
Lecture Two
Political Parities
Objectives:
•To understand political parties as a means to organizing people and ideas to influence policy
•To understand the ideologies upon which Canada’s major parties are built
•To understand party systems in Canada to understand historical change withi n and betwee n parties
•To reflect on Current Parties in Power
Political Parties
•An organized group that nominates candidates for and contests elections in order to influence the
personnel and policy of government
•Only organized role that can formally govern
•Major roles:
oCandidate nomination who gets to run
oLeadership selection the Party selects and one will become Prime Minister
oElectioneering participating and engaging in electoral campaign (The Big Red
Machine Trude au); organize, group, promote, etc.
oPolitical Socialization socialize and shit
oGovernment Formation forms the government/opposition. This leads too:
oLegislature Formation voting blocks and law-making power
oPolicy Making winners
Political Spectrum
•A continuum that plots political ideologies
•Left to Right wing (more or less government)
•Left = Socialism/more government
•Right = Conservatism/l ess government
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