Political parties are the building blocks of modern elections. They provide the political leaders, candidates, and policy proposals that most people use to decide whom to vote for. There are 18 parties registered for the 2011 election, which gives a wide range of people and issues to vote for.

The best way to discover what each political party stands for overall, or what it has to say on a particular issue, is to visit their web site and see what that have to say.  Lower down this page are links to all the registered parties and, where available, to their leaders, lists of candidates, main election platform, and TV ads. For more information about individual electoral districts, visit the ridings page.

Finding out what the parties stand for is vital for most Canadians at election time. A Nanos poll conducted in March 2011 found that 48% of Canadians said they were most influenced by a party's policies in their decision about whom to vote for, 20% by the party leader, and 10% simply said they traditionally vote for the party; only 12% of Canadians felt that the local candidate was the most important factor in deciding how to vote.

The Globe & Mail provides a detailed comparison of each of the major parties' positions on 10 major areas of public policy. CTV News also offers an interesting comparison.

You can download an Excel file with the final list of confirmed candidates from Elections Canada.

The CBC has launched an intersting online tool, the Vote Compass, which will help you discover which political parties are closest to your own views. You are asked a vareity of questions and then shown a graph of your position relative to the main parties. However, some controversy has arisen about a possible bias in the results that are generated.

Political parties and candidates must register with Elections Canada in order to appear on the ballot. Any donations they receive are tax deductible, their parties' names appear on the ballot along with their candidates', and they qualify for government payments equal to 60% of their election expenses.  Unregistered parties may run candidates, but the party's name will not appear on the ballot papers.

An important court case in late 2003, Figueroa v. Canada (Attorney General), struck down the previous requirement that parties must field 50 candidates before they can officially register with Elections Canada. However, the alternatives created in the wake of the decision open the door to parties with only one  candidate filing and collecting all the subsidies available. Bill C-3 was passed just before the dissolution of Parliament for the 2004 election, and it allows parties with just one candidate to register if they have at least 250 members.  For a good discussion of the significance of this issue see Heather MacIvor's article, The Charter of Rights and Party Politics. (pdf) 

Elections Canada's Political Party Handbook and Election Handbook for Candidates  provide many more details about the rules that apply to political parties and individual candidates. You can look up the total spending limits registered political parties are allowed to spend based on the number of electors in the risings they are contesting in the 2011 election; note that this was in addition to the amount that the individual candidates can spend.

The 2011 elections are being fought by most of the parties who contested the 2006 election, with the addition of two new parties, the Pirate Party and the United Party. The Rhinoceros Party is the new name for the Neo Rhino Party based in Quebec; the Newfoundland & Labrador First Party and the Work Less Party have de-registered since the previous election.

An important highlight of the election campaign is the televised leaders' debate. The English language debate will be held April 12th; the French debate has been moved to the 13th, one day earlier than originally planned, in order to avoid a conflict with hockey playoffs. A controversy arose over the broadcast consortium's decision to exclude Green Party Leader Elizabeth May from the debates. She challenged this in Federal Court, which refused to hear the case before the date of the broadcasts. More information on this can be found on the Laws and Election Policy pageof this site.

The televised leaders debate held in English on April 12 may play a role in helping some voters decide whom to vote for. But at times it is difficult to distinguish the enterntainment from the informational value of these debates. Over 2,300 Canadians were polled immediately after the English leaders debate by Ipsos, which found that 42% thought that Stephen Harper had won the debate, 25% Layton, and Ignatieff 23%. Of the three leaders, only Layton's debate support is significantly different from the support for each leader's party in the polls. This poll found that 12% of Canadians said they had changed their mind about whom to vote for because of the debate, with the NDP gaining about twice as much as the Liberals who were the next largest beneficiary; it is unclear from this poll whether these individuals previouusly supported another party or were undecided. Another Ispos poll conducted immediately after the French leaders debate found that 42% of Francohpone viewers thought Gilles Duceppe won the debate, while 22% supported Ignatieff, 19% Layton, and 12% favoured Harper.