Cainan Winquist Winquist 1

CHC 2DG-01

Mrs. Marshall

October 30, 2008

Third Parties in the Federal Government

Politics. What’s the first thing that comes to people’s mind with just the

suggestion of this word? Usually a lawyer like person, with glasses and probably some

good charismatic skills telling lies and making promises that he knows that he will not

keep. The deep hatred of these people has come from these countless stereotypes. (Figure

1) However, few know that this sort of “cheap” politics is getting smaller and smaller, as

third parties are becoming more dominant in the Federal government.1 These third parties

are making the standards of the Liberals and Conservatives go up, and making a better

Canadian government. Third party influences have made Canadian governments fairer,

stronger, and in an overall sense, have made Canada a better country. These reasons show

that third parties are a substantial part of Canada and are very valuable.

But how is it possible for these parties to go from small local community values

and minor third parties (parties that usually only have a few people running in specific

areas) to affecting Canada as a whole? The answer; make your party about a topic that a

large group of people will agree upon. The NDP (New Democratic Party) did exactly this

from its creation, aiming towards votes from the unemployed and the lower class. It is on
 Winquist 2

the tradition left of the political spectrum trying to steer conflicts away from religion and

nationalism to topics like the divisions between the rich and the poor and those with

power compared to others with none. To get a good look at this, we must take a look at

the NDP’s history and the CCF (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation). 2

The creation of the NDP starts at the creation of Canada. At this time, there was a large

separation between the Liberals and Conservatives. The Liberals were getting a majority

of their votes in Quebec and the West, while the Conservatives were getting most of them

from Ontario. This sparked many debates between high and lower classes. The lower

classes were fine with just making unions, and Macdonald’s Conservatives introduced the

Trade Union Act of 1872 and National Policy of 1878, which were used to promise jobs.

However, by the 1890’s, the Quebec Liberals and the Ontario Conservatives major

debates were about nationality and other right wing topics.3 This is obvious in the Boer

War and the Naval Crisis where Laurier had to compromise to keep the French and

English happy. The unemployed were not happy, however, as the debates no longer

included the needs of them. However, because of the economic boom of the time,

unemployment was very low so it was not a huge problem. However, individual were

starting to try and become labor MPs, the successful being A. T. Lepine in 1888, Ralph

Smith in 1900, A. W. Puttee in 1900 and Alphonese Verville in 1906.4 It was not until

after the 1910’s was that 3rd parties starting showing up. In 1919 there was the Winnipeg

general strike, which made many people believe that this would change their

employment. It did not, however, but future CCF leader J. S. Woodworth would become
 Winquist 3

the MP of Winnipeg for 20 years after leading these unemployed. The main question was

still there though, how were they suppose to make change to their unemployment when

the government would not allow them to? One of the answers was to actually get

someone who supports better unemployment proposals. There was one problem though.

Why would you support this party when there are other parties that have more experience

and know how to run the country? The answer, wait for a time when the government is

being disliked and the amount of people who would vote for you would be higher.

Coincidentally, this happened about 10 years during the great depression. Around 25% of

people had lost there jobs, and people were beginning to doubt the government. Hence,

the CCF (Co-operative Commonwealth Foundation) started in 1933, right in the heart of

the depression. The name comes from all of the lower class people include miners,

farmers and factory workers.5 This name would stay until 1962 when it would merge with

2 other smaller parties to create the current New Democratic Party.6

If we come back to this election, we can see that NDP has been doing very well.

Why are more people voting for the NDP right now rather than back throughout history?

The main answer is that when the number of people who want the methods of the party

go up, so does the number of votes, and in turn, the number of seats. Therefore, it is

correct to say that when Canada is in a recession, the number of seats for the NDP goes

up. Figure 2 shows the recessions compared to the number of seats the NDP got. And

why should they not get more. It a time of financial crisis, would you not vote for a party

that will help you if you start becoming financially unstable? Another example of this is
 Winquist 4

the green party. The party has had little popularity from their birth in the 1970’s to the

2000 federal election. However, since the 2000 election, the percent of the popular vote

has gone up form less then 1 % to more than 6 %!7 Yes they have had leader changes,

more candidates running, and federal funding, but there are 2 much better reasons for the

increasing popularity. First, the effects of global warming and damage to the environment

are finally getting out. More people are realizing the problem of what we are doing to the

environment, and they want change. One of the easiest things they can do is vote for the

green party. Secondly, kids are getting into this phase as well. Kids and teens have lived

during the time when this has been found out and a majority of them would vote for the

green party if they could. As more and more kids get old enough to vote, there is a higher

percentage of popular vote for the green party. Next we will take a look at an effect of

third parties.

Minorities. Whether you love them or hate them, they come with third parties.

