Canadian Federal elections will be held on May 2nd, 2011. Many of my acquaintances have asked me about the political situation and to make things easier I decided to write it out.
Canada has four primary parties. Three "Left"(New Democratic Party, Green Party and Bloc Québecois), one "Centre" (the Liberal Party of Canada) and one "Right" (the Conservative Party of Canada).
Let me explain the quotation marks. In the classical model of politics a right-winged group is those that place the needs of the State above those of the people. Left winged groups obviously put the needs of the people above the needs of the State and centre groups are a balance between both.
As a whole, and historically, Canada's 'Right winged' groups tend to fall close to the level of the Democratic Party in the USA. But there are those within the Conservative Party of Canada that fall close to the Republicans, and others even further right. Most of these individuals come from the Western Provinces, namely Alberta. So to say the conservative Party is like the Republicans in their views is partially correct, especially since the current Prime Minister (conservative party) is from the west and harbours several views that are quite within the realm of the right (belief that universal health care should be abolished in favour of privatized health care).
To continue with the conservative Party, I will explain the vague term 'conservative'. As a rule of thumb, a political conservative is a group or an individual who either desires to maintain the status-quo, shift to a previous state or accept change at a very slow pace. So, a conservative right wing party (like the Conservative Party of Canada) has no intention of ever doing anything drastic, except to remove newer 'progressions'.
Now to elaborate on the notion of putting the needs of the State before the needs of the people. When a right winged government is faced with deficit, its first reaction will be to cut social programs. The logic is that if the country is able to lessen or eliminate debt the quality of life will eventually improve for people to a point of those programs being less needed. Right winged followers also believe in a top to bottom system. To help the nation as a whole those on top (the government itself and the wealthiest individuals/groups/corporations) should be able to keep more of their money because they are the ones who will be hiring the poorer people.
The left wing groups will put the needs of the many before the needs of the few. The logic is that if the poorest people's quality of life improves, everything else will follow. "A happy and healthy citizen is a productive one." So left wing governments tend to focus more on health care, education, and employment insurance. Also, they believe more money should be in the hands of the poor instead of the wealthy.
So who should people be voting for? Well that is a personal question. But here are examples of ideal situations. Jack who lives in a big house, has lots of money and has a nice car should vote Conservative. the Conservatives will not only make sure he maintains his wealth, they may even try to make him wealthier.
Joe the independent farmer should not vote conservative. The conservatives would give preference to the larger corporate farms. The other parties have a larger chance of attempting to help you out.
If you are simply sick and tired of both Liberal and conservative parties, but feel like voting for the other three is a waste of your vote? It isn't. Every time you vote for a party, you are saying that every other party cannot represent your desires and beliefs. That is the joy of having more then two parties, you are not being forced to choose between two people who you disagree with like in the USA. Chances are one of the five parties will meet you desires.
Here is a rundown of the three other parties:
Bloc Québecois: Sole goal is the better the lives of people who live in Québec.
Green Party: Primary goal is the betterment of the Environement, then improvement of the lives of all people within the borders of Canada.
NDP: Primary goal is the improvement of the lives of all people within the borders of Canada, then the betterment of the Environement.
Liberals are simply in between those three parties and the conservatives.
(if I came across as biased, I apologize.)
