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Liberal Party of Canada
Parti libéral du Canada
Active Federal Party
Founded July 1, 1867
Leader Stéphane Dion
President Doug Ferguson
Headquarters 81 Metcalfe St, Suite 400
Ottawa ON
K1P 6M8
Political ideology Liberalism
Social liberalism
International alignment Liberal International
Colours Red
Website http://www.liberal.ca

The Liberal Party of Canada (French: Parti libéral du Canada), colloquially known as the Grits (originally "Clear Grits"), is a major Canadian political party. The organization is located in the centre of the Canadian political spectrum, combining a liberal social policy with moderate economic policies. Starting with Wilfrid Laurier in 1896 every leader of the party (excepting current leader Stéphane Dion) has served as Prime Minister of Canada. The party has formed the Official Opposition in the Parliament of Canada since February 2006.

After the dissolution of the Progressive Conservative Party on the formation of the new Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party is the only party remaining from Confederation, and is Canada's oldest functioning party at the federal level. The Liberal Party held power for more years of the 20th Century than did any other party in any developed Western country.citation needed The party is led by Stéphane Dion, who was elected to the position at the party's leadership convention on December 2, 2006. After the party's second consecutive defeat (the first under the leadership of Paul Martin), Dion announced he will step down after a new leader is chosen.1

Contents

History of Leaders

Main article: History of the Liberal Party of Canada
Picture Name Term start Term end
George Brown First leader 1867 (Interim)
Edward Blake 1869 1870 (Interim)
Alexander Mackenzie 1873 1880
Edward Blake 1880 1887
Wilfrid Laurier 1887 1919
William Lyon Mackenzie King 1919 1948
Louis St. Laurent 1948 1958
Lester B. Pearson 1958 1968
Pierre Trudeau 1968 1984
John Turner 1984 1990
Herb Gray 1990 (Interim) 1990
Jean Chrétien 1990 2003
Paul Martin 2003 2006
Bill Graham 2006 (Interim) 2006
Stéphane Dion 2006 Present until May 2009

Principles and policies

In the present times, the Liberal party has favoured a variety of policies from both right and left of the political spectrum. Since the 1990s it has been a strong champion of balanced budgets, and it eliminated the deficit completely from the federal budget in 1995 by reducing spending on social programs or delegating them to the provinces. It had legalized same-sex marriage and use of cannabis for medical purposes, and has been proposing complete decriminalization of possession of small amounts of it. The party also holds progressive views on various other social issues like abortion. In spite of this, a socially conservative wing does exists within the party. For example, when the Civil Marriage Act was passed in 2004 (which legalized same-sex marriage), 32 Liberal MPs voted against the act.2

During the 2006 election the Liberal party's platform included an

  • Introduction of a national childcare program
  • Immediately cut tax for low income earners by 1 point from 16% to 15%
  • Tougher firearm laws, including a ban on handguns and semi-automatic rifles
  • Reducing wait times for medical treatments
  • Increased support and opportunities for seniors, immigrants and the aboriginal populations
  • Increased spending on military
  • Additional investment in research and higher education.

In June 2008, the Liberal Party unveiled a new policy based on an ecotax called Green Shift.

Regional Liberal parties

Each province and one territory in Canada has its own Liberal Party.

Current governments and premiers:

Current official oppositions and leaders:

Third party status and leaders:

Not represented provincially and leader:

The relationship between the federal and provincial Liberal parties in Canada varies across Canada. In the four largest provinces (BC, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec) the parties are informally linked to varying degrees. In the case of BC and Quebec, the provincial party tends to maintain neutrality in federal politics. In the 6 other provinces and one territory, the provincial parties are direct organizational affiliates with their federal counterpart.

The Quebec Liberal Party was long affiliated with the federal Liberals since Confederation. In the 1940s, the party's fortunes were aided and hindered by close association with the federal Grits over the issue of conscription, winning the 1939 election but losing in 1944. The provincial party, serving a long spell in opposition, partially due to the conscription fallout, formally severed ties in 1955. Since then, relations have been tense between the federal and provincial parties, as examplified by Pierre Trudeau and Robert Bourassa's bickering over nationalism.

Some in the Alberta Liberal Party feel it has suffered as a result of federal Liberal policies unpopular in Western Canada, such as the National Energy Program and official bilingualism. The British Columbia Liberal Party ended its own ties with the federal party in 1987.

The Northwest Territories and Nunavut have non-partisan legislatures. Historically the Northwest Territories had political parties between 1898 and 1905. In 1905 the bulk of the populated parts were formed into the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. the Northwest Territories Liberal Party formed the opposition for two elections before 1905.

In addition, this party is responsible for one of the most expensive and failed programs the country has ever known: the gun registration program of 1995. Poorly administered and not properly thought out to begin with, the program has cost dozens of times more than what the party initially said it would and the programs' computer database has subsequently been compromised several times, resulting in the loss of many registered weapons and firearms licenses information. Moreover, the law governing this registration program stipulated questionable items present to this day, such as a ban imposed on certain types of firearms and not others, which is completely arbitrary - a Canadian citizen can legally own an M-16 type rifle in semi-auto, but cannot purchase anything resembling its' Russian counterpart, a semi-automatic Kalashnikov-style rifle. This arbitrary way of administering the issue has caused a political uprising in the legit firearms owners' community, resulting in the loss of many votes for the party (especially in the western provinces). It is important to note that the gun registry law has mainly had the effect of making the firearms owners' lives more and more difficult over time and not of reducing firearm-related crime. In fact, the real source of the problem, which is gun-related criminal activity and gun smuggling from the United States, remains visibly untouched by this party's official political programs. 3

See also

References

  1. ^ "Dion to resign after Liberals choose new leader", Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (2008-10-20). Retrieved on 25 October 2008. 
  2. ^ http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/Bills_ls.asp?Parl=38&Ses=1&ls=c38
  3. ^ http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/Bills_ls.asp?Parl=38&Ses=1&ls=c38

External links

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Major national, provincial, and territorial Liberal parties in Canada
Forming the government
Forming the official opposition
Third parties represented in legislatures
No representation in legislature
v • d • e
Leaders of the Liberal Party of Canada

Brown · Mackenzie · Blake · Laurier · King · St. Laurent · Pearson · Trudeau · Turner · Chrétien · Martin · Dion
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