Chapter 11 Objectives for Student Learning

Parties and Elections

After reading this chapter, students should be able to:

  • Describe the seven functions performed by political parties.
  • Explain the meaning of brokerage politics and provide examples from the histories of the Liberal and Conservative parties.
  • Identify the effects of Canada’s electoral system on both the party system and legislative representation.
  • Discuss the sources of party revenues and argue whether greater restrictions on private donations to political parties would be good or bad.
  • Discuss the outcomes of recent federal elections and identify factors that may account for their outcomes.
  • Discuss Canadians’ patterns of political participation in recent years.
  • Compare and contrast the single-member, simple-plurality electoral system to that of proportional representation.
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