What American's Ought to Know About Canada, But Don't

[joncha]

Canada has four main parties. They are, for the most part, conveniently named:

Liberals: Canada's "natural ruling party" have been in power far more than they haven't. They match up quite well with the US Democrats.

Conservatives: Closer in spirit to the UK Tories than the US Republicans, but through several splits, mergers and makeovers, they seem to be more socially conservative than was traditionally true (though less than some of their incarnations have been when they were more divided)

New Democratic Party: Canada's social-democratic labour party. They have a strong base in the trade union movement, and have formed governments at the provincial level, but tend to hover around the 15% mark nationally.

Bloc Quebecois: They are an odd mixture of ex-conservatives and nationalist social-democrats who have managed to unite on a national liberation basis. Because their support is so concentrated, they can be a force at times (they managed to form the official opposition at one point).

[KrazyHorse]

They match up quite well with the US Democrats.

US Democrats are in favour of a universal single-payer health care system?

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse

They match up quite well with the US Democrats.

US Democrats are in favour of a universal single-payer health care system?

The left wing of the DP is.

[KrazyHorse]

So is most of the Conservative party here.

[Imran Siddiqui]

What is the argument that baseball was invented in Canada? I've never heard that one before.

The first recorded game of what could be considered north american football was played between Harvard and McGill.

That depends on what you consider the first American football game . Where it departs from rugby is hard to say, though plenty of people say the 1869 game between Princeton and Rutgers (about 5 years before the Harvard-McGill game) was the first football game.

[Ben Kenobi]

Conservatives -- "conservative", right-of-center...don't ask them to take a firm stand on anything, the pussies

Eh, bring it, closeted leftie.

[chequita guevara]

Who are your prominent leaders?

[Ramo]

Your understanding would be incorrect.

In an election that was widely seen as a rejection of the Tories, they are not far from a plurality if not a majority.

What percentage of seats would they need to be able to govern (i.e. practically being able to peel off individual votes in other parties, as the Libs are currently doing)?

[KrazyHorse]

Imran

That game was neither football nor rugby. The ball was moved through kicks. Picking up and carrying it was verboten.

Not football in the slightest. Soccer.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Ramo

Your understanding would be incorrect.

In an election that was widely seen as a rejection of the Tories, they are not far from a plurality if not a majority.

What percentage of seats would they need to be able to govern (i.e. practically being able to peel off individual votes in other parties, as the Libs are currently doing)?

The Liberals are peeling off individual votes? Not really. They are in a de facto coalition with the NDP and need only 1-2 more votes than this gets them to pass legislation.

[chequita guevara]

How many seats are there in your Parliament?
How is your executive selected?

[notyoueither]

It might be a shock, but our right (the Tories) would be in the centre in the US.

The defunct CA might have been more on the right. They are defunct because they never stood a hope in hell of forming a government and had the good sense to get out of the way of people who could, finally.

I wish we could drive a stake into the heart of prairie populist movements, they are entirely too good for the Liberals. However, I fear we have not seen the last of them. The next train is due in... about 30 years. Unless the population trends continue... If Alberta and BC had as many seats in the Commons as Quebec, or dare I say Ontario, that might be the salve that soothed many wounds.

[Ben Kenobi]

Who are your prominent leaders?

Paul Martin, of the Liberal Party

Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party

Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Quebecois

and Jack Layton of the NDP

This is a pretty good site for you Che.

www.filibustercartoons.com/ parliament.htm

[Ben Kenobi]

How many seats are there in your Parliament?
How is your executive selected?

Currently 308, roughly apportioned according to population.

Some areas have roughly 1 MP per 30K people, while others may have more than 100K people in an urban riding.

Each census, they redistrict the ridings, to adjust for population increases. Areas that are decreasing in population have their seatcount grandfathered.

This makes PEI our rotton borough with 4 seats for 120K people, but understandable given the history of Canada and a desire to acheive some regional balance.

The Prime Minister is selected by the governing party, and appointed by the Governor General.

[Ramo]

So can the Governor General block the appointment of a PM somehow?