Can some Canadian poster please explain to me....

[Enderman]

What are the (Atlas) red and blue providences are in Canada? My guess is that BC, Quebec and Ontario are the (Atlas) red states and the rest are blue. I do remember hearing that there's orange and green in there too. So can someone clear the Canadian political fog for me? Thanks...

[RogueBeaver]

The only Atlas blue provinces would be Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Everything else is very swingy.

[Enderman]

The only Atlas blue provinces would be Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Everything else is very swingy.

Like the South (save FL and NC), and UT, WY and ID being the only Atlas blue and every other state being toss up? Sounds like its always 2000 there...

[DC Al Fine]

The only Atlas blue provinces would be Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Everything else is very swingy.

Like the South (save FL and NC), and UT, WY and ID being the only Atlas blue and every other state being toss up? Sounds like its always 2000 there...

It's a bit different with a 3 party system. Plus we change alignments every 15 years or so, it's hard to call a province consistently Red, Blue, Orange etc.

[Enderman]

The only Atlas blue provinces would be Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Everything else is very swingy.

Like the South (save FL and NC), and UT, WY and ID being the only Atlas blue and every other state being toss up? Sounds like its always 2000 there...

It's a bit different with a 3 party system. Plus we change alignments every 15 years or so, it's hard to call a province consistently Red, Blue, Orange etc.

True... Like just twenty years ago, the entire South and Heartland went D... Eight years later, it was all Bush country, save Iowa.  CO, NV and NM was also D as with the entire West Coast and Northeast, except for NH... Then NC, VA, FL OH and even IN went D in eight more years! Also, where's the third party's biggest support in?

[Hatman 🍁]

We have 3 major parties, their colours are:

Conservative: Blue (think moderate Republicans/Democrats)
Liberal: Red (think left Democrats)
NDP: Orange (Social Democrats, non existent in your country)

Last election was a particularly bad year for the Liberals. Conservatives won all provinces except Quebec.

You can consult this page on my blog for maps dating back to 1988: http://canadianelectionatlas.blogspot.ca/p/federal-elections.html

[Vosem]

I'm not Canadian, but I can do some explaining. There are 5 major parties in Canada:

Conservatives -- Self-explanatory. They are the biggest right-wing party, and currently have a federal majority government. The Conservatives (*talking about federal elections here) win Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba pretty consistently; their current majority government is also fueled by victories in British Columbia, Ontario, and parts of the Atlantic provinces in 2011. Represented by the color blue, and led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, an Albertan. Currently polling second place to the Liberals federally in the popular vote, but because their vote is less concentrated than the left-wing parties' (being a North American right-wing party), they could very well nevertheless win a minority government on present numbers.

New Democrats -- Traditionally a third party, in 2011 for the first time they became the Official Opposition (the second biggest party in the federal Parliament). This was done off the strength of a large victory in Quebec, where they are historically weak (they haven't even ran candidates in provincial elections in Quebec since the 1980s). They are a decisively left-wing, social democratic party. They are usually represented by the color orange. They were led by Jack Layton, from Toronto, in their 2011 success, but he passed away later that year and was then replaced by Thomas Mulcair of Quebec, who was previously a member of the provincial Cabinet from the Quebec Liberals. They have slumped back to their usual third-place in polling, though on present numbers they would still do better than they usually did in the 1990s-2000s.

Liberals -- The traditional governing party of Canada, they are considered to be centrists or center-left; they use the color red. The Liberals suffered an historic defeat in 2011, reduced to third place for the first time in their history (they have survived since the very first Canadian federal election in 1867), though they won throughout most of Atlantic Canada. Their leader, Michael Ignatieff of Toronto, was defeated by his little-known Conservative challenger that year; they have only recently gotten around to electing a new leader, Justin Trudeau of Quebec, son of former P.M. Pierre Trudeau. The Liberals currently lead in the polls, though their support is not very geographically concentrated so the Conservatives could still 'win' on present numbers.

Bloc Quebecois -- Active only in Quebec; basically a Quebec nationalist party. Founded in the early 1990s, the party won a remarkable victory in 1993 (indeed, they were the Official Opposition for four years, 1993-1997), but then proceeded to slowly wither before collapsing suddenly to just 4 seats in 2011 as their core voters deserted them for the NDP. Their leader, Gilles Duceppe, was defeated by a little-known NDP challenger in 2011; he was replaced by unknown ex-backbencher Daniel Paille, who is currently leading his party from outside Parliament. Although they don't seem to be recovering in terms of popular vote, the promise of a more split vote in Quebec next time around means they may likely recover at least some seats.

