It's Election Day in Canada: Who do Canadian DUer's support?

Ignacio Upton

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Mon Jan-23-06 03:42 PM
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It's Election Day in Canada: Who do Canadian DUer's support?

Edited on Mon Jan-23-06 03:48 PM by Ignacio Upton

Canada has a multiparty parliamentary system, so they don't have two monolithic parties. Here are Canada's four major parties (parties that have seats in the House of Commons.):

The center-left Liberal Party. In America they would be labeled socialist, but in Canada they're centrist. They're the ruling party, and Prime Minister Paul Martin is their leader. Ruling for 12 years, they have recently experienced a series of corruption scandals (sounds familiar?)On electoral maps their color is red.

The right-wing Conservative Party was only formed in 2003, with the merger of the center-right Progressive Conservatives, and the right Canadian Alliance Party (which is basically like the mainstream of the GOP, while the old Progressive Cons were more like the "Rockefeller Republican" wing of the GOP, at least in relation to the American political spectrum.) Their electoral map color is blue.

The New Democratic Party (NDP) is basically the premier socialistic/social democratic party. They're further to the left than the Liberals, and a strong minor party. They're often viewed by the Liberals in the way that Nader and the Greens are viewed by the Democrats (that is, as spoilers.) They formed a coalition government with the Liberals after the June '04 election in order to have a functioning minority government. Their electoral color is orange.

The Bloc Québécois is a left-wing party that aligns ideologically between the Liberals and the NDP. However, unlike the first two, the Bloc is concentrated on the issue of Quebec sovereignty, either through more autonomoy or independence. They are a regional group, and their only seats are in Quebec (but they are the third largest party as a result, since Quebec is Canada's second largest province.)It is suggested that if the Conservatives win (they likely will head the next government after today) and have a minority government, the Bloc will be the only likely party to have a coalition with them, since they generally act in their own self-interest, which means if necessary, they will form a coalition to have leverage.

Who do you support? Personally, I want the Liberals to stay in power as a minority government with the NDP (which apparently hasn't worked out.) OTHO, I sort of view the Liberals in the same way as the GOP in this country: both parties have been in power for 12-13 years, and corruption and "one party syndrome" are taking hold. However, unlike the GOP, the Liberals are not right-wing douchebages. However, while Harper and the Tories may be considered right wing in Canada (and secretly they are) even if they exposed themselves, they still would only be as bad a John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, or Arlen Specter. Any politician like George W. Bush or Dick Cheney in the Conservative Party would not be Prime Minister, and if they try to destroy Universal Healthcare it will make Bush's quest to privatize Social Security look like a game of tiddlywinks. If the Conservatives take over, I hope that they have a minority government with the Bloc Québécois as their partner. The Bloc will keep them restrained, and if they veer to the right, then the Bloc could summon a no confidence vote and another election will happen (I wish we could do this in America!)