Canadian Politics

In Canada we like parties not just the parties where you go and drink and have a good old time. We like political parties. Well we must because since July 1st 1867 when we became the Dominion of Canada there have been 169 political parties.

Currently there are 4 political parties with members in the house of commons. They are the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party and the Bloc Que’be’cois. There are also 15 other parties registered by Elections Canada, 24 unregistered parties, 45 historical parties that have elected members to Parliament and 68 historical parties that nominated candidates.

There are unique and interesting political parties in Canada like the Sex Party, the Work Less Party, the Marijuana Party, the Party Party, the Canadian Extreme Wrestling Party, the Absolutely Absurd Party, the Neorhino Party and Popular Party of Prostitutes among many others. From time to time political parties will merge to form a new political party the latest was the Progressive Conservative party and Reform Alliance party to form the Conservative Party of Canada. I liked it better when they called themselves the Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance Party or CCRAP for short.

So what if some of these parties decided to merge well how about these suggestions:

The Sex Party joins the Work Less Party to become the Work Less More Sex Party or

The Marijuana Party and the Party Party to form the Marijuana Party Party or

The Conservative Party and the Canadian Extreme Wrestling Party to form the Conservative Extreme Wrestling Party or

Popular Party of Prostitutes and the Bloc Que’be’cois to form the Popular Party of Bloc Prostitutes or

The Absolutely Absurd Party and the Liberal Party to form the Absolutely Absurd Liberal Party.

I’m just saying that it would make politics more fun and maybe more people would vote.

So why do we have now and in the past so many political parties? Clearly it’s about agenda’s. The members of each political party has a political view that they want to put in place. Some are dedicated to their cause (Green Party), some want to bring a lighter side to the political process (the Neorhino party) and others want a stage to promote change (the Marijuana party).They range from the extreme on each side. Each party has members that don’t think it’s party goes far enough or thinks it goes to far. Some parties are one issue parties for example the work less party advocates for shorter hours of work so that unemployment will be eliminated or at least reduced. The main parties want to Govern, power is their goal and will often say what the voters want to hear to get elected.

The current system is called first past the post system which means that like a horse race the candidate with the most votes wins. This usually means a candidate from one of the three main parties. The party that elects the most members usually Governs. (It has happened when there isn’t one party with a majority of the members two parties will form a coalition government.) In recent years this means that a party could and often does have the majority of sitting members with less than 50% of the popular vote.

There is a movement advocating change to the current electoral system. In fact British Columbia and Ontario explored changing the electoral system in those Provinces. Both of the recommended systems were voted down by the electorate. It appeared that both Provincial Governments lacked much enthusiasm for the recommend change and it was defeated. It would have been simpler to ask if the people want to change the system first then developed options.

Next article we’ll talk about option’s.