What's going on politically in your country?

[Gravekeeper]

whatever that means.

It means the Governor General can still fark with us at beset of the Queen if she was so inclined, ehehe.

[BroomJockey]

Complete independence from Great Britain. Didn't that happen in the late 1800's for you?

Technically, no, we still don't have complete independence from England. The Canadian Head of State is the Queen of England. So your measure fails on its face. Colonization is a much better measure of a country's age.

To aid in your research, here's how it goes for the heirarchy in Canadian politics.

The Head of State is the Queen of England. Her representatives in Canada are the Governor General at the Federal level, and the Lieutenant-Governors at the Provincial. In order to call an election, the Prime Minister has to go ask permission from the GG. It has only been refused once in the history of Canada, to the best of my knowledge. Each start of session of Parliament is lead off with a Speech from the Throne, where the Governor General delivers something similar to your State of the Union address. Also at this time, it's traditional to introduce the government's budget for the year.

Canada's elections aren't fixed-term, though an election must be held every at least every 5 years. We've had elections 2 years apart. Usually that happens with minority governments, where the party with the most seats still has less than 50% of the total number. There's certain measures that when voted on in Parliament constitute votes of confidence, where if it isn't passed, the Prime Minister has to immediately dissolve Parliament and go ask the GG for permission to have an election. The budget is one such item. Many of these are also open votes, where party members are "encouraged" to vote how they feel, rather than "toe the party line." In practice, however, few people vote against their party, as the party whip doesn't take kindly to the dissension in the ranks.

[fireheart17]

An Australian Sex Party... interesting. I looked up their website, not safe for work. But, interesting. They would be the porn lobbyist for America, I think.

Yeah, I'm pleased on the front that they're at least not afraid to hide the fact that sex and homosexuality are a normal part of our society and of life and always will be.

It means the Governor General can still fark with us at beset of the Queen if she was so inclined, ehehe.

We have this too! *points* There was a bit of a stink kicked up when our current Governor-General was chosen, because it was believed that it was a more or less token gesture than anything else (our current GG is Quentin Bryce, all the other GG's up until her have been male).

As for what's currently happening at the moment...

From a federal level, there's been a bit of fuss over the current Government's education fund. Basically, as a condition of the funding, they want whatever gets built to be named after the Deputy PM or have a plaque declaring that it was built by the current Government. The opposition sees it as a possible election campaigning tool, so are challenging them on both fronts. (there's a rule about having no campaign materials within a certain distance of voting places, which are usually schools or community halls of some sort)

On a state level, the Liberal party has a new leader-Isabel Redmond. and people have no clue who she is in all honesty. Me? I'm aware that yes, we have a new opposition leader. Heck, I can barely keep up with who the last Liberal party leader was (Australian here).

[machinest]

As an Australian now living in the US I have some perspective.
The Canadian and Australian systems are very similar at least in basic form and noticeably different from the US system.
The Governor General (appointed by the English Crown) is the head of state but his role is mostly ceremonial (greeting foreign visitors, laying wreaths and making formal "state of the union" style speeches) his real power consists in approving and in some rare cases being able to call elections.
The Senators are elected for long terms in Australia and apparently for life in Canada and have the right to veto (and amend ?) bills from the Parliament but not to initiate bills of their own.
Members of Parliament are approximately equivalent to Congressmen elected to represent a district and for a shorter term than Senators.
The Prime Minister is the head of government and is chosen from within the Parliament (typically but not always the leader of the party with the most seats in Parliament) he has the policy making role of the American President but is also a voting member of the parliament.
One of the biggest differences from the US is that voting is preferential so that instead of voting for one candidate you rank the available candidates in order of preference. This means that their are no primary elections and their is a greater choice of candidates to vote for as opposed the the 2 most favored by their party faithful. This has the effect that 3'rd parties can get some seats and that a vote for a 3'rd party candidate is not an effective vote for the party you oppose (you can vote Green1'st Democrat 2'nd others in descending order rather than having to vote Democrat as opposed to Republican).

[Nyoibo]

On a state level, the Liberal party has a new leader-Isabel Redmond. and people have no clue who she is in all honesty.

I know who she is, but that's because I used to go to school with her kids and knew her personally.

[lordlundar]

I need to do more research because:

Canadian confederation happened on July 1st, 1867, however, this was not a declaration of independence as Canada was part of the Commonwealth under the monarchy of Great Britain. There was a re-patriotism of the Constitution in 1982, but Canada remains a constitutional monarchy, though for all practical purposes it functions as an autonomous country.

whatever that means.

1867 was when we were first labeled as a country member of the Britich Commonwealth as opposed to a colony. Canada was considered a country member until WW1. During that time, we were able to handle our internal affairs on our own, but Great Britain spoke for us on international matters.

The massive contribution of Canada in WW1 as independent from Britain caused the international community to regard Canada as an independent nation and GB relaxed their stance, allowing Canada to function as it's own country in the world.

Though it was internationally recognized, there has been no formal document detailing it until 1982, when Canada made it official. In it's current state, we are an independent country, though we still recognize the Crown as a figurehead, if not as a legitemate ruling body over our territory.