Greens -- A minor party for some time, they have recently begun to carve out a base for themselves on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. They have 1 seat in federal Parliament (their leader, Elizabeth May, who I believe is from Nova Scotia but is representing a Vancouver Island seat in Parliament), by virtue of which they have gotten on this list. They're pretty centrist, but their big shtick is, as one might expect, environmentalism. Seem likely to see an increase in popular vote in 2015, especially in BC, but the seat count will probably stay flat due to geographic concentration problems. Traditionally represented by the color green.

So, federally, those are the players. The provincial level can be very, very different from the federal level, so don't make any assumptions; Canadian provincial politics does not reflect Canadian federal politics and can be quite confusing and parochial.

[DC Al Fine]

The only Atlas blue provinces would be Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Everything else is very swingy.

Like the South (save FL and NC), and UT, WY and ID being the only Atlas blue and every other state being toss up? Sounds like its always 2000 there...

It's a bit different with a 3 party system. Plus we change alignments every 15 years or so, it's hard to call a province consistently Red, Blue, Orange etc.

True... Like just twenty years ago, the entire South and Heartland went D... Eight years later, it was all Bush country, save Iowa.  CO, NV and NM was also D as with the entire West Coast and Northeast, except for NH... Then NC, VA, FL OH and even IN went D in eight more years! Also, where's the third party's biggest support in?

Historically Saskatchewan, but Quebec was far and away their best province in 2011.

The only other thing I'd add is that the conservative movement in Canada was divided between Reform and the Progressive Conservatives. The latter were centrist/slightly centre right while the former were roughly equivalent to the GOP.

[Hatman 🍁]

I'm not Canadian, but I can do some explaining. There are 5 major parties in Canada:

Conservatives -- Self-explanatory. They are the biggest right-wing party, and currently have a federal majority government. The Conservatives (*talking about federal elections here) win Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba pretty consistently; their current majority government is also fueled by victories in British Columbia, Ontario, and parts of the Atlantic provinces in 2011. Represented by the color blue, and led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, an Albertan. Currently polling second place to the Liberals federally in the popular vote, but because their vote is less concentrated than the left-wing parties' (being a North American right-wing party), they could very well nevertheless win a minority government on present numbers.

New Democrats -- Traditionally a third party, in 2011 for the first time they became the Official Opposition (the second biggest party in the federal Parliament). This was done off the strength of a large victory in Quebec, where they are historically weak (they haven't even ran candidates in provincial elections in Quebec since the 1980s). They are a decisively left-wing, socialist party, though they are not militant by any stretch of the word. They are usually represented by the color orange. They were led by Jack Layton, from Toronto, in their 2011 success, but he passed away in 2012 and has since been replaced by Thomas Mulcair of Quebec, who was previously a member of the state Cabinet from the Quebec Liberals. They have slumped back to their usual third-place in polling, though on present numbers they would still do better than they usually did in the 1990s-2000s.

Liberals -- The traditional governing party of Canada, they are considered to be centrists or center-left; they use the color red. The Liberals suffered an historic defeat in 2011, reduced to third place for the first time in their history (they have survived since the very first Canadian federal election in 1867), though they won throughout most of Atlantic Canada. Their leader, Michael Ignatieff of Toronto, was defeated by his little-known Conservative challenger that year; they have only recently gotten around to electing a new leader, Justin Trudeau of Quebec, son of former P.M. Pierre Trudeau. The Liberals currently lead in the polls, though their support is not very geographically concentrated so the Conservatives could still 'win' on present numbers.

Bloc Quebecois -- Active only in Quebec; basically a Quebec nationalist party. Founded in the early 1990s, the party won a remarkable victory in 1993 (indeed, they were the Official Opposition for four years, 1993-1997), but then proceeded to slowly wither before collapsing suddenly to just 4 seats in 2011 as their core voters deserted them for the NDP. Their leader, Gilles Duceppe, was defeated by a little-known NDP challenger in 2011; he was replaced by unknown ex-backbencher Daniel Paille, who is currently leading his party from outside Parliament. Although they don't seem to be recovering in terms of popular vote, the promise of a more split vote in Quebec next time around means they may likely recover at least some seats.

