Thoughts on the upcoming Canadian federal election?
So I finished watching a fantastic debate among candidates for Prime Minister in Canada. All of the four candidates had a strong performance, and honed in on nuanced, substantive policy disagreements. They all demonstrated a good knowledge of economics, at least compared to U.S. politicians, and acknowledged the trade-offs of their preferred policies while still discussing the relative merits of their plans. Unlike the GOP clowncar at yesterday's debate, these PM candidates debated very sharply, but they were very civil throughout, and focused only on policy instead of personality politics. The election is coming up very soon: it's on October 19, 2015.
Canada has a very different political landscape than the U.S. All of the major parties, including the conservative party, are pretty liberal on social issues, being pro-gay marriage, pro-choice, against mixing church and state, and so forth. If you oppose LGBT rights or abortion, believe creationism should be taught in schools, support drastically deregulating gun ownership, or support the death penalty, even Canadian conservatives will view you as having fringe far-right views. Social policies haven't been on the political radar for the past decade, either because most Canadians are socially liberal or they care enough about social issues to make a big issue about them. So really, the the major political parties really only differ in their views on how to properly run the economy, engage in security issues, address climate change, and conduct foreign policy.
Another thing I find fascinating: while the Canadian Conservative Party is generally classified as a "center-right" party, many Canadians currently view the ruling Conservative Party (and its leader PM Stephen Harper) to be very conservative to what they're used to. Yet, Harper strongly supports Canada's single-payer healthcare system, and opposes privatizing healthcare and moving to an American-style employer based system. Harper is now largely liberal on the aforementioned social issues. although iffy on trans rights. If you were to transplant him to the U.S., his views would mostly mirror those of a moderate Democrat, like Bill Clinton, save for maybe some fiscal policy positions. There is no real major party in Canada that's analogous to the U.S. Republican Party: most hardcore Canadian conservatives are like Blue Dog Democrats, and mainstream conservatives are more like Third Way centrist Democrats like Andrew Cuomo.
However, Harper has been getting flack for the parties to the left of him on his strong, unabashed support for Israel, his opposition to marijuana, his heightening of the Canadian police state with Patriot Act-esque laws, his tough stance on immigration, his support for unfettered free trade, his support of militarism (Iraq War, Afghanistan, ISIS), and his dismal record on climate change (he supports Keystone XL, opposed to Kyoto Protocol, and while acknowledging the science of climate change, he doesn't care about solving it). Harper is also generally seen as pro-big business.
To Harper's left is challenger Justin Trudeau of the Liberal Party, a centrist party that dominated Canadian politics in the 20th century but lost most of its power in the last 10 years due to a conservative ascendancy. Historically, the Liberal Party is very liberal on social issues (LGBT rights, women's rights and so on), and moderate on economics, and has maintained strong ties to Bay Street, Canada's version of Wall Street. Right now, the Liberal Party is a pretty minor party, however. The views of members of the Liberal Party are similar to U.S. Democrats who are pretty liberal, but not super progressive, like Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, and Barbara Boxer. The Liberal Party doesn't really have a strong guiding ideology, and likes to view itself as more technocratic, taking good ideas from both the right and the left. It currently wants to raise income taxes on the top while giving the middle class a tax break. Moreover, it is in favor of legalizing, taxing, and regulating marijuana (more so than the other parties). In general, the Liberal Party is the best party on civil liberties, and is anti-war and anti-interventionist. Having said that, the Liberals disappointed many when they backed some of Harper's Patriot Act-esque police state and pro-censorship reforms.
It is also supportive of a basic income system. However, the Liberal Party has traditionally had more faith in the power of markets than the NDP. On climate change, the Liberal Party supports a carbon tax. The Liberal Party is also pretty pro-trade. The Liberals favor proportional representation as well. The Liberal Party has moved from being slightly left of center to slightly right of center throughout its history, and under Trudeau, the party is moving more to the left to undercut the NDP, although the movie isn't succeeding and the NDP is far more popular than the Liberals.
