Lecture Notes

Chapter 11 - Parties and Elections

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Chapter 11 - Parties and Elections

Builds on the left-right ideological spectrum introduced in Chapter 2 - Political Culture.

Key Concepts

  • Political parties are voluntary associations that aggregate and articulate interests, field candidates, and organize government
  • Canadian parties have historically practiced brokerage politics — centrist, flexible, leader-driven politics that avoids rigid ideology
  • Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system incentivizes brokerage and distorts representation
  • The party system evolved from 2-party (1867–1930) → 2.5-party (1935–1988) → multi-party (1993–present)
  • Voting behaviour follows a funnel of causality: long-term social factors → party identification → short-term evaluations → vote decision
  • Voter turnout is a concern; younger voters participate less, though other forms of civic engagement exist
  • Party financing shifted dramatically with the Election Expenses Act (1974) and post-2004 reforms; Canada spends far less per-capita on elections than the US

Definitions and Functions of Political Parties

What is a political party?

  • Organizations that offer slates of candidates to voters at election time
  • Eugene Forsey’s definition: “Voluntary associations of people who hold broadly similar opinions on public questions”
  • Key activities: aggregating (combining diverse interests) and articulating (expressing) interests

Functions of Political Parties

  • Integrating citizens into the political system
  • Developing policy
  • Elite recruitment (choosing who runs for office and becomes government)
  • Organization of government
  • Structuring the vote and organizing public opinion (setting the agenda — what are the issues?)
  • Interest aggregation

Canadian Parties and the Ideological Spectrum

Major Parties (as of 2025/2026)

PartyLeaderPosition
Conservative Party of CanadaPierre PoilievreCentre-right to right
Liberal Party of CanadaMark CarneyCentre
New Democratic Party (NDP)Jagmeet SinghCentre-left to left
Bloc QuébécoisYves-François BlanchetCentre-left (Quebec nationalist)
People’s Party of Canada (PPC)Maxime BernierFar-right
Green Party of CanadaElizabeth MayLeft-leaning / environmentalist

Left-Right Placement

Left Wing ←————————————————————————→ Right Wing
[Green][NDP]    [Bloc]    [Liberal]  [Conservative]                [PPC]
  • Bloc Québécois is harder to place on left-right: it is primarily a Quebec nationalist party, positioned centre to centre-left
  • See also: Chapter 2 - Political Culture for the ideological spectrum

Party Platforms vs. Reality

Word cloud analyses of party platforms reveal that despite ideological differences, parties often use similar language (government, support, work, care, Indigenous, communities) — reinforcing the brokerage model.

Brokerage Politics

Brokerage Politics

A style of politics characterized by avoidance of ideological appeals and inflexible policy positions, in favour of an adaptable, centrist approach that “brokers” deals among diverse regional, linguistic, and social groups.

Historical Origins

  • The Conservatives and Liberals both trace their origins to shifting coalitions in the United Province of Canada in the 1840s and 1850s
  • During the formative years of the Canadian party system (~1880–1920), doctrinal differences between Liberals and Conservatives were relatively small (see André Siegfried)
  • Patronage was the central preoccupation of Canadian politics during this era (see Box 11.2)1

Two Claims of Brokerage Theory

  1. The dominant parties do not appeal to specific socio-economic groupings and lack cohesive ideological visions (especially those based on class interests)
  2. Parties are flexible and opportunistic because this is necessary to preserve the fragile unity of the nation

Exam Alert

The lecture notes that claim #1 may still be broadly true, but claim #2 is “surely dubious” — the link between brokerage politics and national unity is contested.

Why Brokerage Persists

  • Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system requires broad, “big tent” appeal to form a government
  • Under proportional representation, parties can afford to be more ideologically distinct since coalition governments are the norm
  • Canadian dominant parties are more flexible, leader-dominated, and wary of ideological appeals compared to European parties

Brokerage Politics and Minor Parties

The Critique

  • Brokerage politics does not permit some interests and points of view to be adequately expressed through the major parties
  • Marginalized interests seek expression through third parties

Historical Third Parties in Canada

  • Progressives
  • Social Credit
  • CCF-NDP (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation → New Democratic Party)
  • Reform Party / Canadian Alliance
  • Bloc Québécois (BQ)
  • Green Party
  • People’s Party of Canada (PPC)

Rise of Modern Minor Parties

PartyFounded
Green Party1983
Reform Party1987
Bloc Québécois1990

Evolution of the Canadian Party System

Exam Alert

Know the three phases of the party system and their date ranges.