They occur when neither of the 2 main parties get 50 % of the seats and need other

parties’ co-operation. There have been a total of 11 minorities in Canada, including

Harper’s one right now. These minorities, however, should be considered a good thing to

the health of Canada. They signify that the current leaders, values, and methods of the 2

main parties are not what the public want. It is like if you were given 2 apples, both that

were rotten. The apple of choice would be the one that is not as rotten and you would

have to deal with that. However, say you were given the choice of 2 rotten apples and one

ripe banana. Even if you do not like bananas, you would be more likely to choose if
 Winquist 5

because it is better than eating something rotten. It is the same thing that happens after an

election when there is a minority government. Both the conservatives and Liberals weak

and many would prefer a different view so they pick the NDP or other third party. It ends

up giving swing to the third parties when bill should be passed or not. It also tells the

leaders of both the main parties to sharpen up or else you could be losing even more

votes in the next election. Hence, most leaders of the losing party of a minority tend to

resign, as the party needs something fresh to start if off.

Another reason that third parties should be in the federal government is that there

idea’s can be taken by the two main parties and used as if they were their own. This can

best be described in an election that happened in the United State. The United States is a

democratic country like Canada, except is has a very different voting system. Each state

has a certain number of electoral seats in it, with states with a higher population having a

higher number of electoral seats. The candidate for president that gets the higher

percentage of popular vote wins all the electoral seats in the state. This was of voting

makes it very hard for 3rd parties to win any electoral seats, so only the republicans and

democrats can become president. However, in the 1992 US election, the reform party got

around 18 % of the vote. That is a significant amount considering that Barrack Obama

beat John McCain’s seat count by over 200 with only 3 % more of the popular vote. So

what did the 2 parties do next election? They took the ideas of the reform party and use

them as their own. Note that the Reform Party would only get 8 % and then 2 % of the

popular vote in the next elections because of this, but this is still win-win for the parties
 Winquist 6

and the people of the country.8 The party gets more of the popular vote next election, and

some of the population is happier knowing that their requests are getting heard in the

major parties. This phenomenon is not only found in the U.S., it is found in Canada to. In

this election, the Liberals suggested a carbon tax to try and increase their popular vote.

Who else would they have gotten that idea from but the green party? The whole idea of a

third party in Canada is not to try and become the winning party, but rather to get the

population as a whole to be heard.

However, this influence is all that is needed. A Canadian government run by a

third party would be absolutely disastrous. Why? Because they have extremist ways of

running government, which have been known to not work. Extremist governments

always expect the running of the country to be perfect. Everyone will do as they are told,

and will make and do whatever the government likes. These plans do not take into

account that people can cheat the system, and that there is not an unlimited amount of

money. This is exhibited in places like Russia where there was a communism through the

1900’s. The communistic view is that everyone should be paid the same. So, some people

would cheat this system and not work at all. They would get paid the same, but they were

not doing anything to help the community. The government eventually had to change

back to a democracy to solve this. In the country of Canada, this has happened as well.

Bob Rae, an NDPer, got elected a premier for Ontario. Soon after, the policies of the

NDP including going into deficit to create jobs, did not work when actually used. And so,
 Winquist 7

the popularity of the NDP there went down strongly. It can only be said that this would

turn out horrible if they were actually in power.9 10

The power of third parties in the government is invaluable to our country. These

parties have shown they can do everything needed to make a healthy Canadian

government. As we look into the future of our country, we may have to look back to our

history. When we do, we should look at how third parties have reacted to them, and react

the same way.

 Winquist 8

End Notes

1 Robert J. Jackson, and Doreen Jackson, Politics in Canada: Culture, Institurions,

Behaviour and Public Policy (Scarborough: Prentice Hall Canada Inc., 1994) 85.

2 Desmond Morton, Social Democracy in Canada (Canada: A. M. Hakkert Ltd.,

1977) 3.

3 Morton 5

4 Morton 7

5 Morton

6 Morton 32

7 “Green Party of Canada” Federal Election Results 2008. Wikipedia. 10 Dec.

2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_party_canada>

8 “What is the history of "third parties" in the United States?” American

Government and Politics. 2008. THISNATION.COM. 30 Oct. 2008

<http://www.thisnation.com/question/042.html>

9 J. T. Morley, Secular Socialists: The CCF/NDP in Ontario, A Biography

(Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press,1984) 147

10 Patrick Monahan Storming the Pink Palace. The NDP in Power: A Cautionary

Tale. (Toronto: Lester Publishing Limited, 1995) 32.