Even further to the left is challenger Thomas Mulcair of the New Democratic Party (NDP), a party historically tied to rural farmers and labor unions. While initially being a very left-wing party rooted in a strong Canadian democratic socialist tradition, the NDP has evolved into a modern social-democratic party that currently positions itself as center-left on the Canadian political spectrum. It is analogous to UK Labour and the German SDP. While being a minor socialist party for most of its history, under Mulcair's leadership, the NDP has now become the dominant voice of the Canadian political left. It is projected to have a very great chance at dethroning Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party, and winning the Canadian federal elections. To demonstrate the momentum the NDP has gained on the Canadian left, the NDP won the 2015 provincial election in Alberta, Canada's most right-wing province and a bastion of Canadian conservatism for decades. That's like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren winning an election in Texas.
And yes, the views of the Canadian NDP's politicians largely mirror those of U.S. leftwing progressives like Bernie Sanders and Dennis Kucinich. The NDP hopes to establish a social-democratic Canada, better regulating the market capitalist framework and melding markets with strong social safety nets. Moreover, the NDP supports a national minimum wage of $15, is opposed to the Keystone XL Pipeline, and is quite critical of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It wants to raise business taxes on large corporations while lowering them on small and medium enterprises. Moreover, it is running on a campaign of electoral reform, seeking to transform Canada's "first-past-the-post" system to a proportional representation system to build a robust multiparty democracy. Surprisingly, however, the NDP prefers a cap-and-trade system over a carbon tax, which is unusual because the NDP generally favors more government-led policy solutions than market driven solutions.
Furthest to the left, is an "almost major party" called the Canadian Green Party led by Elizabeth May. It is considered to be the left-wing party in Canada, and while is popular among some progressive circles, it only has two seats in Canada's House of Commons (out of 308 members). The Green Party is very left-wing, and has policies reminiscent of the old "socialist" NDP (in 2013, the NDP dropped official references to socialism in the party constitution, and instead focused on re-branding itself as a pragmatic center-left social-democratic party). As you can tell from the name, the Green Party has a particular focus on environmental issues. It's positioned furthest to the left all across the board in general, and is extremely anti-austerity. It supports a universal basic income. Greens want to cancel corporate mineral exploration. And they plan to invest in first nations (the name for Canada's Native Americans) housing and drinking water. And it also perhaps focuses the most on animal welfare. Elizabeth May is generally considered to be a very charismatic speaker, who is knowledgeable about the facts. However, in the U.S., the Canadian Green Party would be viewed as off the charts leftist. Definitely way to the left of Bernie Sanders. Maybe Seattle councilwoman Kshama Sawant would have similar views to the Canadian Green Party?
But some Canadian progressives view the Green Party as being too far to the left on some issues. The Green Party is vehemently against nuclear power, is very anti-GMO, supports banning federal funding of GMO research, and has some pseudo-scientific views (Elizabeth May believes in homeopathy, and believes WiFi routers in classrooms could be very hazardous to health). The Green Party also supports a Canada-wide ban on the fluoridation of public drinking water, calling it a form of forced medication that is “not medically or environmentally sustainable.” The scientific consensus is that GMO consumption is perfectly safe, that WiFi routers do not emit very hazardous radiation in classroom and are safe, that homeopathy is inferior to evidence-based science, and so forth.
Of course, there are even minor parties that are on the fringe that Canadians support, but they don't have much representation. Even further left to the Green Party is the Communist Party of Canada (which of course is extremely far to the left). And to the right of the Conservative Party is the Libertarian Party of Canada (which on economic issues is extremely far to the right).
Anyway, I analyzed the platforms of all of the parties, and my views best like up with the Canadian New Democratic Party. I'm to the left of the Canadian Conservatives and the Liberal Party, but to the right of the Canadian Green Party.
You can take this quiz to figure out which party best represents your policy positions: https://canada.isidewith.com/political-quiz
And of course, here's the U.S. version for comparison:
https://www.isidewith.com/political-quiz
(Make sure to click "other stances" for more nuanced answers, and click "show X more questions"
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