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This article listspolitical parties inCanada.
In contrast with the political party systems of many nations, Canadian parties at the federal level are often only loosely connected with parties at the provincial level, despite having similar names. One exception is the New Democratic Party. The NDP is organizationally integrated, with most of its provincial counterparts including a shared membership excludingQuebec, which has no provincial counterpart.
Prior to 1903, there was no strong party discipline in the province, and governments rarely lasted more than two years as independent-minded members changed allegiances. MLAs were elected under a myriad of party labels many as Independents, and no one party held strong majorities. The first party government, in 1903, was Conservative. And disciplined party caucuses have been the backbone of BC provincial politics ever since. A list of political parties currently registered withElections BC can be found at the Elections BC website.[1]
From approximately 1897 to 1905, political parties were active; however, legislative government was eliminated when the provinces ofAlberta andSaskatchewan were created out of the heavily populated area ofNorthwest Territories (NWT). Elected legislative government was re-established in 1951. LikeNunavut, NWT elects independent candidates and operates byconsensus. Some candidates in recent years have asserted that they were running on behalf of a party, but territorial law does not recognize parties.
The territory, established in 1999, has a legislature that runs on aconsensus government model. The members of theunicameralLegislative Assembly of Nunavut are elected individually; there areno parties and the legislature is consensus-based.[2]
Saskatchewan elections have historically included candidates running as Independents, sometimes in coalitions or with affiliations to existing parties.[3]
The majority of municipal politics in Canada are non-partisan, but the governments of Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec allow for municipal political parties. As such, cities includingCalgary,Edmonton,Montreal, andVancouver operate on a party system.
There are four independents.
Montreal is one of the rare examples of a city with municipalpolitical parties in Canada (they also exist in Vancouver).[4] Political parties were legalized in Quebec by the PQ government in power in 1978. However, they existed long before official recognition by the provincial government.[5]
Municipal politics in Vancouver were historically dominated by the centre-rightNon-Partisan Association, a "free enterprise coalition" originally established to oppose the influence of the democratic socialistCo-operative Commonwealth Federation.[6] Following the2008 municipal election, the social democraticVision Vancouver became the dominant party in city politics for 10 years until its defeat in the2018 election.[7][8]
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