Comparing The Power Of Positions Of President And Prime Minister

Political systems vary from country to country and so do the political leaders. The leader of a country holds the most power over the nation under the title of a president or prime minister. Both of these titles hold power within different areas of government and law, but one’s power seems to be greater than the others. To compare the power of both it is important to understand the two different systems they function in. The two most compared powers would be between the President of the US, Donald Trump and Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. It can be argued that the president has more power than the prime minister. In my opinion a president has more military, judicial, and executive power in contrast to a prime minister. As well as the US president being more powerful due to it being a bigger nation with a larger government, larger armed forces, more money, and more power over certain areas of government.

The process of being elected for president begins with a primary election that goes state-by-state in which a political party chooses its candidate. The candidate that wins the most primary elections is presented at a national convention for the party. A national convention takes place every four years and is a meeting in which a party can officially declare its president and vice president candidates. After this is the general election, where the candidate must win the more electoral votes and become the president of the United States. A president of a country is the head of state and at times head of government as well. Since a president is not at all responsible to the legislature, he is allowed to act freely according to his own policies without the fear of getting removed. The president’s power does not stop there, they are often commander in chief of the armed forces. He is also not required to have any prior experience in the government. Resulting in the president having a greater amount of executive power in contrast to a prime minister.

The process of being elected for prime minister is based on the system followed in the United Kingdom. You start off by being chosen as the leader of one of the political parties in Canada which are: Liberals, Conservatives, New Democratic, Bloc Quebecois, Green, and Peoples party. Having prior experience in government and being involved in politics from a young age is very important. An election is held and the leader that has the largest number of elected representatives forms the new government. The prime minister chooses the members of the Cabinet. Unlike the president the prime minister is only head of government and not state. A prime minister does not have as much executive freedom as a president. Meaning that if the legislature disapproves of policies, he can be removed.

As mentioned above a president is also the commander of chief. This gives Trump full operational control over the military. This allows his say to over power any decision made by the military and does not require any approval from congress. For instance, early this year in January Donald Trump had raised issues with Iran that could have led to a war, but no one else that was part of the government could stop Trump from making this decison. President Trump had approved military strikes against Iran…but pulled back from launching them on Thursday night after a day of escalating tensions (Shear, Schmitt, Crowley, Haberman, 2019). This goes to show the immense power Donald Trump has over the military. On the other hand, the commander in chief of Canadian Armed Forces is Queen Elizabeth II and the chief of defence is General J.H. Vance. The prime minister does not play big role in Canada’s Armed Forces and is reported to by the general.

In Canada for a bill to become a law it needs the approval of the Governor General and does not require any approval from the prime minister. Despite that, unlike the president the prime minister is also a legislator, which gives him the power to make a law. Additionally the prime minister does not have the power to veto but a president does. Under the constitution, Article I, Section 7, “every bill” and “every order, resolution or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and the House of Representatives may be necessary” has to be presented to the president for approval. The president may either sign the bill or veto the bill. Keeping in mind that this can be overruled by a two-thirds majority of the houses of congress. The legislative power of a president is slightly more compared to a prime minister since he has the power to veto.

The judicial power for both Trump and Trudeau are more similar than the rest. The prime minister has the power to appoint a vast amount of officials in the Canadian system. He can appoint the governor general, judges of the appeals court and the Supreme Court of Canada, and many other officials part of the Canadian government. Just like Trudeau, Trump also has the power to appoint judges (federal), cabinet officers, and other executive branch officials.

Wealth can be defined by “a measure of the value of all assets of worth owned by a person, community, company, or country” (Chappelow, 2018). One of the biggest reasons the president of the United States is more powerful than our prime minister is simply due to America’s wealth. They have one of the largest military forces, and economies in the world. Economic power reduces the chances of any outside force taking part in the countries decisions and allows the freedom to make decisions that only benefit themselves.The economy is greatly affected by trade between the US and other nations. The trade the US does is worth $4.9 trillion per year (Petroff, Sherman, Yellin, 2018). With Trump in power the US had “one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history”(Lai, Griggs, Fisher, Carlsen, 2017). Before the increase the military spending was $596 billion, one of the highest compared to other countries. The military includes 1.3 million active-duty troops, with another 865,000, in reserve(Lai, Griggs, Fisher, Carlsen, 2017). Combining all these factors makes up a country with extreme power, thus giving the leader of that country extreme power as well.

To summarize, there are many factors that play a role in determining how powerful a countries leader can be. Presidents in a way can play by their own rules whereas a prime minister is very limited. To have more power requires you to have the back of a strong country, government system, and the title itself. In Trumps case, being the leader of a country that is overall extremely powerful gives him a vast amount of power. Compared to Trudeau, Trump is much more powerful due to the amount of freedom and say he has as well as how large the US stands with its military and economy.