Australia with Canadian parties

[Peter the Lefty]

This is interesting idea.  I'm guessing Rudd would either be one of the socially conservative Liberals or a Red Tory.  I also think, given how desperate she seems to be for power, that Gillard would be a left-leaning Liberal.  Plibersek, Combet, Andrew Leigh, Albanese, Wong, Carr, Garrett, and Macklin would be Dippers.  Roxon is tricky to say.  Ferguson could also fall into either the Liberals or the NDP.  Wayne Swan is even harder to call.  He's been calling for the fight against income inequality to return to the ALP's platform, yet he's quite the SoCon.  Since someone who opposes same-sex marriage can't get anywhere in the NDP (and rightfully so), he'd be lucky to become an NDP MP.  Burke is a similar case.  In fact, there are probably tons of people like this.  And given how "hippie" the NDP and Liberals both tend to be, I think a lot of the socially conservative working class areas where people like Swan and Burke have appeal would simply vote Tory, the same way lots of socially conservative poor areas in Canada do.  Maybe the Liberals would have them, but even they have a metropolitan image which would alienate them to the working class.  Shorten I'm guessing would be a Liberal.  Crean, Latham, Smith, Weatherill, and others along those lines. 
Given the appeal the Torries have gotten in the west by portraying the Liberals as snobby elites, they'd probably have a similar appeal in Australia.  Pretty much everyone in the coalition would be a Torry.  And the Canadian Greens and the Australian Greens are really different, too, so I kinda think that Bob Brown could well be a Dipper. 

[Peter the Lefty]

This is interesting idea.  I'm guessing Rudd would either be one of the socially conservative Liberals or a Red Tory.  I also think, given how desperate she seems to be for power, that Gillard would be a left-leaning Liberal.  Plibersek, Combet, Andrew Leigh, Albanese, Wong, Carr, Garrett, and Macklin would be Dippers.  Roxon is tricky to say.  Ferguson could also fall into either the Liberals or the NDP.  Wayne Swan is even harder to call.  He's been calling for the fight against income inequality to return to the ALP's platform, yet he's quite the SoCon.  Since someone who opposes same-sex marriage can't get anywhere in the NDP (and rightfully so), he'd be lucky to become an NDP MP.  Burke is a similar case.  In fact, there are probably tons of people like this.  And given how "hippie" the NDP and Liberals both tend to be, I think a lot of the socially conservative working class areas where people like Swan and Burke have appeal would simply vote Tory, the same way lots of socially conservative poor areas in Canada do.  Maybe the Liberals would have them, but even they have a metropolitan image which would alienate them to the working class.  Shorten I'm guessing would be a Liberal.  Crean, Latham, Smith, Weatherill, and others along those lines. 
Given the appeal the Torries have gotten in the west by portraying the Liberals as snobby elites, they'd probably have a similar appeal in Australia.  Pretty much everyone in the coalition would be a Torry.  And the Canadian Greens and the Australian Greens are really different, too, so I kinda think that Bob Brown could well be a Dipper. 

Wouldn't Carr be a Grit?


Unless you're talking about Kim

Yeah, sorry, I meant Kim.  Forgot that he's not the only Carr in the cabinet anymore.  Bob Carr probably would be a Grit. 

[Peter the Lefty]

The union links to the NDP could see it performing not dissimilarly to Labor in a fair number of seats, I suspect.

Yeah, but would the conservative unions that back the ALP be willing to support a party that supports gay marriage, pot legalization (at least under Layton), etc.?