Greens -- A minor party for some time, they have recently begun to carve out a base for themselves on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. They have 1 seat in federal Parliament (their leader, Elizabeth May, who I believe is from Nova Scotia but is representing a Vancouver Island seat in Parliament), by virtue of which they have gotten on this list. They're pretty centrist, but their big shtick is, as one might expect, environmentalism. Seem likely to see an increase in popular vote in 2015, especially in BC, but the seat count will probably stay flat due to geographic concentration problems. Traditionally represented by the color green.

So, federally, those are the players. The provincial level can be very, very different from the federal level, so don't make any assumptions; Canadian provincial politics does not reflect Canadian federal politics and can be quite confusing and parochial.

I've bolded the things I take issue with

[Vosem]

I'm not Canadian, but I can do some explaining. There are 5 major parties in Canada:

Conservatives -- Self-explanatory. They are the biggest right-wing party, and currently have a federal majority government. The Conservatives (*talking about federal elections here) win Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba pretty consistently; their current majority government is also fueled by victories in British Columbia, Ontario, and parts of the Atlantic provinces in 2011. Represented by the color blue, and led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, an Albertan. Currently polling second place to the Liberals federally in the popular vote, but because their vote is less concentrated than the left-wing parties' (being a North American right-wing party), they could very well nevertheless win a minority government on present numbers.

New Democrats -- Traditionally a third party, in 2011 for the first time they became the Official Opposition (the second biggest party in the federal Parliament). This was done off the strength of a large victory in Quebec, where they are historically weak (they haven't even ran candidates in provincial elections in Quebec since the 1980s). They are a decisively left-wing, socialist party, though they are not militant by any stretch of the word. They are usually represented by the color orange. They were led by Jack Layton, from Toronto, in their 2011 success, but he passed away in 2012 and has since been replaced by Thomas Mulcair of Quebec, who was previously a member of the state Cabinet from the Quebec Liberals. They have slumped back to their usual third-place in polling, though on present numbers they would still do better than they usually did in the 1990s-2000s.

Liberals -- The traditional governing party of Canada, they are considered to be centrists or center-left; they use the color red. The Liberals suffered an historic defeat in 2011, reduced to third place for the first time in their history (they have survived since the very first Canadian federal election in 1867), though they won throughout most of Atlantic Canada. Their leader, Michael Ignatieff of Toronto, was defeated by his little-known Conservative challenger that year; they have only recently gotten around to electing a new leader, Justin Trudeau of Quebec, son of former P.M. Pierre Trudeau. The Liberals currently lead in the polls, though their support is not very geographically concentrated so the Conservatives could still 'win' on present numbers.

Bloc Quebecois -- Active only in Quebec; basically a Quebec nationalist party. Founded in the early 1990s, the party won a remarkable victory in 1993 (indeed, they were the Official Opposition for four years, 1993-1997), but then proceeded to slowly wither before collapsing suddenly to just 4 seats in 2011 as their core voters deserted them for the NDP. Their leader, Gilles Duceppe, was defeated by a little-known NDP challenger in 2011; he was replaced by unknown ex-backbencher Daniel Paille, who is currently leading his party from outside Parliament. Although they don't seem to be recovering in terms of popular vote, the promise of a more split vote in Quebec next time around means they may likely recover at least some seats.

Greens -- A minor party for some time, they have recently begun to carve out a base for themselves on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. They have 1 seat in federal Parliament (their leader, Elizabeth May, who I believe is from Nova Scotia but is representing a Vancouver Island seat in Parliament), by virtue of which they have gotten on this list. They're pretty centrist, but their big shtick is, as one might expect, environmentalism. Seem likely to see an increase in popular vote in 2015, especially in BC, but the seat count will probably stay flat due to geographic concentration problems. Traditionally represented by the color green.

So, federally, those are the players. The provincial level can be very, very different from the federal level, so don't make any assumptions; Canadian provincial politics does not reflect Canadian federal politics and can be quite confusing and parochial.

I've bolded the things I take issue with

Both corrected

[Smid]

Earl, you take issue with the party names? lol

Additionally, it is probably useful to note that the provincial and federal parties are not affiliated, although may share similar names, with the exception of the NDP, which runs candidates from school board to federal riding.

