Britons and Canadians instinctively think alike when confronting contemporary issues and can readily draw on each other's experience. Canada and Britain share the same Head of State, Queen Elizabeth the Second, who comes regularly to Canada. The political regimes in the two countries are closely matched, after allowing for Canada being a federation. The parliamentary system encourages stable governments, able to take decisions but subject to democratic control. Elected members have a personal mandate from their community, with the duty to represent all the people in it.
Democracy is reinforced by, free and active media.
Canadians have made a powerful impact on the British press, from Lord Beaverbrook and the Express to Conrad Black at the Telegraph. Britain's Lord Chancellor and the Chief Justice of the Canadian Supreme Court at a Commonwealth conference in Ottawa 1995. Canada and Britain prize the independence of their judges and their legal systems, set apart from party politics. They both rely largely on common law principles, which enables standards of justice to be preserved in changing conditions. But they can accommodate different traditions, as in Quebec and Scotland.