The United States is known to have the most powerful president in the world. To start with, the highest political official in the United States both by influence and acknowledgment is the president. It is significant that the powers of the prime minister of Canada and that of the USA president are closely tied. Actually, there are no other officials in both Canada and the USA as powerful as the prime minister and the president respectively. Therefore the question on the powerfulness of the two principals always arises due to deliberation of most power in their hands (Harris, 2007, p.228).
It therefore becomes difficult to tell who has more powers than the other in their countries, is it the prime minister in Canada or the president in the USA. It is obvious that the authority may not be total but the officials have considerable power even though the USA president has more power compared to the prime minister of Canada. To be specific, the president of the USA is the head of state and no other authority is above him whatsoever while the prime minister of Canada is the head of Canadian government (Clarke, Kornberg & Scotto , 2009, p.32).
The American president is elected for a four year term and remains president regardless of his party state in either or both in the House of Representatives and the senate .Contrary to this, in Canada if the prime ministers party loses an election; he ceases to be a prime minister. This signifies that the USA president relies wholly on the American people decisions while the Canadian prime minister relies on the political party he is in charge of. This is because he is the head of the political party with a governing majority. It can also be noted that, the American president derives very considerable and figurative power and authority merely by being the head of state. In contrast, this is the role of the governor general in Canada whereby his role is purely symbolic without any political powers attached (Clarke, Kornberg & Scotto, 2009, p.32).
The truth of the matter is that the real power of the president of the USA and the prime minister of Canada is limited by a system of checks and balances that tells how much power is bestowed upon the prime minister of Canada and the president of the USA (Foner, Garraty, & Society of American Historians, 1991, p.238). It can be critically noted that both the Canadian prime minister and the USA president obtain their powers from the people who elect leaders of their countries through elections. Even though a Canadian prime minister is superior in his/her country, he/she relies so much on the collective opinion of the cabinet. On the other hand, the American presidents rarely need advice from the cabinet when making major resolutions in his government (Clarke, Kornberg & Scotto, 2009, p.35).
At this point, it is good to state that unlike the Canadian prime minister who is appointed by the head of state, the USA president is elected directly by the people. In addition to this, the president in the USA can take office whether his/her party win the majority of seats or not while the Canadian prime minister can only take office if his political party wins the mainstream seats in the house of commons. In light of this, the American president occasionally attends the legislature meetings while the Canadian prime minister does so because he requires legislative support for his position.
In the case of the military force the USA president is the commander-in-chief of the US military even though he requires the approval of parliament while carrying out the military operations (Clark, 2008). Contrastingly, the Canadian prime minister is not a commander-in-chief as this is the responsibility of the British Monarchy. Nevertheless; the prime minister exercises broad authority over the Canadian military even though the USA president has more powers compared to his. Just as the USA president the Canadian prime minister also appoints executive officials in parliament (Sobel, 1999, p.20). Similarly to the USA president the Canadian prime minister enhances his publicity whenever a chance is available even though his opportunities may be few compared to those of the USA president.
Both the American president and the prime minister of Canada are the leaders of the executive power in their governments respectively even though the USA president may be underprivileged if the House of Representatives and majority of senates belong to the opposition party (Foner, Garraty, & Society of American Historians, 1991, p.348). With the advice and consent of the House of Commons and the senate respectively, the Canadian prime minister and the American president choose ambassadors and the judges of the courts in Canada and USA respectively as far as the judicial power and foreign policy is concerned (Hodge &Nolan, 2007, p. 327).This is a clear indication that both the Canadian prime minister and the American president have power over the judiciary.
In conclusion, the power of the Canadian prime minister and the USA president has a lot in common. Conversely, the Canadian prime minister performs the duties of the head of government while the US president performs the functions of the head of state, but in real sense their duties are almost the same. It finally comes out clearly that the USA president is the most powerful as compared to the Canadian prime minister. Reason being that the prime minister needs the endorsement of the governor general on core decisions and engagements and he also overlies on his/her political party compared to the US president.
