美語情景對話 第217期:加拿大政治 Canadian Politics

Todd: OK, now Steve, the Canadian political system and the American political system are quite different. Could you explain to me how the Canadian political system works?

託德：史蒂夫，加拿大的政治制度與美國的制度有很大不同。你能跟我說明一下加拿大的政治制度嗎？

Steve: Sure. Basically in Canada there are 10 provinces and three territories. We call the three territories, territories because they have less than 50,000 people living in them. They're really far north, where it is cold and obviously not so comfortable to live. The other ten provinces are British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Foundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Each Province has their provincial government but as far as federal government the capital is in Ottawa, and there's actually an election coming up, probably sometime this year. Each province is given seats in the federal cabinet and seats are given based on population so Ontario and Quebec which have the largest populations have the most seats in Federal Parliament and so wherever you live you basically vote for the politician who is running in your particular geographical area, and the political party which wins the most seats forms the government that rules the country.

史蒂夫：當然可以。基本上來說，加拿大有10個省，3個地區。我們稱之爲3個地區，因爲那些地區的人口不足5萬人。那些地區在遙遠的北部，非常寒冷，顯然並不適合居住。10個省分別爲不列顛哥倫比亞省、阿爾伯塔省、薩斯喀徹溫省、馬尼托巴省、安大略省、魁北克省、紐芬蘭與拉布拉多省、新斯科舍省、新不倫瑞克省、愛德華王子島省。每個省都有省政府，首都渥太華是聯邦政府所在地，其實馬上就要舉行選舉了，可能是今年的某個時候。每個省都在聯邦內閣中佔有席位，席位數量是依據人口定的，因此擁有最多人口的安大略省和魁北克省在聯邦議會中擁有最多席位，所以不管你住在哪，你都要爲在你所居住的地理區域參加選舉的政治家投票，贏得最多席位的政黨將組成政府治理這個國家。

Todd: OK, and the leader of the country comes from that party?

託德：好，那國家領導人來自那個政黨？

Steve: Yeah, the leader of the country is elected within the party. They elect the leader (OK) So each party, when they want a leader, they have a leadership convention, and they elect a leader to lead that party, but the leader of the party must also run in their own constituency or riding, so if they don't win they can't be the Prime Minister, so, yeah, the main political parties, right now the government is Liberal Government. Other prominent parties are the New Democratic Party, sometimes called the NDP, and the New Conservative Party. Also a powerful party is Bloc Quebecois, which has most of its seats obviously in Quebec, so there are four main political parties.

史蒂夫：對，國家領導人是黨內選舉出來的。他們選舉領導人。所以每個政黨在需要領導人的時候會舉行領袖大會，他們會選舉出一位領導人來領導這個政黨，當然政黨領導人也必須要在他的選區內進行競選，所以如果他們沒有贏得投票，他們就不能成爲總理，當然，主要的政黨，現在執掌政府的是自由黨。其他主要的政黨還包括新民主黨，可以簡稱爲NDP，還有新保守黨。當然還有一個強有力的政黨，那就是魁北克人黨，顯然這個政黨在魁北克省擁有最多的席位，所以加拿大有四大主要政黨。

重點講解：
1. come up
即將發生；即將到來；
eg. Plan your activities so that you are rested and refreshed when something important is coming up.
做好日常規劃，這樣一旦發生大事，才能夠從容不迫。
eg. We do have elections coming up.
我們的確將要進行選舉。
eg. That question of culture seems to come up again and again.
這種文化上的問題似乎會反覆出現。
2. base on
以…爲基礎；
eg. He based his conclusions on the evidence given by the captured prisoners.
他根據被俘囚犯提供的證據得出了這個結論。
eg. Three of the new products are based on traditional herbal medicines.
有3種新產品是以傳統的草藥爲基礎研製的。
eg. One should always base his opinion on facts.
一個人應該始終以事實爲依據發表自己的觀點。