In BC, the federal three-party system is replaced by a two-party system, where the BC Liberals are Conservatives plus a few federal Liberals, and the BC NDP is NDP plus a few federal Liberals. The Greens hold seats in BC both federally and provincially.

In Alberta, the Conservatives hold all seats federally, bar one NDP seat (which contains the university). At a provincial level, the governing party for the past roughly 40 years is the PC (Progressive conservative) Party (in the US, you'd call them the RINO Party, hence why I didn't capitalise the "C"). They were challenged by Wildrose, which formed the official opposition, and has some links with the federal Conservatives (although some PCers may also have some links to federal Conservatives in some parts of the province, however my understanding is that the stronger links are Wildrose to federal Conservative).

Also, you're probably already aware of the differences between a parliamentary model and your presidential model. If not, however, the Cabinet and the Prime Minister are all elected to the Parliament, and the Prime Minister is the person who has the confidence of the House (so even if their party does not have a majority of seats, if enough members of other parties and independents back them for PM, they lead a minority government). In some ways, the PM is somewhat equivalent to the House Majority Leader in the US. So when we talk about "the Conservatives won every province in 2011, except fo Quebec" (and Newfoundland, for that matter), it is in the same sense that you might say "Congressional Democrats won New York" - it's not winner-takes-all, and in PEI, Conservatives won the popular vote, but only won 25% of seats, the Liberals, who came second in the popular vote, won 75% of seats in the proince.

Go and check out the link Earl provided to his blog. He has numerous maps of provincial and federal elections, and you'll get a good idea of where provincial parties line up relative to the federal parties.

[Hatman 🍁]

.. the NDP, which runs candidates from school board...

I wish! I'm not aware of this happening anywhere though. Municipal politics is a whole different ball game. Only BC and QC have municipal parties, and they do not mirror federal or provincial parties (at least not in name).

[Smid]

.. the NDP, which runs candidates from school board...

I wish! I'm not aware of this happening anywhere though. Municipal politics is a whole different ball game. Only BC and QC have municipal parties, and they do not mirror federal or provincial parties (at least not in name).

I stand corrected.

[Njall]

Additionally, it is probably useful to note that the provincial and federal parties are not affiliated, although may share similar names, with the exception of the NDP, which runs candidates from school board to federal riding.

Oh, were you referring to municipal parties?  Because the provincial/territorial NDP's are wings of the federal party (except for in Quebec, of course, as there is no Quebec NDP).  The Liberal parties of Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island are wings of their federal party as well.

[MaxQue]

.. the NDP, which runs candidates from school board...

I wish! I'm not aware of this happening anywhere though. Municipal politics is a whole different ball game. Only BC and QC have municipal parties, and they do not mirror federal or provincial parties (at least not in name).

And Quebec parties aren't ideology based. They are personalist and often named after their leader. Usually, when the leader leaves politics, the party folds and people split into new parties around the new (or previous) party leaders. Because of that, defections between "teams" (words often used instead of parties) are very common. In many cities, there is no parties or only one and lots of independants and it's not unusual to a party lose to random independants not even on a common slate (and which are really independant).

[Hatman 🍁]

Same goes for BC, I think. But in Vancouver and Montreal the parties are more based on ideology (especially Vancouver).

[GAworth]

On the Provincial (State) level it gets interesting. There is no Conservative Party on the Provincial Level. The Progressive Conservative name lives on in every province minus BC and QC. BC has a BC Conservative Party, (Canadians help me out) I do not believe it is affiliated. In Alberta, there is the Wild Rose as well, which is more to the right and libertarian than the PCs. Several Provinces have Liberal Parties that are not affiliated to the National Party, BC Liberals (really everything to the right of the NDP) and Quebec Liberals (Traditional Unionist Party) are not affiliated. In two territories (NWT and Nunavut) there are no political parties in the Provincial Legislature. It is consensus based.

[Hatman 🍁]

No PCs in Saskatchewan either, their right wing party is called the "Saskatchewan Party". Same in the Yukon, the right wing party there is called the "Yukon Party".

