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

[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

[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 They were led by Jack Layton, from Toronto, in their 2011 success, but he passed away in 2012 and has since been replaced by Thomas Mulcair of Quebec, who was previously a member of the state Cabinet from the Quebec Liberals.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

[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).

[Hatman 🍁]

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

[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".

[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.

[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?

[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. 

[Hatman 🍁]

One has to remember that Alberta is quite urban. 2/3 of the population live in either Calgary or Edmonton. I'm thinking the last provincial election would be a good indicator in how a Dem-GOP race would result in Alberta with PC areas voting Dem and WRP areas voting GOP.

[Hatman 🍁]

I dont think Pawlenty or Coleman won Ellison's CD, so not a fair comparison. Minnesota is not dominated by the Twin cities in the same way Alberta is with Calgary and Edmonton.

[Hatman 🍁]

8-9 hrs?

Depends on your definition. To drive from Ottawa to Manitoba non stop would take at least 24 hours.