Liberalism in Canada

Liberalism has been a major trend in Canadian politics since the late 18th century. Canada has the same features of other liberal democracies in the Western democratic political tradition. This article gives an overview of liberalism in Canada. It includes a brief history of liberal parties with substantial representation in parliament.

Liberalism in Canadian history

Historically, Canada has had two liberal phases. Prior to the 1960s, Canadian politics were classically liberal, i.e., there was a focus on individual liberty, representative government, and free markets. This brand of liberalism can be traced to the arrival in Canada of the United Empire Loyalists and the enactment of the Constitutional Act of 1791. The Constitutional Act established representative government through the elected assemblies of Upper and Lower Canada. While the Loyalists were faithful to British institutions and opposed to American republicanism, they were committed to North American ideals of individual liberty and representative government. This brand of liberalism was prominent though the Liberal government of Wilfrid Laurier, which advocated such policies as free trade with the United States, and beyond.

The second liberalism began, roughly, in the 1960s with the election of Lester B. Pearson as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and can be traced through the politics of Pierre Trudeau, Jean Chrétien, and Paul Martin. This liberalism is what is properly called in a global context social liberalism, or what contemporary North American use of the word signifies as liberalism: liberal democracy, social justice, social progressivism, Third Way, multiculturalism, diplomacy in foreign policy, and a regulated free market economy (during the Trudeau era the Liberals arguably supported a mixed economy). In this second sense, the Liberal Party of Canada is presently one of the more liberal political parties in the Americas. By contrast, prior to the 1960s, the Liberal Party was one of the most liberal parties in the world in the first sense.

There is argued to be a third phase of liberalism emerging that is centred on a more sustainable form of politics. The argument is that action is needed to ensure that the environment, economy, and social elements of society will function not only in the short term, but long term as well. If action is not taken on all of these pressing issues then it can cause a direct threat to our freedoms. This emerging new liberalism is centred on an ideal of 'timeless freedom' which seeks to preserve the freedom of future generations through proactive action today. This would extend both positive and negative rights and responsibilities to future generations.

Liberal parties

Liberal parties developed in both the French and English speaking parts of Canada, and led to the formation of the Liberal Party of Canada. Liberal parties exist on a provincial level, but while they mostly share similar ideologies, not all provincial parties are officially affiliated with the federal party.

In Canada, a "capital-L" liberal refers to the policies and ideas of the Liberal Party of Canada/Parti Libéral du Canada (member LI), the most frequent governing party of Canada for the last century and one of the largest liberal parties around the world. The Quebec Liberal Party (Parti libéral du Québec) combines liberalism with more conservative ideas. Only federal parties are included in the following timeline. The sign ⇒ indicates a reference to another party in that scheme. For inclusion in this scheme, it isn't necessary for parties to have explicitly labelled themselves as a liberal party.

Timeline

Canadian Party / Patriot Party / Red Party

1806: Liberals in the Francophone part of Canada formed the Canadian Party (Parti Canadien)
1826: The party is renamed Patriot Party (Parti Patriote) and is led by Louis-Joseph Papineau
1848: The party is further reorganised into the Red Party (Parti rouge)
1867: The PR merged into the present-day Liberal Party of Canada

Reform Party

1841: The Upper Canada Reform Party is formed
1855: Radical members formed the Clear Grits.
1867: The Reform Party merged into Liberal Party of Canada

Clear Grits / Liberal Party of Canada

1855: Radical members of the Reform Party formed the Clear Grits
1867: The Clear Grits merged with the Reform Party, the Red Party and provincial liberal parties into the present-day Liberal Party of Canada

Current status

In addition to the federal party, each province and the Yukon territory has its own Liberal Party. However those in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec are no longer affiliated with the federal party. Under their system of consensus government, political parties are not recognized in the territories of Nunavut and Northwest Territories. However, there are plans to reestablish a Northwest Territories Liberal Party in time for elections in 2015.^[1]

Federal, provincial and territorial Liberal Parties
Federal party	Seats/Total	Status	Leader
Liberal Party of Canada	184/338 (House) 29/105 (Senate)	Governing	Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
Affiliated parties	Seats/Total	Status	Leader
New Brunswick Liberal Association	26/49	Governing	Brian Gallant, Premier of New Brunswick
Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador	31/40	Governing	Dwight Ball, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador
Nova Scotia Liberal Party	34/51	Governing	Stephen McNeil, Premier of Nova Scotia
Prince Edward Island Liberal Party	18/27	Governing	Wade MacLauchlan, Premier of Prince Edward Island
Unaffiliated parties	Seats/Total	Status	Leader
Alberta Liberal Party	1/87	Fourth party	David Swann, MLA
British Columbia Liberal Party	49/85	Governing	Christy Clark, Premier of British Columbia
Manitoba Liberal Party	3/57	Third party	TBA
Ontario Liberal Party	59/107	Governing	Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario
Quebec Liberal Party	71/125	Governing	Philippe Couillard, Premier of Quebec
Saskatchewan Liberal Party	0/58	No seats	Darrin Lamoureux
Yukon Liberal Party	1/19	Third party	Sandy Silver, MLA
Former party	Details
Northwest Territories Liberal Party	No longer any recognized political parties due to consensus government.

Liberal leaders

Liberal Party of Canada

Prominent Liberals

Federal

Provincial

Governor General of Canada

Liberal thinkers

Mario Bunge - Argentinian-Canadian professor of philosophy.
Matthew Kalkman - author of New Liberalism.
Michael Ignatieff - political philosopher and former leader of the federal Liberal Party.
Will Kymlicka - Canadian liberal thinker included in Contributions to liberal theory
Jan Narveson - Canadian political philosopher and defender of libertarianism, or classical liberalism, currently Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Waterloo

References

^ "Group plans to run Liberal candidate in 2015 N.W.T. election". CBC News. 2013-05-27. Retrieved 2013-09-13.

v t e Liberalism in Canada (by province or territory)
Provinces	Alberta British Columbia Manitoba New Brunswick Newfoundland and Labrador Nova Scotia Ontario Prince Edward Island Quebec Saskatchewan
Territories	Northwest Territories Nunavut Yukon
Category Canada portal

v t e Liberalism in North America
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