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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?
托德：史蒂夫，加拿大的政治制度与美国的制度有很大不同。你能跟我说明一下加拿大的政治制度吗？
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：当然可以。基本上来说，加拿大有10个省，3个地区。我们称之为3个地区，因为那些地区的人口不足5万人。那些地区在遥远的北部，非常寒冷，显然并不适合居住。10个省分别为不列颠哥伦比亚省、阿尔伯塔省、萨斯喀彻温省、马尼托巴省、安大略省、魁北克省、纽芬兰与拉布拉多省、新斯科舍省、新不伦瑞克省、爱德华王子岛省。每个省都有省政府，首都渥太华是联邦政府所在地，其实马上就要举行选举了，可能是今年的某个时候。每个省都在联邦内阁中占有席位，席位数量是依据人口定的，因此拥有最多人口的安大略省和魁北克省在联邦议会中拥有最多席位，所以不管你住在哪，你都要为在你所居住的地理区域参加选举的政治家投票，赢得最多席位的政党将组成政府治理这个国家。
Todd: OK, and the leader of the country comes from that party?
托德：好，那国家领导人来自那个政党？
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：对，国家领导人是党内选举出来的。他们选举领导人。所以每个政党在需要领导人的时候会举行领袖大会，他们会选举出一位领导人来领导这个政党，当然政党领导人也必须要在他的选区内进行竞选，所以如果他们没有赢得投票，他们就不能成为总理，当然，主要的政党，现在执掌政府的是自由党。其他主要的政党还包括新民主党，可以简称为NDP，还有新保守党。当然还有一个强有力的政党，那就是魁北克人党，显然这个政党在魁北克省拥有最多的席位，所以加拿大有四大主要政党。
