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. But it can be difficult to find out just exactly what the parties stand for. 

CTV and the Toronto Star each provide an interactive quiz to help pick your party based on a variety of issues for the major parties. CTV also offers a summary of each of the major party's position on several broad policy areas: economy, health care, environment, Afghanistan and crime. CTV has published a list of the campaign promises made by the major political parties, which is useful to see where the parties are headed. Global TV has privdes a party platform tracker that offers concise summaries of each of the major national party's positions on a range of issues. The Globe 7 Mail offers its own overview of the major party platforms. The CBC also provides something different, with a Quick Guide to who the 'other' parties are.

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. You can also stay informed about the promises made by the party leaders during the campaign with this site's election news page.

Finding out what the parties stand for is important for most Canadians. An Ipsos Reid poll conducted Sep 17-18 found that the parties' policy positions were the most important factors in deciding whom to vote for; 62% of respondents ranked party positions first, 21% party leaders, and only 17% local candidates.

 

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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 spending limits a registered political party is allowed to spend in each of the 308 ridings during the 2008; note that this is in addition to the amount that the individual candidates can spend.

The 2008 elections are being fought by all the parties who contested the 2006 election, with the addition of four new parties: Neo Rhino Party based in Quebec, the Newfoundland & Labrador First Party, the People's Political Power Party, and the Work Less Party.

Altogether, 1601 candidates are running in the 2008 elections, inlcuding 71 independents. Only one party has fielded a complete slate of candidates, and even that is true only on paper. The NDP officially has 308 candidates, but Julian West withdrew in Saanich-Gulf Islands (BC) and Andrew McKeever in Duirham (ON) after the date when it was possible to be removed from the ballot. The Liberals has 307 candidates in the ballot, but dropped Lesley Hughes as their candidate in Kildonan-St. Paul (MB) after the deadline. The Liberals and Greens agreed not to run candidates against each other's leader. The Conservative Party is not running a candidate against Independent MP André Arthur in Quebec.

Leaders' Debates

The leaders of the five parties with MPs at the time of dissolution held two debates this election, one each in French and English. The French language debate was held on October1. If you missed it, you can watch the French leaders' debate (en francais) in its entirety on-line, thanks to Radio-Canada. An on-line poll by Ipsos found that Dion was the clear winner (42% for Dion and 24% for the next leader, Duceppe). However, another poll conducted that same night by CROP found Dion trailing Duceppe by 6 points; see the Globe & Mail report on the French leaders' debate polls.

The English debate took place on October 2, with the same format as the French debate. You can watch the entire debate on-line at either the CBC or CTV. Ipsos Reid conducted an on-line poll among viewers of the English leaders' debate and found that although more people (31%) thought Harper won the debate than others, 40% also said their view of Harper had worsened. Note that on-line polls are 'opt-in' and do not have the reliability of a normal poll based on random sampling.