(01-05-2013 04:50 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  

(01-05-2013 02:58 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  

(01-05-2013 02:41 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  

(01-05-2013 02:35 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  

(01-05-2013 10:22 AM)smn1256 Wrote:  Do we even have states any more? The federal government is slowly taking over everything.

We allow it to happen. As Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, etc are increasingly respecting their states/provinces, we have been steadily becoming more centralized since 2000. It's been a pretty mutual agreement between Repubs and Dems.

In case you were unaware, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are all part of the UK...

No they aren't. As Owl says, they are a part of the Commonwealth of Nations. That means that they do accept the Queen of England as their sovereign but she doesn't have any more than ceremonial authority that she delegates to the Governor General.

All of those countries have their own PMs, Governments, and Opposition. Take health care for example; their probably couldn't be a greater rejection of the UKs policies than Canada has. The Queen has no say over how the countries work.

I thought the Queen has no say in how the UK is run any longer. That's supposed up to the Prime Minister and Parliment. Isn't the Queen just a figurehead these days?

She's not involved in day to day activities, but she has to sign off (called Royal Assent) on every law that Parliament (which the prime minister is a part of) passes. She also has the ability to dissolve Parliament and call an election. This is traditionally done with advice from the PM, but there is no law that says that she couldn't do it on her own.

Interesting...