Liberal Party of Canada Parti libéral du Canada | |
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Abbreviation |
|
Leader | Justin Trudeau |
President | Sachit Mehra |
House leader | Karina Gould |
Founder | George Brown |
Founded | July 1, 1867 |
Preceded by | Parti rouge (Canada East) Clear Grits (Canada West) |
Headquarters |
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Youth wing | Young Liberals of Canada |
Membership (2014) | ![]() |
Ideology | Liberalism (Canadian) Social liberalism[2] |
Political position | Centre to centre-left |
International affiliation | Liberal International[3] |
Colours | Red |
Senate[a] | 0 / 105 |
House of Commons | 155 / 338 |
Website | |
liberal | |
The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC; French: Parti libéral du Canada, PLC) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,[6][7][8] and generally sits at the centre[6][9][10] to centre-left[10][11] of the Canadian political spectrum, with their main rival, the Conservative Party, positioned to their right and the New Democratic Party positioned to their left.[6][12][13] The party is described as "big tent",[14] practising "brokerage politics",[b] attracting support from a broad spectrum of voters.[20] The Liberal Party is the longest-serving and oldest active federal political party in the country, and has dominated federal politics of Canada for much of its history, holding power for almost 70 years of the 20th century.[21][12] As a result, it has sometimes been referred to as Canada's "natural governing party".[22][14][23]
The party first came into power in 1873 under Alexander Mackenzie, but were voted out five years later due to the economic conditions at the time. They would not come back to office until 1896; Wilfrid Laurier was prime minister from that year until the party's defeat in 1911 and his tenure was marked by several compromises between English and French Canada. From the early 1920s until the mid-1950s,[c] the Liberal Party under Prime Ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent gradually built a Canadian welfare state.
The Liberals' signature policies and legislative decisions include universal health care, the Canada Pension Plan, Canada Student Loans, the establishment of the Royal Canadian Navy, multilateralism, official bilingualism, official multiculturalism, gun control, the patriation of the Constitution of Canada and the establishment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Clarity Act, legalizing same-sex marriage, euthanasia, and cannabis, national carbon pricing, and expanded access to abortion.[7][24][25][26]
The Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau since 2013, won a majority government in the 2015 federal election. In both the federal elections of 2019 and 2021, the party was re-elected with a minority government.
The party became infused with social liberalism in the 1940s and 1950s.
Two historically dominant political parties have avoided ideological appeals in favour of a flexible centrist style of politics that is often labelled brokerage politics.
... most Canadian governments, especially at the federal level, have taken a moderate, centrist approach to decision making, seeking to balance growth, stability, and governmental efficiency and economy ... .
Canada's party system has long been described as a "brokerage system" in which the leading parties (Liberal and Conservative) follow strategies that appeal across major social cleavages in an effort to defuse potential tensions.
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