The Federal Political Scene

Through most of the 20th century, federal political power has been held by either the Liberal Party or by the Progressive Conservatives. Since 1900, the Liberals have spent about 66 years in power, compared to the Conservative Party's record of about 30 years in government. With the system so dominated by these two parties, the party that was not in power always formed the official opposition to the government. But neither of these parties were popular throughout the whole country. The western provinces preferred more socialist—oriented policies and seldom elected a Liberal to represent them, so during the many years of Liberal government, they had very little influence on national policy, since only a handful of MPs belonged to the most powerful parties. Quebec experienced the same thing during periods of Conservative rule, since it seldom voted Conservative.

Such lack of representation has led to many feelings of resentment and frustration in the different regions. In geographical terms and more importantly, in economic terms, the western provinces contribute a lot of tax money to the central government. The central government then decides how such money should be spent, and people in the under-represented regions felt that they had little influence on such decisions. This situation contributed to growing feelings of dissatisfaction. Voters in the western provinces always felt their views were not taken into consideration, even though they made a huge contribution to the Canadian economy. Regional parties began to arise to challenge the traditional dominance of the Liberals and Conservatives.

In the last decade, the political landscape has altered tremendously, with regional parties thriving and national parties failing. Most dramatically, in the 1993 federal election, the Progressive Conservative Party was completely wiped out and the Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney, lost his seat. The Conservatives, having governed the entire country for ten years, won only two seats. The destruction of the Conservative Party was largely due to what voters perceived as bad management of the economy: Canadians joked that the inflation rate was higher than the Prime Minister's popularity rating. In 1993, less than 20 per cent of the country approved of the Conservative party they had elected to power a few years earlier.

Lucien Bouchard

One powerful regional force proved to be people in Quebec who want to separate entirely and form their own country. In the 1993-1995 government, the official opposition party was the Bloc Quebecois, a coalition of MPs from the mainly French—speaking province of Quebec who were dedicated to the task of winning important concessions from the rest of Canada.

The job of the federal government is to govern on behalf of the entire country, and the job of the Opposition is to see that the government carries out this role well. Therefore, when a group which simply represents the interests of only a part of Canada—for example, the Bloc Quebecois' concern was only to do what was best for Quebec, not for other areas—the political system comes under strain.

In the 1997 election, a right wing grassroots party called the Reform Party surprised everyone by winning enough seats to become the country's official opposition. The Reform Party has its strongest support in the western provinces and no Reform MPs were elected in Central Canada. This, too, is seen as a very regional party, unable to represent the country as a whole.

With such election results, in the 1990s, it has been said that Canada is becoming "ungovernable" in its present form. There are real fears that Canada may cease to exist as we know it today, as regional pressures threaten to tear the country apart. Quebec is committed to political separation, and while both Conservative and Liberal governments have struggled to find ways to make Quebec happier about being a part of Canada, parties like Reform and the Bloc Quebecois are more demanding. Quebecois nationalists insist that Quebec be granted special rights and privileges because they represent a “distinct society” within the country. The Reform party insists that all Canadians are equal and that no one should enjoy special privileges just because they speak a different language.

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