Pacific Views

Grits? Tories? NDP? Le Bloc?

Despite what it might appear like from reading the US press, more than one country in North America is in the midst of its election season. Canadians will be going to the polls on June 28th to choose a new parliament (and a new prime minister), and there's a good possibility that the current Liberal party government of PM Paul Martin will be voted out of office or, at best, continue in power as a minority government. Both the right-wing Conservatives and leftist New Democrats are running stronger than expected campaigns, and have taken good advantage of the sponsorship scandal that has rocked the Liberals. Given the overwhelming victory of the Liberals in the 2000 election, the likely results of the current election mark quite a shift in the Liberals' fortunes.

Given that there are four major parties vying for power in Canada — Liberals, Conservatives, Bloc Québécois, and New Democrats (and a fifth, the Greens, if you buy their self-hype) — Canadians have more electoral choices than do those of us in the US. Luckily, the foks at PoliticsWatch have provided this handy party selector quiz to help Canadian voters make their choice.

[Not surprisingly, this magpie would be firmly in the NDP camp if we were voting in Canada.)

More: And just so readers in the US don't feel left out, here's a presidential candidate selector.

Posted by Magpie at June 2, 2004 05:45 PM | Canada | Technorati links |