.png){kind=icon}
Political parties are organizations that offer slates of candidates to voters at election time. The seven functions performed by political parties include the integration of citizens into the political system, policy development, elite recruitment, organization of government, structuring the vote, organizing public opinion, and interest aggregation. Canada’s party system is described as a brokerage political system. Two dominant parties—the Liberals and the Conservatives—act as brokers of ideas, selecting those they think can attract broad appeal and aggregate diverse interests. In recent years the New Democratic Party, Canada’s party to the left of the political spectrum, has found new and historic success.
In contrast to many European countries, class politics is not very significant in Canada due mainly to the higher salience of regional and language divisions. Minor parties play an important role in Canada’s party system, providing much-needed policy innovation and persuading the major parties to act on the concerns of regions, classes, or significant social groups they have traditionally ignored or underestimated. Examples of minor parties include the New Democratic Party, the Green Party and the Reform Party. Some analysts speculated that there had been realignment in the party system in the 1993 and 1997 elections due to the catastrophic defeat of the PC party and the rise of two regional parties in opposition. Two prominent themes at the time were the low esteem held by voters for parties and politicians, and the shrinking centre of Canadian politics. The Conservative Party was reconstituted early in the next decade and the electorate has been very divided since the 2004 election. The new Conservative Party would find success soon after 2004 as the party formed a minority government in 2006. After another minority government in 2008, the next election would provide a historic outcome.
The 2011 federal election produced dramatic results. The NDP became the Official Opposition, largely as a result of the 58 seats that it won in Quebec. The Liberal Party was reduced to third-party status. Explanations for the dramatic shift centre on the popularity of NDP leader Jack Layton, the inability of the Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff to connect with voters, and Quebecers’ fatigue with the sovereignty issue. The election demonstrated that Canada is a 60/40 country. The Conservative Party, the only party with a centre-right stance, received about 40 per cent of the vote, while the four centre-left parties—NDP, Liberal, BQ, and Green—received about 60 per cent of the vote. Some believe that centre-left parties now need to consider a merger of some sort.
In Canada, party leaders are selected through either a process involving only the party caucus, a leadership convention decided by riding delegates, or by a direct vote among all party members. With respect to the electoral system, there is debate over whether to switch from the plurality electoral system to a system of proportional representation. Today, Canadians are less likely to vote than at almost any time since Confederation. However, voter turnout has been declining in Western democracies generally. Younger citizens of Canada are less likely to vote than older citizens, but surveys show that they are as likely to participate in politics in other ways. Significant changes to party finance laws have seen limits placed on private funding and introduced public subsidies for political parties. Limits have also been placed on candidate and party expenditures at election time.