Talk Elections

I've been curious about Canadian politics, and was wondering if anyone could tell me how their four main parties are different.  As far as I know, there's a party called something like the "new left" which I'm guessing is the far-left party, then there's the liberal and conservative parties, and the party that wants Quebec to be independent?

I'm not that well informed about Canadian Politics but I know the four main parties....

CPC, Conservative Party of Canada- Centre Right
LPC, Liberal Party of Canada- Centre
NDP, New Democratic Party- Centre Left
BQ, Bloc Quebecois- Quebec separatists.

The CPC is an amalgamation of the Progressive Conservatives (social liberals, fiscal conservatives) & the Alliance (social & fiscal conservatives). It hasn't been very successful, some PC MP's have defected to the LPC and some have formed the Progressive Party (the new Progressive Conservative party!!!). The CPC does well in the West, in particular Alberta.

The LPC is the dominant party of government. It's fiscally quite conservative, but socially liberal. It's often accused of speaking 'left' and acting 'right'. It tends to dominate in Ontario, lots of Quebec, the North & Maritimes as well as a few outposts in the west such as Edmonton and Vancouver.

The NDP have never formed a government, although they do well in provincial governments in Saskatchewan, BC and Manitoba. They're the social democratic party of Canada and favour strong health care & social security. It does well in the inner cities. Places like Toronto, Halifax, Vancouver and Hamilton.

The BC, unsurprisingly only do well in Quebec. They were originally, primarily a one issue party, i.e independence for Quebec, but they've now largely abandoned this rhetoric (since it's never gonna happen!) Now they pursue Quebec interests and are generally centre-left in their policies.

The NDP also do well in the backwoods (like Prince Rupert, Timmins or Thompson) and do well in the Atlantic (but with a few exceptions their vote isn't concentrated enough to win many seats. Not the same provincially in NS though)

Timmins? Really? That's the birthplace of Shania Twain! Very nice lady.

Timmins - James Bay was an NDP gain in the last election.

I must say i'd love to visit some of these small towns in rural Canada, like Thompson. The nearest big city is probably Winnepeg and that's hundreds of miles away! wierd! Presumably they must have to fly to get anywhere?

And most of it's been held by the provincial NDP since the '80's.

Is there indication that the BQ might try to widen their appeal to outside of Quebec by becoming a pro-Francophone party even if the Francophone does not live in Quebec.  They might be able to gain a few ridings in Ontario and New Brunswick if they were to do this.

I've not heard anything like that, but it's a possibility at some point...

Al are you playing my RPG or not? Your post is overdo.

Sorry about that... I wrote it last night but there was a powercut :(
I posted a (very short and somewhat pathetic) little version on the thread.