PhasePeriodDescription
2-party system1867–1930 (with a blip in 1921)Liberals and Conservatives dominate
2.5-party system1935–1988CCF-NDP as significant third force
Multi-party system1993–2025BQ, Reform, Green, PPC fragment vote

Realignment of the Party System

  • Realignment: a durable change in the parties’ bases of electoral support
  • 1993 was expected to trigger realignment — BQ won second-largest number of seats; many expected it to disappear
  • 30+ years later, the BQ has not disappeared — it experienced a renaissance in 2019, 2021, and even 2025

Has Realignment Occurred?

  • Debatable — the NDP’s strong showing among Quebec voters in 2011 (and to a lesser degree 2015) proved short-lived
  • Outside Quebec, the party system resembles pre-1993:
    • Liberals and Conservatives compete in the Maritimes and Ontario
    • Conservatives dominate much of the West
    • NDP has strongholds in the West and some Ontario urban centres

The Unforeseen Can Happen

Polling from 2021–2025 shows the Conservatives holding a large lead for most of that period, only for the Liberals to surge dramatically near the 2025 election — a reminder that long polling leads do not guarantee election results.

The Electoral System

First-Past-the-Post (FPTP)

A single-member, simple plurality electoral system: the candidate with the most votes in each riding wins, regardless of whether they have a majority. Also called “winner-take-all.”

Criticisms of FPTP

  • Produces distorted representation
  • Over-rewards: the single most popular party AND parties with regionally-concentrated support (e.g., BQ)
  • Under-rewards: minor parties whose support is wide but not deep (e.g., Greens, PPC)

Defence of FPTP

  • Proponents argue it produces stable majority government
  • Though the lecture notes the system’s record on this score has been “mediocre”
  • Critics of proportional representation (PR) point to the instability of coalition governments

Alternatives

  • Proportional Representation (PR): seats allocated in proportion to vote share; multi-party coalition governments become the norm
  • Preferential Voting: voters rank candidates; helps avoid vote-splitting

Electoral Reform

Reform of Canada’s electoral system has been abandoned for now, despite promises made in the 2015 Liberal campaign.

2021 Election: FPTP vs. PR Simulation

How We Voted (%)Seats under FPTP (%)Seats under PR (%)
Liberals (red)32.6%47%35.8%
Conservatives (blue)33.7%35.2%37%
NDP (orange)17.8%9.8%17.5%
BQ (teal)7.7%7.4%7.7%
Green (green)2.3%0.6%1.8%
PPC (purple)5%0.6%0.3%

Exam Alert

The 2021 election is a key example of FPTP distortion: the Liberals won 47% of seats with only 32.6% of the vote, while the Conservatives won more votes than the Liberals but fewer seats.

Voting Behaviour

Historical Bases of Party Support

PartyTraditional Support Base
LiberalFrench-speaking, Catholic, Quebec voters; ideological centre
Conservative (PC 1942–2003; CPC 2003–present)Protestants, anglophones, westerners
CCF-NDPUnionized workers, western farmers, intellectuals, urban voters

The Funnel of Causality (Figure 11.2)

A model of how voters arrive at a vote decision, narrowing from broad background factors to a single vote:

[Long-term social factors] → [Party ID] → [Short-term evaluations] → [Vote]

Long-Term Factors (wide end of funnel)

  • Ethnicity, Race, Religion
  • Education, Occupation, Class
  • Parental partisanship

Party Identification

  • Psychological attachment to a party, shaped by long-term factors
  • Acts as a filter for evaluating new information

Short-Term Evaluations (narrow end of funnel)

  • Candidate evaluations
  • Issue evaluations
  • Campaign evaluations
  • Family and friends’ influence

Vote Decision — the final output

Remember

The funnel of causality shows that voting is not purely rational issue-based choice — deep social identity and party attachment play a significant role, often overriding short-term campaign factors.

Voter Participation

  • Voter turnout has been in long-term decline in Canada
  • Younger voters turn out at lower rates than older voters
  • Reasons for lower youth turnout include lower stakes felt, less habit formation, and structural barriers
  • However, there are other forms of civic engagement beyond voting (activism, petitions, community organizing)

Party Membership is Low

  • Very few Canadians join political parties
  • 2020 Statistics Canada data on participation in organizations (age 15–30):
    • Sport/recreational org: 52.9%
    • School/community group: 25.9%
    • Political party or group: only 4.3%
    • Immigrant/ethnic association: 4.3%
  • Party membership rises slightly with age (6.8% for ages 31–46; 8.8% for ages 47+) but remains low across all age groups

Leaders' Debates

Research suggests that federal leaders’ debates rarely have a significant impact on election outcomes, despite their high profile.

