Liberal Party of Canada
Ideaological Roots
Liberalism is a political philosophy or worldview founded on ideas of liberty and equality. The former principle is stressed in classical liberalism while the latter is more evident in social liberalism. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally they support ideas such as democratic elections, civil rights, freedom of the press, freedom of the religion, free trade, and private property.
Today, the Liberal Party portrays itself as a party that is fiscally conservative, but socially progressive. They are strongly supportive of abortion rights, gay marriage and ample immigration, but also favor a largely unregulated free market. The party has moved away from being quite as pro- “big government” as it was in the past, but still opposes right-wings who call for the scaling back of cherished social programs such as universal health care and old age pensions.
The Liberal of Party of Canada is the longest-running party in the country, and the most historically successful. When Liberals are feeling particularly braggy, they even like to call themselves “Canada’s Natural Governing Party” in recognition of the fact that they’ve held power for such long periods of Canadian history.
Originally the party of disenfranchised French-Candians and Catholics in the early colonies period, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Liberals evolved into a more generic, centrist party favoring traditional British liberal values of free markets and personal responsibility, as well as tolerant relations between French and English Canadians. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who championed all of the above to become the most successful and long-reigning of Canada’s early Liberal prime ministers, remains the iconic figure of commonsense, moderate Canadian liberalism of this periods.
"Political Parties of Canada." JJs Complete Guide to Canada RSS. Web. 28 Feb. 2015. <http://www.thecanadaguide.com/political-parties>.
"Liberalism." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 28 Feb. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism>.