Norma Said:

What is the difference between the Liberal Party and Conservative Party in Canada?

We Answered:

Same as the US but not nearly as extreme toward either side.

My stepdad says that there's almost no different between the two party's. Honestly, he's right. They both do pretty much the same things, they just tend to lean a bit more towards money, or a bit more towards the people.

Think of both party's as United States moderates that lean slightly left or right.

Incidentally, I'm a Canadian living in the US.

Personally, I was a Liberal in Canada and I'm a Democrat in the US.

Canada itself leans more toward the Liberal side of things, than the Conservative side, though the Conservatives are currently in power.

Mostly because the Liberals got caught giving a bunch of money to special interest groups, and doing so is against the law in Canada. Now the Liberals are paying a heavy price in that they cannot win an election and have been out of power for 6 years (and counting). They thoroughly deserved it and the Conservatives haven't been doing a bad job.

Problem is that the Conservatives are a minority government. Meaning they control the country, but just barely. If the Liberals and the NDP join together, they can stop Conservative bills easily.

For that reason, there has been 3 elections in the last 6 years when there is normally only a federal election every 4-6 years. The Liberals/NDP keep calling a vote of no confidence and don't seem to get that its the Liberals/NDP that are the problem.

When people lose confidence in a gvt in Canada, it doesn't change overnight like it does in the US. Canadians don't have an automatic hissy fit when a new government comes in and does things they don't like, and they're much more mellow and apathetic (something that annoys me about Canada) to almost everything than the US (which takes it to completely the opposite extreme where they freak out over everything) is.

In Canada, you will never see whole groups of people flipping out after the new Prime Minister has only been in office for 6 months and screaming about how they're a failure when they haven't even done anything yet. And you won't see the other party doing everything they can to discredit the other party, even if it means lying through their teeth, nasty ad's on tv, and twisting the truth. You will NEVER see a member of Parliament yell out "liar" toward the Prime Minister if he is addressing Parliament. NEVER. It just doesn't happen.

The Liberals will stay out of power for probably a good 10 years, maybe longer. But they WILL come back into power again.

For example... if we had a Prime Minister that did the same thing President Bush did, the Conservatives would just plain be out of power. Period. There's very little that the Liberals could do that would make anyone regret voting the Conservatives out. And vice versa. You'd see the Conservatives out of power for probably 15 years. Maybe longer.

Canadians have long memories and very little tolerance for corruption. And Canadians don't handle it in the same way the US does.

In the US, people freak out, its all over the news, its all about passion, and hate, and anger.

In Canada, they'd just lose power. For a long time.

When a member of any of the party's is caught doing something highly illegal, his career is basically just plain done with no debate about it. No fuss, no muss, it ends there.

The personal lives of our politicians matter less in Canada. No one cares what religion the leaders are so long as they keep it to themselves. What Canadians are concerned about is whats good for all, not what favors money, power, or religion.

June Said:

Why is the Liberal Party a good choice for Canada?

We Answered:

By their very nature, Canadian Liberals tend to be compromisers who can find the deal between groups that oppose each other and often don't like each other. The Conservatives, on the other hand, are more prone to steamroller over their opponents, if they possibly can.

Depending on your perspective, Liberals are either master compromisers or shameless hustlers.