Canadian Politics

A Summary

"In Canada, the two natural governing parties are the Liberals and Conservatives, who spend their time vying to occupy the centre ground, with the NDP on the outskirts. It's impossible to imagine the Tories in a coalition with the NDP; neither party's members would stand for it, and Canadians could never take it seriously. It's similarly hard to envision the Liberals and Tories in a working arrangement, since a Liberal-Conservative coalition would come close to one-party rule; as the only two parties who ever get to run the country, who would they be coalescing against?

The only potential partnership, and the one that gets raised most often, is a Liberal-NDP pact. But even that has serious underlying difficulties. It would, by definition, pull the Liberals to the left, leaving the crucial middle ground unoccupied. And Canadians have never shown a lot of enthusiasm for left-wing governments at the federal level. They don't mind keeping the NDP around, but they really don't want them getting too close to having any real power. A government linking the two parties would function mainly as a waiting room as the Liberals conspired to dump their new friends and grab the whole thing for themselves.

There are also regional problems. Alberta doesn't like anyone but Tories, period. Much of the rest of the West is less dogmatic, but remains either highly suspicious of the Liberals, or highly suspicious of the NDP. Put the two together and western Canada would have to wonder where to go to get a government of its own.

Ontario can never make up its mind. One day it supports Liberals, the next Conservatives, with a sprinkling of NDP. And Quebec appears happy to regularly choose none of the above..."

How depressing (and true). :(