Essay on The Four Political Parties Of Canada

As time goes on, some countries become more relevant in the global sphere while others start to fade away. Canada is a country that only becomes more relevant as time goes on. Since being granted full sovereignty, Canada has had a growing role as a major world player. Much of their international growth has to do with its close ties to the United States and the United Kingdom. However, the country has also undergone huge change and refocusing on a domestic level. With influence from both Europe and the United States, Canada has a very unique system of governing. This paper will focus on a few major areas of Canada. It will look into the history of Canada, the structure of its government, its politics, and many of the major issues it faces today.

The electoral system in Canada is also known as a “first past the post” system. “First past the post” means the candidate with the highest number of votes wins the congressional seat, whereas the other candidates with a lower number of votes don’t get any representation. There are many cons to this system that will be highlighted throughout this essay. I will argue that the electoral system requires reform due to the discrepancies between the percentage of popular votes and the number of seats won. Canada’s electoral system has many problems and is not seen as fully democratic since it has provided poor representation for both candidates that win and lose. Candidates can win seats with less than 50% of votes, meaning that even if the majority of the nation, or province did not vote for the candidate they still win the election as they consume the highest number of votes among the parties. FPTP allows two people in different ridings to get the same number of votes with the outcome of one winner since the distribution of votes and seats are unequal. The system can also encourage strategic voting such as not voting for whom you think is the best fit but voting for the candidate that seems most likely to win in order to beat candidate you dislike. FPTP leads to an imbalance of power and has the potential for corruption.

The political scene was dominated by a Liberal party that would not "commit a five cent piece towards the cost of unemployment relief" . This eventually led to their defeat in the summer of 1930. The winner of the election was the Conservative party. Their goal was to get Canada back up and running. In an effort to do so, they raised tariffs on imports and tried to protect national interests. This actually had the opposite affect on the economy and pushed the country further into economic hardship. The government around this time was also trying to balance the budget. In order to balance the budget, they increased taxes which also had a detrimental affect on the economy. After five years, the Conservatives were defeated due to unorganized leadership. The Liberals won the election in 1935. Although

When it comes to the Liberals and Progressive-Conservatives having nearly identical policies by the mid-1980s I cannot help but wonder whether the Liberals enacted these policies based on their own changing ideology or whether it was to try undercut the Progressive-Conservatives' growing popularity. Regardless, it seems apparent that by the early-1980s that the Liberal's government-driven, top-down, style Canadian

The social media campaigns of the Canadian Federal Political Parties (Liberal, Conservative, and NDP) have been compared to one another in an attempt to understand their choices made to persuade audiences to take part in actively addressing and supporting their campaigns. Concepts discussed throughout this course have been applied to the three varying campaigns, including attention, earned media, branding, spreadability, intended audience, tone, navigation, and participation. These aspects have been prominent in all three social media campaigns and thus, have been chosen for this case analysis.

Since party politics began in Canada, the style in which leaders are elected is comparable to a horse race. Using the single member plurality (SMP), more commonly referred to as “first past the post,” method of seat allocation in both the House of Commons and each province's Legislative Assembly, whoever gets the most votes is asked to form the government; this only takes into accounts the number of seats a party wins, not the overall popular vote. In a political system not limited to two parties, like the United States, many times over 50% of Canadians do not want the party that won, to win. In this current electoral system, votes are wasted, smaller parties are terribly misrepresented and, in some cases, a party with a lower percent of

In Canadian government it best to have legislators who do not vote their own interests and they vote the interests of their constituents. If legislators vote in their own interests they could be going against their own parties or the constituents that voted them in. Even if they know a lot about the subject they should still keep their interests out of their decisions and keep the interests of their constituents. Legislators that vote their own interests might even be going against the party policies, which could get them kicked out of the party or disciplined. Legislators are there to represent the people of their riding, not to vote their own interests in.

The issue of electoral reform has become more important than ever in Canada in recent years as the general public has come to realize that our current first-past-the-post, winner-take-all system, formally known as single-member plurality (SMP) has produced majority governments of questionable legitimacy. Of the major democracies in the world, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom are the only countries that still have SMP systems in place. Interestingly enough, there has been enormous political tension and division in the last few years in these countries, culminating with the election results in Canada and the USA this year that polarized both countries. In the last year we have seen

The green party believes that people have the right to do what they want with their own bodies. They believe in safe and legal abortions as well as euthanasia.

The CCF was founded in Calgary by political coalition of progressive, socialist and labour groups called United Farmers of Alberta, League for Social Reconstruction , Ginger Group of MPs in Ottawa, that wanted economic reform during the Depression. They wanted to help Canadians who were affected by the Great Depression. In 1933, the party met in Regina, where they voted for James Shaver Woodsworth to be the leader of the CCF. J.S Woodsworth was a Manitoba Independent Labour Party MP and a social worker. They adopted the Regina Manifesto that was to set out its goals of wanting social programs for the elderly, unemployed, homeless and sick and wanting to spend money on public works to create employment by creating a mixed economy through the nationalization of key industries by establishing a welfare state with universal pensions, health and welfare insurance, children's allowances, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation.

Although Canadian electoral system has always undergone periodic reforms, new challenges always accompany electoral changes and therefore the system should be consistently reformed to meet new circumstances.The current electoral system in Canada is a product of a series of electoral changes that have always taken place since the foundation of the Canadian confederation in the mid 1880s. During the early years, the rights of individuals to vote were significantly limited as only white males had the right to vote but only after meeting certain requirements. A secret ballot was unheard, and it was only after a number of changes were implemented that all social groups in Canada were given the right to vote. Even after these changes, electoral

In the western part of Canada, aside from Alberta, usually, politics showcased NDP or CCF on the left side, while some other political party on the right side. The current epitome of the BC Liberal Party accomplishes this role in British Columbia according to BC Politics. This British Columbia political party is neutral federally and it acquires its associates from the center going to the center right. The Social Credit Party of BC suffered several scandals, and plummeted in popularity polls and get replace with NDP. The revival of the Liberal Party caused a split in the moderate/conservative vote, however, and led to a ten-year period of NDP rule in B.C. from 1991 to 2001. Social Credit Party era is ended by NDP in 1991 and NDP hold onto power

Anyhow, after “World War II” Canada was ruled by either the Conservatives or the Liberals. According to the World Bank 's Worldwide Governance Indicators Canada ranked in the 93.8 percentile on voice and accountability in the year 2010 which represent the stability of the democratic system. The strong democratic setup of Canada counts to their strengths in terms of political aspects.

Canada is one of the largest and most culturally diverse countries in the world. These characteristics make the democratic governing of the country a difficult task. A democratic model is needed that respects the fundamental rights and freedoms of various diverse cultures, and unites these cultures over a huge land mass as Canadians. To do this the Canadian government is one which is pluralist. Pluralism is the ideology that groups, (in Canada's case political parties), should rule in government. These parties help protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of everyone living in Canada, regardless of their ethnicity, or religious beliefs. The role political parties play in Canada is vital for

Canada has been an independent nation for over 150 years, so it makes sense that there has been numerous changes in the government, since the government has to reflect its society, and as time changes so does its government. However, some ideologies do not believe it should change in order to keep up with its time. Oxford Dictionary states that the definition of an ideology is “A system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.” There are various forms of political ideologies; conservatism and liberalism are being brought up for discussion about what makes conservatives and liberals so different in Canada. Throughout the years, the Canadian government has rotated between liberalism and conservatism, these ideologies share some similarities; however, it can be argued that the significant differences are their political, social, and economic views.