[Njall]

To be fair, the Saskatchewan PCs technically still exist, but like the Saskatchewan Liberals they run a handful of candidates in order to keep their party registration and get maybe 0.5% of the vote each time around.  But yeah, the provincial PC parties continue to be electoral forces in each province, except for Quebec (never had an officially-sanctioned PC party), Saskatchewan (99% of their voters went to the Saskatchewan Party), and BC (voters there have tended to gather around a 'free-market coalition' party; it was Social Credit for a long time but the BC Liberals fill that role now).  As Hatman already mentioned, the Yukon Party is the territory's conservative party; they were known as the Yukon PCs until 1992 when they re-named to avoid name association with the federal PCs. 

In recent years in Alberta and BC, parties to the right of the local PC(-esque) party have been gaining some momentum.  The BC Conservatives (unaffiliated with the federal party) had been getting some pretty high polling numbers in the months before the last election, but that was mostly due to disapproval of Christy Clark and a lot of those voters seemed to return to the Liberals.  In the end, I believe the Conservatives walked away with ~5% of the vote (and no seats).  On the other hand, Alberta has given birth to the much more successful Wildrose Party.  The Wildrose clearly positions themselves to the economic right of the PCs, and although their leader (Danielle Smith) tends to come across as a libertarian, the party base seems to contain a fair amount of rural social conservatives.  In other words, the WRP is essentially the old 'blue tory' wing of the Alberta PCs.  Due to evaporating support from the right, the PCs have taken on a more moderate, 'red tory' approach as of late, and were (in the last election at least) able to attract enough support from those who would normally vote liberal to fend off the Wildrose.  This has been illustrated in polls since the election; the WRP has held steady in the mid-30s, while PCs have lost support to the liberals and NDP.  In fact, there was a poll released today that showed the WRP and PCs in a statistical tie (WRP 34-33 PC), with the liberals and NDP both at 15. 

[Hatman 🍁]

To be fair, the Saskatchewan PCs technically still exist, but like the Saskatchewan Liberals they run a handful of candidates in order to keep their party registration

The Liberals in SK don't run "just to keep their registration", they are a legitimate party in the province- they just are nearly dead at the moment.

[Hash]

To be fair, the Saskatchewan PCs technically still exist, but like the Saskatchewan Liberals they run a handful of candidates in order to keep their party registration

The Liberals in SK don't run "just to keep their registration", they are a legitimate party in the province- they just are nearly dead at the moment.

At this rate, they're quickly turning into a scam which runs to keep their registration. They ran 9 candidates in 2011, which is only 4 more than the PCs. I guess their transformation into Paultards didn't work out for them.

[adma]

In Alberta, the Conservatives hold all seats federally, bar one NDP seat (which contains the university). At a provincial level, the governing party for the past roughly 40 years is the PC (Progressive conservative) Party (in the US, you'd call them the RINO Party, hence why I didn't capitalise the "C"). They were challenged by Wildrose, which formed the official opposition, and has some links with the federal Conservatives (although some PCers may also have some links to federal Conservatives in some parts of the province, however my understanding is that the stronger links are Wildrose to federal Conservative).

I *would* capitalize the "C", because that's how they label themselves--and even w/the rise of Wildrose, the Alberta PCs still have more than just "some" links to their federal compatriots (who, despite all "ex-Reform" appearances, still operate on a Lougheedian grand-coalition principle--otherwise, their shares'd be anywhere from 10 to 20 points lower if not more)

[Hatman 🍁]

To be fair, the Saskatchewan PCs technically still exist, but like the Saskatchewan Liberals they run a handful of candidates in order to keep their party registration

The Liberals in SK don't run "just to keep their registration", they are a legitimate party in the province- they just are nearly dead at the moment.

At this rate, they're quickly turning into a scam which runs to keep their registration. They ran 9 candidates in 2011, which is only 4 more than the PCs. I guess their transformation into Paultards didn't work out for them.

They are an epic fail of a party. Didn't they just elect someone as leader by accident?

[Nichlemn]

Polls of Canadian presidential preferences have consistently shown a strong Democratic edge, even in Alberta. I kind of have a hard time picturing Alberta voting Democratic in practice though.

[Hatman 🍁]

Polls of Canadian presidential preferences have consistently shown a strong Democratic edge, even in Alberta. I kind of have a hard time picturing Alberta voting Democratic in practice though.

Calgary, Canada's "most conservative city" has a Muslim mayor.  A Republican would need to win Calgary to win Alberta, and I can't picture a Muslim getting elected in the US anywhere a Republican would win.