The Liberal Party of Canada Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Liberal Party of Canada - Essay Example On the one hand was the governing coalition of Liberal – Conservatives under the leadership of Sir John A. McDonald in Canada West and his French – Canadian counterpart, George – Etienne Cartier in Canada East. This disparate organization encompassed a number of distinct groups, many of which had potentially conflicting interests – Catholic and Protestants, English and French, Urban and Rural (Stephen Brooks, page 282) â€Å"The Liberal Party of Canada is always located somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum and often finds itself divided between a progressive wing and a conservative wing† (Patrick Malcolmson, Richard Myers, page 178) Base of Support The main support group for the classical liberals consisted of Industrialists, merchants and property owning- individuals while the chief supporters for the contemporary Liberal party includes several middle of the road advocacy groups within the feminist, environmental and multicultural movements, public – sector workers, middle – class intellectuals in the universities and the media, the national Liberal Party and the Bloc Quebecois; think – tanks including Canadian Policy Research Networks, the institute for Research on Public Policy and the Canada West Foundation. ( Stephen Brooks, page 40 - 41) According to the views propagated by R. B. McCullum, the Liberal Party was the â€Å"party of the middle class, with the support of the industrial workers† (Robert Kelly, page 43) Political Ideology One way of categorizing political ideas – perhaps the most popular way – is to describe them as being left wing/ right wing or centrist/ moderate.