Fall
2015
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Conservative Party of Canada
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party formed government in 2006, with two minority
mandates followed by a majority from 2011 onwards. The Conservatives currently hold 159 seats in the
House of Commons, with most of their support coming fromOntario andWestern Canada.
Harper attended the University of Calgary, where he received a bachelor’s degree, and eventually
a master’s, in economics. He was elected to federal office in 1993 as the MP for Calgary West and a
member of Preston Manning’s populist Reform Party. Reform became the Canadian Alliance in 2000,
and in 2002, Harper was elected as its leader, succeeding Stockwell Day.
The Conservative Party was created in 2003 when the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conserv-
ative parties merged. Harper was elected as leader of the new party, defeating Belinda Stronach and
current Conservative MP Tony Clement.
After nearly 10 years at 24 Sussex, Harper is one of Canada’s longest-serving prime ministers. If he
receives another majority mandate in 2015, he could move past Jean Chrétien into fifth place, behind
only Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Pierre Trudeau, Sir John A. Macdonald andMackenzie King.
If the Conservatives want to secure a new mandate, they’ll have to defend the bulk of their Ontar-
io seats against strong Liberal and NDP competition, while maintaining a stranglehold on Western
Canada.
Liberal Party of Canada
Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party holds the third-highest seat total in the House of Commons with 36. Most
of the party’s current support comes from Ontario and the Atlantic provinces. Viewed by many as
Canada’s “natural governing party” due to several long periods of uninterrupted Liberal governance
throughout Canadian history, the Liberals were reduced to their lowest seat count ever and demoted
to third place among the federal parties in the House of Commons for the first time in 2011.
Justin Trudeau is the eldest son of former Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau. He holds a BA in
literature fromMcGill University and an education degree from the University of British Columbia. He
was first elected to public office as the Liberal MP for the Montreal riding of Papineau in the 2008 fed-
eral election. In 2013, Trudeau was elected as leader of the Liberal Party with roughly 80 per cent of
the vote from Liberal Party members and registered supporters.
For the Liberals, the road to victory runs through Ontario, where the party will likely have to increase
its seat count fourfold in order to form government. The Liberals will also need to make gains in At-
lantic Canada and in the West, where they currently hold only four seats in the Prairie provinces and
British Columbia combined.
NewDemocratic Party of Canada
Thomas Mulcair’s NDP is the official Opposition and holds 95 seats in the House of Commons. Most
of the party’s support currently comes fromQuebec, where the NDP will try to repeat the success of
2011’s “Orange Crush” in 2015.
The NDP was created in 1961 when the Canadian Labour Congress and the Co-operative Com-
monwealth Federation came together to form an alliance between organized labour and Canada’s
political left.
Mulcair received a law degree fromMcGill University and spent several years working as a lawyer
for the Quebec government. He joined the federal NDP in 1974, but cut his political teeth in the Que-
bec national assembly after being elected as the Liberal MNA for Laval’s Chomedey riding in 1994. He
eventually became environment minister in former premier Jean Charest’s cabinet. In 2007, Mulcair
won a federal byelection in the Quebec riding of Outremont for the NDP after then-leader Jack Layton
convinced him to run. After Layton’s death, Mulcair was elected as leader of the NDP in 2012.
If the NDP wants to form government, the party will have to defend its impressive Quebec seat haul
from 2011, while stealing a number of seats from the Conservatives in Ontario and British Columbia.
The NDP might also be buoyed by modest gains in Western Canada, especially after the provincial
breakthrough of Rachel Notley’s NDP in Alberta this past May.
