Intro To Canadian Government And Politics Final

Front 1

What is a political party?

Back 1

organizations that offer slates of candidates to voters at election time

Front 2

Functions of political parties (5)

Back 2

1. integrating citizens into the political system
2. developing policies
3. elite recruitment
4. structuring the vote and organizing public opinion
5. interest aggregation

Front 3

5 parties and their leaders

Back 3

1. liberal, justin trudeau
2. NDP, thomas mulcair
3. conservative, rona ambrose
4. bloc quebecois, rheal fortin
5. green, elizabeth may

Front 4

what is a brokerage party

Back 4

avoidance of ideological appeals and inflexible policy positions in favour of an adaptable centrist style of politics

Front 5

Liberals vs Conservatives

Back 5

historically, they have little differences and these dominant parties have been much more flexible, opportunistic, dominated by their leaders and wary of ideological appeals

Front 6

what does the brokerage theory say about conservatives and liberals (2)

Back 6

1. they do not appeal to specific socio-economic groupings and they lack cohesive ideological views
2. the parties are flexible and opportunistic because this sort of behaviour is necessary to preserve the fragile unity of the nation

Front 7

what does andre siegfried say about the brokerage theory

Back 7

agreed with it. said when he came to canada the government was preoccupied with "material interests" and "public works"

Front 8

do brokerage parties represent all points of views

Back 8

no, it does not allow some points of view and interests to be expressed through the major parties, these interests go to smaller parties

Front 9

when did canada have a 2 party system

Back 9

1867-1930

Front 10

when did canada have a 2 and a half party system

Back 10

1935-1988

Front 11

when did canada have a multi party system

Back 11

1993-present

Front 12

what is the realignment of a party

Back 12

a durable change in the parties bases of electoral support

Front 13

what happened with the bloc quebecois in 1993

Back 13

captured the second largest number of seats causing people to think there was a realignment because of dissatisfaction with brokerage style politics, weakness of party loyalty and erosion of NDP support

Front 14

what kind of electoral system do we have

Back 14

first past the post: single member, simple plurality electoral system

Front 15

single member definiton

Back 15

one person is elected to represent the citizens of a particular area (constituency)

Front 16

plurality electoral system

Back 16

the candidate that recieves the most votes in constituency election becomes the member of parliament for that constituency

Front 17

what do critics say about a majority not being necessary

Back 17

say it produces distorted representation with over-rewarding the single most popular party and under-rewarding minor parties with deep but not wide support

Front 18

proportional representation

Back 18

alternative to plurality electoral system and under it the number of members elected by each party coincides with its share of the popular votes

Front 19

what happened in the 2011 election

Back 19

NDP made crazy gains in quebec and became most popular party in quebec

Front 20

what are the liberal, conservative and NDP strengths

Back 20

1. liberal, french-speaking, catholic and quebec voters
2. conservative, protestants, anglophones and westeners
3. ndp, unionized workers, farm community, intellectuals in urban centers

Front 21

party fiances and campaign spending pre 1974

Back 21

no transparency and most of the major parties money came from big businesses

Front 22

election expenses act 1974

Back 22

transparency, tax credits and paid/free broadcast time during campaigns

Front 23

what did parties become more dependent on after 1974

Back 23

individual contributions