A Political Overview of Canada (Province By Province)

[displacedyankeedem]

This is written from an American perspective, so correct me if I'm wrong:

Alberta: Texas North, both politically and economically(heavily focused on oil and other extractive industries). Calgary is Houston with lots of snow. While Edmonton(the provincial capital) is like Austin, which trends more Liberal. It's run by Canada's version of Tom DeLay, Ralph Klein.

British Columbia: BC has two faces: The Lower Mainland(Vancouver and Victoria) and Rural BC. The Lower mainland is hyper-liberal, like San Francisco, while Rural BC is a lot like Alberta(except instead of drilling for oil, they log the hell out of the place).

Manitoba: Winnepeg is as liberal as any city in Canada and sends many NDP representatives to Parliament. Rural Manitoba is another hotbed of conservatism.

Maritimes (New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scota, and Newfoundland and Labrador): Canada's poorest provinces, which are largely dependent on transfer payments (constitutionalized pork) for economic survival. Behave similar to West Virginia in the way that they largely send great numbers of Liberal or NDP members to Parliament.

Ontario: Canada's largest province, this is where Canadian elections are largely won and lost. Thus in this sense, it's the Canadian version of of a tossup California, although not nearly as Liberal.

Quebec: You know how Texas calls itself a whole other country. Well, Texas ain't got nothing on Quebec. It is also a swingy region although one of it's largest parties, the Bloc Quebecois, is secessionist and runs no other candidates in the rest of the country. It's considered by many to be the most liberal province in the country.

Saskatchewan: Economically a rural province, dependent on farming, similar to Kansas. Sends a large number of Conservatives to Parliment even though it's the birthplace of socialized healthcare in Canada.

[Old and In the Way]

1. Cool...I've wondered what the 51st state was, politically.

:-)

[Maple]

2. Very good!

And we have, essentially a rural/urban split, much like the US

[enigmatic]

3. I'm in Edmonton...

And you've pretty much got it. I'm an Expat and my wife is Canadian, so we regularly have these types of convos.

I watched the DNC on PBS this year and she went from disinterested to sucked in by the time Kerry gave his speech; she;s as obsessed about the November election as I am now.

On the other hand, this was the first Federal Election Canada has had since I've been up here, and it was a blast for me to see. Anne McLellon's campagin office is down the street from our place, and we're proud to call her our MP..

[3trievers]

4. Well done

[habsdude]

5. NFLD&LAB.

Just being nitpicky: Newfoundland and Labrador isn't a Maritime Province. The Maritime Provinces are basically what was once Acadia (NB, PEI, NS). The Maritimes + Newfoundland and Labrador are known as Atlantic Provinces.

[HEyHEY]

6. Well, winnpeg itself is usually 50/50 when it comes to libs/con seats

And Manitoba is very poor itself. What about the territories?

[yvr girl]

7. Pretty Good

I don't know if I like the 'log the hell out of the place' comment, but BC does have two faces. For a province that has quite a large Conservative leaning in federal elections, it can't seem to hold a Conservative party together provincially. I think there may have been one before my time. When I was a kid, conservatives voted Social Credit (an odd name, to be sure.) Now, conservatives vote Liberal provincially. (Kind of ironic isn't it.)

Ontario is very hard to predict. When I was young, they talked about the 'Big Blue Machine' (and as we know in Canada, Blue means Conservative) It has also been NDP and Liberal.

NFLD is not part of the Maritimes. It is a pretty distinct region, and only joined Canada in 1939. (I think) It is a have not province.

What about the north. I actually couldn't tell you what stripe they were. I believe that they have been NDP.

[TrogL]

8. Ontario

My mother lives in Ontario and I grew up there.

It used to be a hotbed of Liberalism but would occasionally swing NDP.

A few years ago they took a huge swing to the right and let the Conservatives have a go at it. They promptly ruined the economy and trashed the infrastructure. Ontario put the Liberals back in to pick up the pieces.

[habsdude]

10. Ontario is Conservative

Ontario has always been Conservative and the change is only recent. The problem is that Ontario Conservatives aren't necessarily Neo-Liberal. They are true Conservatives or as they are now called Red Tories.

Ontario's "Loyal She Began, Loyal She remains" is what Ontario is. The Conservative Party and it's follow up was Progressive Conservative Party have ruled Ontario for most of its existance. A few Liberal Governments (whom for much of the time ran Right of the Conservatives) and some semi-socialism: the United Farmers of Ontario.

In the 80s saw the switch to the (arguably) centrist Liberals and to the NDP. And having lost power, the Tories had to regroup, not as Tories but as common-sense revolutionary rightist neo-liberals.

A strange thing about Ontario is that while it can forgive the Liberals and Conservatives their respective scandals and incompetance, the NDP will forever be associated with Bob Rae.

[SeveneightyWhoa]

9. I'm actually kind of offended that you'd compare..

..Ralph Klein to Tom Bug-Eye Delay!

Ralph's definitely not nearly as bad. In fact, not many human beings are.

[Canadian Socialist]

11. Molly Ivins says it best!

In a recent column:

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=17441

As a resident of Alberta (Calgary to be precise), I agree that King Ralph is nothing like Delay. Ralph has more power and money <g>.

[ironflange]

16. Greetings from a fellow Calgarian!

Welcome to DU!

:toast:

And you're right, I can't think of any polititian with more power that Ralph, especially now that Saddam is out of the picture.

[displacedyankeedem]

17. That's true

He also can't be as nearly corrupt or morally bankrupt as DeLay.

[Swede]

12. In Saskatchewan there is a urban-rural split.

Cities vote NDP and rural votes go to conservatives.

[C_Banana]

13. Of course the entire political spectrum is shifted to the left here

Here's a poll that was done in 2000:

http://erg.environics.net/news/default.asp?aID=417

The poll is probably within the margin of error since I'm certain that Alliance voters would favor Bush more than Progressive Conservatives would. Still, it's interesting that even Alberta votes for Gore in 2000. Of course, the polling would be much more lopsided in 2004.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

14. In last weekend's Ipsos, Alberta was 60% for Kerry.

[andy15]

15. As a resident of Quebec...

Who was born and raised in Toronto, lived in British Columbia for 15 years and have lived the last 14 years in Trembalnt in Quebec...Canada is basicially French speaking and English speaking Americans,

[Darth_Kitten]

18. Winnipeg is pretty progressive.....

for the rest of Manitoba, the north is generally NDP/Liberal country, and the rest is generally "Conservative" (but not Alberta "redneck" type conservatism)

We're pretty moderate here....