Party Finances and Campaign Spending

Pre-1974: The Old System

  • No transparency requirements
  • Most major party money came from big business
  • The NDP depended on union contributions and was the only party to receive large numbers of small individual contributions

The 1974 Reforms

  • Election Expenses Act, 1974: introduced transparency, tax credits for donors, and both paid and free broadcast time during campaigns
  • Despite reforms, Liberal and Conservative parties remained largely dependent on corporate money; NDP remained dependent on union money
  • Key question: what did those contributions “buy”?
  • Beginning in 2004, public subsidies introduced for all parties based on results of the previous election

Post-2004 Financing Model

  • Private donations strictly limited
  • Public subsidies of $1.95 per vote (introduced 2004, phased out by 2015)
  • Limits on “third party” spending — groups that are not registered political parties during election campaigns
  • Limits on contributions to party leadership campaigns
  • Paid access opportunities (e.g., Laurier Club) continue but are probably not particularly important

Exam Alert

Know the key moments in campaign finance reform: pre-1974 (no transparency), 1974 (Election Expenses Act), 2004 (public subsidies + strict limits), 2015 (public subsidies phased out).

Canada vs. the United States

  • US 2020 election spending: approximately US$14 billion
  • Canada 2019 general election: all parties combined spent CAN$121,544,082
  • Per capita: US ≈ US3.23/resident
  • The US Senate race in Georgia alone in 2021 cost approximately US$515 million

Democracy Watch

Only about 11,000 out of Canada’s 27+ million voters donate more than $1,000 per year to political parties — a tiny fraction of the electorate exercises this form of influence.

Campaign Advertising Spendinga

2019 election (% of campaign spending on advertising)

  • Conservatives: 55% on advertising (32% of that on TV)
  • Liberals: 53% on advertising (20% of that on TV)
  • NDP: 44% on advertising (18% of that on TV)

2021 election (total advertising spend)

PartyTotal SpendOnlineTelevisionAd % of Total
Bloc Québécois$1.6 million$540,000$120,00071%
Conservatives$17.7 million$6.1 million$9 million59%
Liberals$16.2 million$5.7 million$6.1 million60%
NDP$16.7 million$5.9 million$7.7 million69%

2025 Federal Election

  • Conservatives outspent Liberals by approximately $1.2 million overall
  • Largest Conservative expenditure: TV advertising (8.4 million)
  • Liberals spent more on online advertising (7.4 million)
  • Inter-election spending (between elections) is also significant, as seen with Conservative ad campaigns in 2023
  • Key question: does spending buy victory? The evidence is mixed — the Liberals won the 2025 election despite being outspent

Definitions

Political Party An organization that offers slates of candidates to voters at election time; a voluntary association of people who hold broadly similar opinions on public questions (Forsey).

Brokerage Politics A centrist, flexible, leader-dominated style of party politics that avoids rigid ideology and seeks to appeal broadly across regions and social groups; characteristic of Canada’s two historically dominant parties.

First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) A single-member, simple plurality electoral system where the candidate with the most votes wins the riding, regardless of majority.

Proportional Representation (PR) An electoral system where parties receive seats in parliament roughly proportional to their share of the popular vote; typically produces multi-party coalition governments.

Preferential Voting An electoral system where voters rank candidates in order of preference; eliminates some vote-splitting problems of FPTP.

Realignment A durable change in the bases of electoral support for the major political parties.

Funnel of Causality A model of voting behaviour showing how long-term social background factors narrow through party identification and short-term evaluations to produce a vote decision.

Interest Aggregation The function of combining diverse and potentially conflicting interests into broader policy positions or coalitions; a key function of political parties.

Elite Recruitment The process by which political parties identify, cultivate, and present candidates for political office.

Third Party (campaign finance) A group that is not a registered political party but participates in election campaigns by spending money on advertising or other activities; subject to spending limits under Canadian election law.

Footnotes

  1. F.R. Scott’s satirical poem “WLMK” mocks Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s brokerage style — doing nothing by halves that could be done by quarters. ↩

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