Canadian Political Parties.

[CountyTy90]

I've been really interested in Canada lately and their premiers, prime ministers, MPs, etc. But I'm very confused by their political parties, as I'm sure most Americans are. I hate to be so simple, but it's just so easy in the US; generally if you know what one party stands for, you know the other party's position... the complete opposite. But in Canada, as with most countries in the world, they have multiple parties.

For example:

What's the difference between Parti Québécois and Bloc Québécois?

Why was Mulroney a Progressive Conservative, but Harper is just a Conservative?

What national party does Saskatchewan Part ally with?

Among many other questions...

I guess what I'm looking for is a dumbed down version of Canadian political parties and their views/what they stand for.

[RogueBeaver]

1) The PQ is a provincial party, BQ is federal.

2) Different parties. The PC Party was dissolved in 2003 when the newly merged Conservative Party was created.

3) No formal affiliation, but they are a conservative party.

[RogueBeaver]

Conservative: The major right-wing party.

New Democratic Party: Social democratic on the political spectrum, formed Official Opposition for the first time in Canadian history in 2011.

Liberal: One of Canada's 2 founding parties, but reduced to third-party status for the first time in Canadian history in 2011. Centre-left-to-centre on the Canadian political spectrum but historically more of a brokerage party than anything.

Bloc Quebecois: While nominally separatist, these days they are more comparable to regional nationalists like the Scottish SNP or Welsh Plaid Cymru. Under new leadership they are adopting a militantly sovereigntist or "orthodox" position on sovereignty. Also social democratic on the political spectrum.

[Sol]

Parties named after their province are generally right-wing, no?

There are also the Greens, but they only have one seat.

Hashemite has some very good write-ups on his world elections blog.
http://welections.wordpress.com/

[MaxQue]

Parties named after their province are generally right-wing, no?

There are also the Greens, but they only have one seat.

Hashemite has some very good write-ups on his world elections blog.
http://welections.wordpress.com/

Parti Québécois is claiming to be left-wing.
Alberta Party is a centrist party.
So, no. Only true in Saskatchewan and Yukon.

[Sol]

Parties named after their province are generally right-wing, no?

There are also the Greens, but they only have one seat.

Hashemite has some very good write-ups on his world elections blog.
http://welections.wordpress.com/

Parti Québécois is claiming to be left-wing.
Alberta Party is a centrist party.
So, no. Only true in Saskatchewan and Yukon.

Shows how little I know.

Anyway, I interpreted Québécois in the sense of "people of Québec" rather than "party of Québec". Still, wee semantics and such.

[Hash]

Tbf, the Alberta Party started as a party of the right-wing fringe and was that way until circa 2009, when the right-wingers decamped to Wildrose and the party was taken over by feel-good centrists and got a Liberal MLA with them.

[CountyTy90]

1) The PQ is a provincial party, BQ is federal.

2) Different parties. The PC Party was dissolved in 2003 when the newly merged Conservative Party was created.

3) No formal affiliation, but they are a conservative party.

I hate to ask the stupid question, but why not just be the Conservative Party?

And do the PQ and BQ basically have the same views, just one's provincial and one's federal?

[Famous Mortimer]

1) The PQ is a provincial party, BQ is federal.

2) Different parties. The PC Party was dissolved in 2003 when the newly merged Conservative Party was created.

3) No formal affiliation, but they are a conservative party.

I hate to ask the stupid question, but why not just be the Conservative Party?

And do the PQ and BQ basically have the same views, just one's provincial and one's federal?

1. Actually the Saskatchewan is made up of both federal Conservatives AND Liberals. It's anti-NDP party but that also makes it conservative by default.

2. Exactly.

[Hash]

I hate to ask the stupid question, but why not just be the Conservative Party?

The short answer: there is still a registered PC Party in Saskatchewan.

Long answer: In the late 1970s, the PCs replaced the Liberals as the anti-NDP right-wing party in SK politics, after the Liberals had lost reelection in 1975. The PCs under Grant Devine won the 1982 and 1986 elections with majority mandates. Grant Devine, besides being an incompetent domkop in power during a recession, was also a criminal and it quickly turned out that his government/the PC Party were criminal organizations. 12 PC MLAs were charged (after he lost reelection in 1991) with fraud. The PCs fell to 5 seats in 1995 and the Liberals replaced them in OO, and as the scandal kept on giving, the 4 remaining PC MLAs in 1999 ran for reelection or the SaskParty (the fifth one had previously resigned after being found with a teenage prostitute).

So while the SaskaTories attracted four PC MLAs and five (out of 11) Liberal MLAs by the time of the 1999 elections, neither party disbanded. The PCs are kept alive on life support by a small group of people who run only a few candidates each election (5 in 2007 and 2011) to keep the party registration and, by extension, control of the party's assets. The Liberals still won 3 seats in 1999, but they formed a coalition government with the NDP and the party began collapsing when the new leader in 2001 ordered them out of government but two of the MLAs refused and then ran for reelection with the NDP in 2003, and the remaining Liberal Party still won 14% (but no seats) in 2003 and 9.4% in 2007. Since then, the remaining Liberals just gave up and the party has been taken over by libertarians who ran only 9 people in 2011.

[Hatman 🍁]

Parties named after their province are generally right-wing, no?

There are also the Greens, but they only have one seat.

Hashemite has some very good write-ups on his world elections blog.
http://welections.wordpress.com/

The Greens have two seats now, actually. A former NDPer defected to them (Bruce Hyer, who I used to work for)