Canada

Canada's federal system distributes power across ten provinces and three territories with an equalization programme that transfers roughly $24 billion annually from wealthier provinces (Alberta, British Columbia) to poorer ones (Manitoba, Nova Scotia) — a fiscal metabolism that functions like nutrient redistribution in a mycorrhizal network. The system creates structural resentment: Alberta generates disproportionate federal revenue from oil sands but has no constitutional mechanism to opt out of redistribution. Canada's Westminster parliamentary system produces majority governments from as little as 33% of the popular vote, a first-past-the-post distortion that every major party promises to reform and none do once elected. The economy is structurally dependent on the United States, which absorbs roughly 75% of Canadian exports, creating a bilateral relationship closer to obligate symbiosis than sovereign partnership. Canada's banking system — dominated by five institutions that survived the 2008 crisis unscathed — demonstrates how oligopolistic concentration can produce stability rather than fragility when combined with conservative regulation.