This post brought to you by Fuller‘s London Porter.
So, here’s my perception of the parties at play in this election. Google will bring you all kinds of other perspectives, but here you get the McLaren view ™.
Liberals – The least dangerous party to be in power–they’re generally progressive on social policy (most often when Prime Ministers start to think about their legacy, but still…) with moderate economics. My take is that they have shifted significantly towards a corporatist/pro-globalization in the last decade, particularly under the leadership of corporate magnates like Martin, but that they are the party of the status quo for the most part. Since my cynical theory is that the more a government attempts to accomplish, the more they can screw up, I’m all for that. Change at a national policy should come in slow evolutionary steps forward, except in cases of raw oppression, rather than in “revolutions”.
The party used to have some of the awesome back in the Trudeau days (Americans, check this out these new clips on ‘Trudeaumania‘, and also this key speech from Trudeau’s days as Justice Minister), but has suffered from a lack of philospher kings since then.
The Conservatives – At the moment, this party is the Canadian Republican party. I’m not kidding–the theory that drives this party comes out the Calgary School (i.e. the Republican theorists who invaded Alberta). While they’ve taken the name of the Conservative Party, after the merger (rebranding attempt #2) of the radical right Canadian Alliance (really the radical right Reform Party, in rebranding attempt #1) with the remnants of the historical Progressive Conservative party, the fact of the matter is that 70% or more of the members are left over from the Reform. And those members still believe in the crazy right wing policies of the Reform and Alliance.
While the PCs used to be the most right party, before the rise of the Reform and later Alliance, they were still more left than the most left U.S. party. However, this is no longer true, with the Conservatives being a strict neoconservative group. Sadly many Canadians may not realize that they are voting for such a party, since the Conservative name has meant something else since the founding of Canada.
In a very real way the supposedly national Conservative party is the regional party of Alberta, now making inroads into the more reactionary and/or ignorant parts of Ontario. Most of my posting tonight should be bashing of them. If you think I’m being biases and impolite now, wait until I get a few more beers into me.
The NDP – The party I normally support, the farthest left of the major parties in Canada. Strong history in grassroots and labour organization, but have lately made a big move towards the post 60s intellectual Left. They used to be a significant force, but during the last two decades they lost a lot of ground–partly this is down to the Liberal juggernaut, but perhaps even more it’s due to the backlash against the results of the NDP actually becoming the governing party in Ontario for a while. (They weren’t actually ready to be in power–no experience, and made a bit of a mess).
The Bloc Quebecois – They started life as a federal separatist party, which is kind of funny when you think about it. As is usual for separatists, they changed into a regional party when the support wasn’t overwhelming for separation. They are a very socially left party generally, and I agree with a lot of their positions on every topic not related to Quebec. They essentially have a lock on the quarter of Canadian federal seats that are in Quebec.
The Green party – Used to be an environmentally driven party, during the last leadership convention somehow shifted to a weird blend of libertarianism and tree-hugging. This party makes no sense to me under the new leadership. Still, they pull something like 1 vote in every 20.
