There's the British Parliament. And then there's Canada's "Potemkin" Parliament. The name "Potemkin" derives from Grigori Aleksandrovich Potyomkin, a favourite of Catherine the Great of Russia. He reputedly gave the order for sham villages to be built for the empress's tour of the Crimea in 1787.Potyomkin's name has become an adjective. Dictionary definitions of Potemkin describe an action or stance that has "a false or deceptive appearance, especially one presented for the purpose of propaganda; "a pretentiously showy or imposed façade intended to mask of divert attention from an embarrassing or shabby fact or condition."Canada's parliament, indeed, our entire parliamentary structure, has been reduced to a Potemkin village -- a sham.Canadians' existential confusion about their system of government is taking the country into uncharted territory. Poll after poll show a majority of Canadians regularly confuse their parliamentary system with the American presidential-congressional system.