Conservative PartyThe Conservative Party of Canada (French:
Parti conservateur du Canada) is a right-of-centre political party in Canada, formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in December 2003. The party most recently formed the Official Opposition in the House of Commons until Parliament was dissolved on November 29, 2005. The Honourable Stephen Harper is the current leader of the party.
The merger was the culmination of the Canadian "Unite the Right" movement, driven by the desire to present an effective right-wing opposition to the Liberal Party of Canada, to create a new party that would draw support from all parts of Canada and would not split the right-wing vote. The splitting of the right-wing vote contributed, at least in part, to Liberal victories in the 1997 federal election and the 2000 election.
The party is considered by some to be Canada's version of the United States Republican Party and the United Kingdom's Conservative Party due to their conservative positions. In reality, differences exist on various policies and the parties are only aligned through mutual membership in the international group of conservative parties, the International Democrat Union. Some advisors have worked for both the CPC and for the Republican Party of the United States.
Liberal PartyThe Liberal Party of Canada (French:
Parti libéral du Canada) is Canada's principal centrist political party. It currently forms the federal government under Prime Minister Paul Martin.
The Liberal Party was in power in Canada for most of the twentieth century. As of the end of 2005 it is one of only three parties that have governed Canada since Confederation; the others being the Conservatives (the Conservative and Liberal-Conservative Party of John A. Macdonald and the Progressive Conservative Party of 1957-2004) and the 1917 Unionist Party of Robert Borden which was a temporary Liberal-Conservative merger based on the conscription issue of the First World War. Every Liberal leader of the 20th century and beyond has served as Prime Minister of Canada. The party, at least for the past few decades, has been a centrist party, combining a generally progressive social policy with moderate economics.
The party, known colloquially as the "Grits" (originally "Clear Grits") has a reputation among members for being very united and loyal, though this is always called into question during leadership races. However, the party has recently been plagued by party infighting.
New Democratic PartyThe New Democratic Party (French:
Nouveau Parti démocratique) is a left wing political party in Canada that advocates varying forms of social democracy and democratic socialism. It contests elections at the federal and provincial levels. In the Canadian House of Commons, it represents the left wing of the Canadian political spectrum while the Liberal and Conservative parties are generally assumed to represent the centre and right wings, respectively. The NDP is a full member of the Socialist International organization of Democratic socialist and Social democratic parties.
The NDP is noted for its populist, agrarian and democratic socialist roots, its close affiliation with organized labour, and, while the party is secular and pluralistic, it has a longstanding relationship with the Christian left and the Social Gospel movement, particularly the United Church of Canada. However, the federal party has oriented itself increasingly away from Labour and the Church to the New Left and progressive issues such as gay rights, especially since the early 1990s. The federal leader of the NDP is Jack Layton.
Bloc QuebecoisThe Bloc Québécois is a left-wing federal political party in Canada that is devoted to the promotion of sovereignty for Quebec. It also holds the goals of social democracy and the "defence of the interests of all Quebecers in Ottawa" (notably by promoting, in the federal parliament, the consensus of the National Assembly of Quebec).
The Bloc Québécois is supported by large sections of organized labour in Quebec and works closely with the Parti Québécois. Members and supporters of the Bloc Québécois are sometimes called Bloquistes [blɑˈkist], a word formed by analogy with Péquiste (a Parti Québécois (PQ) supporter).
Due to the nature of the political party, candidates of the BQ are running only in Quebec, thus all BQ Members of Parliament represent Quebec ridings. The BQ is the only federal political party represented in the Canadian House of Commons to be active in only one province. Also, of the four political parties in the House of Commons, the BQ is the only party that is mathematically unable to form a majority government (but the BQ could form a minority government), since Quebec only has 75 of the 308 House seats nationwide. English Canadians commonly refer to the BQ as "the Bloc".
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