ARE YOU READY FOR A

PARTY?

Because its time for a….

• POLITICAL PARTY… Several to be exact!

Follow Hamilton Standish Aimsley the III, the happiest clown in Penticton as he guides you through the many political parties that exist in Canada.

Just follow me through this darkened hallway into this ominous door….

Why Political Parties?

• Function of a Political Party• Offer Choice• make it easy for voters to choose a party, not an

individual

• Official Party Status• must have 12 seats in the House of Commons• receive funding for gov’t work• can participate in debates in House

List of Registered Parties

• http://www.elections.bc.ca/index.php/can/polparties/regpolparties/

• http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=pol&document=index&dir=par&lang=e&textonly=false

Rhino Party Of Canada 1960s-1990s)• Repealing the law of gravity• Paving Manitoba to create the world's largest parking lot ----- yeahhhhhh• **Providing higher education by building taller schools• Tearing down the Rocky Mountains so that Albertans could see the Pacific sunset• Move the Rocky Mountains ten feet West – as a Public Works Project. • Making Montreal the Venice of North America by damming the St. Lawrence River• Abolish environment because it's too hard to keep clean and takes up much space.• Annexing the US, which would become the fourth territory, in order to eliminate

foreign control of Canada's natural resources• Ending crime by abolishing all laws• Paving the Bay of Fundy to create more parking in the Maritimes• Adopting the British system of driving on the left; this was to be gradually

phased in over five years with large trucks and tractors first, then buses, eventually including small cars and bicycles last

• Selling the Canadian Senate at an antique auction in California (ZING)• Putting the national debt on Visa• Declaring war on Belgium because a Belgian cartoon character, Tintin, killed a

rhinoceros in one of the cartoons• Offering to call off the proposed Belgium-Canada war if Belgium delivered a

case of mussels and a case of Belgian beer to Rhinoceros "Hindquarters" in Montréal (the Belgian Embassy in Ottawa did, in fact, do this)

• Ban lousy Canadian winters• Renaming the country Nantucket

Historic Political Parties (no longer in existence)

Progressive Conservative Party (PC) • believed in privatization• protecting economy through tariffs• control gov’t spending, cut taxes on all income levels

Reform Party• western provinces needed a stronger voice in gov’t• reduce national debt through cuts to social welfare• create a more powerful and elected Senate• opposed Quebec’s demands for special status

Reform Conservative Alliance Party• roots stem from Western Alienation• flat tax rate of 17% for all Canadians• balance the budget• free enterprise, strong families, safer streets, secure

borders (Original name was Canadian Reform Alliance Alternative Party --- C.R.A.A.P)

Current Political Party Platforms in Canada

• Conservative Party – leader Stephen Harper

• balance between balancing

budget and social programs

• equality of all Canadians and

freedom of the individual

• supports French and English

as official languages

• free enterprise and free trade

• Liberal Party – leader Justin Trudeau• supports individual freedom and pursuit of

equality of opportunity• favours the expansion of social programs• values multiculturalism and is sympathetic to the hopes of French Canadians• supports more free trade

• New Democratic Party – leader is Thomas Mulcair

• gov’t should intervene in

certain aspects of economy

(against privatization of gov’t

run companies)• favours welfare measures• believes gov’t should pay for

health care and education and

all Canadians should have

equal access to those services,

regardless of ability to pay.

• Bloc Quebecois – leader is Mario Beaulieu

• Created in 1990 as result of

Meech Lake Accord’s failure

• believe that Quebec should

become a sovereign state

and separate from Canada

-Enjoy Poutine and Maple Syrup

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed your Political Party!

END

(Fin)