 But before we move on lets start with the basics. What is a 3rd party in relation to
the federal government of Canada? On answers.com the definition of a third party is “A
political party organized as opposition to the existing parties in a two-party system.”.
This sentence explains a lot about the third parties in a condensed form. Let’s explain this
in different parts. “A politicial party”, simply enough said, a group of people who want to
have control in what’s happening in the government. “organized as oppositioin to the
existing parties”, this is probably one the most important lines about third parties. They
are in the parliament trying to oppose the two main parties, not try and win, but just try
and stop the main parties from, getting an easy majority. I will go in to this further later in
this paper. Finally there’s “in a two-party system”, If you do not know what a two party
system is, it is a democracy style government in which two parties dominate. Canada and
the U.S are both two-party system’s, however, in the U.S. the third parties do not pose as
a high opponent to the two main parties.
On the topic of third parties getting seats, why do they have more power in
Canada then the US? Well, the main reason is the style of US voting. The US has about
500 electoral seats. Canada has about 300 seats. Each country distributes them within
their provences/states so that the more population there is, the more seats there is. The
difference in the counting is that in the US, the party with the most votes in the state gets
all the electoral vote in that state. In Canada, it’s the total number of votes in the seat
location wins the seat. However, why does this make a difference? There are two reasons.
One, if there is a well known citizen from the city there’s a seat in and a majority of the
people like him, he’s likely to win the seat no matter what party he’s from. In the U.S.,
you would have to get the whole state to vote to win the electoral seats. The second
reason is that third parties have come so far in Canada, that they are considered a good
choice of vote. If you vote for a third party in the US, there’s a good chance that your
doing it as a waste of a vote. But why are there third parties in Canada? Where did they
come from? To find that out, we must take a look at the history of the NDP and Canada.
The creation of third parties starts at the creation of Canada. At this time, there
was a large separation between the high and lower classes. The lower classes were fine
with just making unions, and Macdonald’s Conservatives introduced the Trade Union Act
of 1872 and National Policy of 1878, which were used to promise jobs. However, by the
1890’s, the Liberal’s were getting a majority of their votes in Quebec and the West, while
the Conservatives had Ontario. This sparcked many debates between the Quebec Liberals
and the Ontario Conservatives about nationality and such. This is obvious in the Boer
War and the Naval Crisis where Laurier had to compremise to keep everyone happy. The
unemployed were not happy, however, as the debates no longer included the needs of
them. However, because of the economic boom of the time, unemployment was very low
so it was not a huge problem. However, individual’s were starting to try and become and
MP, the successful being (._._._.). It was not until after the 1910’s was that 3rd parties
starting showing up. In 1919 there was the Winnepeg general strike, which made many
people believe that this would change their employment. It did not, however, but future
CCF leader J. S. Woodworth would become the MP of Winnepeg for 20 years after
leading these unemployed. The main question was still there though, how were they
suppose to make change to their unemployment when the government would not allow
them to? One of the answers was to actually get someone who supports better
unemployment proposals. There was one problem though. Why would you support this
party when there are other parties that have more experience and know how to run the
country? The answer, wait for a time when the government is being disliked and the
amount of people who would vote for you would be higher. Coincidentally, this
happened about 10 years during the great depression. Around 25% of people had lost
there jobs, and people were beginning to doubt the government. Hence, the CCF (Co-
operative Commonwealth Foundation) started in 1933, right in the heart of the
depression. The name comes from all of the lower class people include miners, farmers,

End
 Winquist 9

References

Boardman, Robert. Canadian Environmental Policy. Don Mills: Oxford University Press.

1992.

“Canadian Federal Election Debate.” CTV. 2 Oct. 2008.

Culbert, Jeff. The Open Mythology of Green Party Politics. North York, 1997.

Ehring, George, and Wayne Roberts. Giving Away a Miracle: Lost Dreams, Broken

Promises & the Ontario NDP. Oakville: Aztext Electronic Publishing Ltd., 1993

Jackson, Robert J., and Doreen Jackson. Politics in Canada. Scarborough: Prentice-Hall

Canada Inc., 1994.

Krause, Robert M. ed., and R. H. Wagenberg ed. Canadian Government & Politics.

Toronto: Copp Clark Ltd., 1995

“Looking to the future of "third parties." The Prairie Roots of Canada's Political "Third

Parties". 2001. Mount Allison University. 30 Oct. 2008

<http://www.mta.ca/about_canada/study_guide/roots/future.html>

Melnyk, Olenka. Remembering the CCF: No Bankers in Heaven. Canada, 1989

 Winquist 10

Monahan, Patrick. Storming the Pink Palace. The NDP in Power: A Cautionary Tale.

Toronto: Lester Publishing Limited, 1995

Morley, J.T. Secular Socialists. The CCF/NDP in Ontario, A Biography. Canada:

McGill-Queen’s University Press,1984

Morton, Desmond. Social Democracy in Canada. Canada: A. M. Hakkert Ltd., 1974.

“What is the history of "third parties" in the United States?” American Government and

Politics. 2008. THISNATION.COM. 30 Oct. 2008

http://www.thisnation.com/question/042.html

Young, Walter D. The Anatomy of a Party: The National CCF. Canada: University of

Toronto Press, 1969

 Winquist 11

Appendix

Figure 1: A stereotype of politicians

Figure 2: This graph shows how in years of recession there are more seats for the
NDP/CCF.