equal rights for LGBT+ people.

Canada’s freely elected head of government and its legislature cooperate to determine policy.

Canada has a reputation for clean government and a record of vigorous prosecution of corruption cases.

Canadians may request public information under the provisions of the Access to Information Act. However, Canadians requesting information from the federal and provincial governments about public policies and government decisions face long delays and excessive fees, and often receive documents that are heavily redacted. A report published in June 2023 by the Globe and Mail on Canada’s freedom of information systems found that nearly all provincial, territorial, and federal government entities failed to meet their obligations to avoid excessive delays, and rarely provided all of the information requested. Of the 225 public bodies audited, the Globe and Mail found that only 21 percent of freedom of information requests were granted in full, while 46 percent were granted with redactions, and 33 percent were denied. Also, only half of requests were completed in the 30-day time frame required by most jurisdictions.

A law amending the act was passed in 2019 in an effort to address its shortcomings, but critics charge that it has been completely ineffective. Canadian journalists, opposition politicians, and civil society activists have pressured the government to take further action to improve the system. However, no announcements were made in 2023 about plans for further reforms.

Score Change: The score declined from 4 to 3 due to the failure of the federal government and several provincial governments to address problems with the access to information system that came to light in recent years.

Canada’s media are generally free; journalists are mostly protected from violence and harassment in their work and express diverse viewpoints.

In June 2023, the federal government enacted the Online News Act, requiring large technology companies to compensate media organizations when journalistic content is hosted on their platforms. In response, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, blocked users in Canada from accessing news content, limiting Canadians’ ability to share news on those platforms. However, Google entered into negotiations with the federal government, and in November the two parties reached a deal in which the company committed to pay C$100 million (US$75.47 million) annually to news organizations for sharing their content on its platforms. The law took effect in December, and Meta and the government had yet to reach a similar agreement as of the end of 2023.

The Canadian constitution and other legislation protect religious freedom. However, in 2019, the Quebec provincial government passed Bill 21, which bans certain government employees in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols such as a hijab, crucifix, turban, or kippah while at work. The list of such persons includes judges, police officers, government lawyers, and teachers. The bill has a clause allowing government employees already wearing symbols to continue wearing them until they change institutions or take a promotion. The law remained in place at the end of 2023.

Academic freedom is generally respected.

Private discussion in Canada is generally free and unrestrained. However, in September 2023 Trudeau accused agents of the Indian government of responsibility for the June murder, on Canadian soil, of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an activist calling for an independent Sikh homeland in northern India. While India denied involvement, the killing potentially discouraged the discussion of sensitive topics by diaspora activists.

Freedom of assembly is constitutionally protected and generally upheld in practice.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operate freely and frequently inform policy discussions.

Trade unions and business associations enjoy high levels of membership and are well organized.

Canada’s judiciary is generally independent.

Constitutionally protected due process rights are generally upheld in practice.

The use of solitary confinement for extended periods of time in Canada’s prisons has been controversial. While there have been changes in recent years to solitary confinement laws, an advisory panel report released in May 2021 found that the length of solitary confinement and the frequency of its use had not substantially changed. Despite continued pressure, the federal government has not publicized plans to change solitary confinement laws and procedures.

Governments in Canada have made increasing efforts to enforce equal rights and opportunities for minority groups, although problems persist. Black and Indigenous Canadians remain subject to widespread discrimination, struggle with food insecurity, and have unequal access to education, health care, public services, and employment. While there has been some recent progress on these issues, it has been slow.

The federal government’s 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) and its 2019 National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) —which concluded that the history of state discrimination and oppression of Indigenous people amounted to genocide—made several recommendations to improve the lives of Canada’s Indigenous peoples. An analysis that was last updated in September 2023 found that only 13 out of 94 TRC calls to action had been completed. In June 2022, Bill C-29 was introduced in the House of Commons to establish a National Council for Reconciliation that will monitor progress on the completion of the TRC’s calls to action and suggest areas where governments improve their efforts to ensure equal rights and justice for First Nations people. But, as of late 2023, it yet to be passed by Parliament. Though the government’s response to the MMIWG was delayed due the COVID-19 pandemic, it has now committed C$2.2 billion (US$1.7 billion) over five years to implement the Inquiry’s recommendations and related programs. Parliament also has also passed a law to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. How this new law will impact federal government policies relating to Indigenous people remains to be seen. Finally, the federal government’s 2019 antiracism strategy, which included substantial programs to combat anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, is now operational.

Freedom of movement is constitutionally protected and upheld in practice. All restrictions on Canadian movements over borders and limits on the size of public gatherings related to the pandemic have now been lifted.

Property rights are not constitutionally guaranteed but are generally well protected by law and through the enforcement of contracts.

Canada legalized same-sex marriage in 2005. In March 2021, the House of Commons passed amendments to Canada’s assisted suicide laws to remove the eligibility requirement for a person’s natural death to be “reasonably foreseeable,” among other changes.

Domestic violence is a problem that disproportionately affects women, particularly Indigenous women, and is underreported. However, there have been initiatives in recent years to better train police in handling domestic violence cases.

In July and October 2023, controversial policy changes took effect in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, respectively, requiring parental consent for transgender children under the age of 16 to change their names and pronouns in school. The policy changes sparked debate over the extent to which parental rights override the rights of transgender children.

There have been some reports of forced labor in the agricultural, food processing, construction, and other sectors, as well as among domestic workers. However, the government, aided by NGOs that work to reveal forced labor and sex trafficking, attempts to hold perpetrators accountable and to provide aid to victims.