Hi everyone, hope you are doing well. I wanted to give more of a context about the main political parties in Canada before I continue to the next topic of oil and gas divisions in the country. Living in both British Columbia and Ontario allows me to see both perspectives, which I am excited to share with you.
Last topic was a comparison between Ottawa and Vancouver, which you can read more here. Ottawa is a mid-sized city and the capital of Canada located in the east, with the federal government as Big Brother the main employer. The city breathes history and politics and is still quite traditional with minimal immigration and as a result, has retained strong Ontarian values in my opinion. Vancouver is a port city in the west coast by the Pacific ocean with more than twice the population of Ottawa. Because Vancouver has been consistently ranked as one of the most livable cities in the world, there is migration from other parts of the country as well as immigration (students with long term residency goals/foreign workers/immigrants) from all over the world that even outnumber locals in some areas. This adds cultural diversity, but also strains the city’s resources, as Vancouver is also the densest city in Canada which makes living conditions quite stressful. In summary, Ottawa is as Canadian as you can get in my opinion (the buses have the Canadian flag on them), while Vancouver is a cosmopolitan city of the world, and can be a Hong Kong, a (more Asian) New York, or maybe even a London someday.
That was the introduction to Canadiana, so now let’s continue to the best part: politics.
The reason why I am discussing the main political parties in Canada is because there are conflicts between provincial governments and the federal government based on their values and priorities that are often aligned with the political parties in power. For example, the Liberal party is in control at the federal level (see picture above), but may not be in some of the provinces, such as British Columbia under the NDP and Ontario under the Progressive Conservatives (see picture below). If you are interested in the vlog version of this, I also have it here. In this blog post, I will only focus on the political parties, and save the oil and gas sector for next time.
There are three main political parties in Canada: the Liberal Party of Canada in red, the Conservative Party of Canada in blue, and the New Democratic Party (NDP) in orange. On the political spectrum, it would look like this:
Liberal Party of Canada- the Liberal party is in the middle of the political spectrum, so it could be more left-leaning or right-leaning on issues, with this flexibility making it appealing to a large number of Canadians. Currently, there is a Liberal majority government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who won the election in 2015 (his father, Pierre Trudeau, was also Prime Minister, a considerable source of pride for many Canadians). His father is a bilingual French-Canadian and his mother Margaret is Anglophone, so he is fluently bilingual so he appeals to both Francophones and Anglophones and represents a riding in Montreal too. I think that Trudeau’s Liberal party has been more left-leaning compared to previous Liberal party leaders due to his election campaign promises (which he has achieved or currently implementing) of equal female representation in cabinet leader posts, legalization of marijuana, and overall promotion of feminism and gender equality, making them very popular with young people as well.
The Conservative Party of Canada- this was the party in power before the Liberal party won the election in 2016. Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper represented a riding in Alberta (which is a more conservative province), with the oil and gas sector being one of its largest sectors, similar to a Canadian Texas. This party believes in a small government, and reducing government taxes and services provided by the government. Essentially, this means less social distribution, so business people tend to favour this party. Overall, Canada is a more left-leaning country (more so than the United States, less so than the EU), so the Conservative party is not that conservative or in the least bit extremist. While the Conservative Party under Andrew Scheer is against Trudeau’s carbon tax, they are shying away from touchier subjects, such as vowing not to make any changes to abortion legislation.
To me, the Conservative Party reminds me of the United States because Americans favour individualism and have cultivated a strong business culture (multi-national corporations, like Amazon) for the rest of the world to follow. Although the Conservative Party is not in power at the federal level, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario under Doug Ford is currently in charge, which I will discuss more next post and how it conflicts with federal oil and gas plans. Remember, this country formed in the east first; Canada was formed from English Canada (now known as Ontario) and French Canada (Quebec), so it makes sense to me why Canadians in Ontario have a more established history along with traditional values compared to Canadians in the prairies provinces and British Columbia.
The NDP reminds me of the EU, and strives to increase social welfare in society. There have strong values that appeal to minorities, women, and children, and are more progressive on other issues too, such as the environment. My first work experience was during my high school years, when I spent a week (and later, the summer) volunteering for the member of parliament (MP) in my riding, which happened to be NDP. Currently, the leader of the NDP party is Jagmeet Singh, whose riding is in Burnaby, BC. Although the NDP Party has never won a federal election, British Columbia has traditionally been more left-leaning, which explains why the NDP is currently in power at the provincial level in BC. What friends have told me about the EU social safety net– free education, social social welfare net for refugees, and maternity leave for new mothers- is how I imagine Canada would be if the NDP were in control, especially with their promise of $10-a-day daycare.
Now that we understand the basics of the three main political parties in Canada, next post will discuss how provincial powers can clash with the federal government ambitions, and will focus on the oil and gas sector.
Talk to you soon,
Guest
