Social Democracy in Canada

Paper Summary:

The authors argues that while social democracy is rarely spoken of as a dominant, united voice in Canadian politics, social democrats, both officially and as grassroots activists, have played key roles in shaping Canadian social policy; their crown jewel being nationalized healthcare. The authors goes on to discuss that while social democrats in this country have generally found themselves on the outside of the power structure looking in, the official party's job is now more or less to find ways to affect change with limited access to the power structure. Finally, the author states that the past, present, and future of the New Democratic Party (NDP) seems to be based on the party's ability to act as more activist than government.

From the Paper:

"So, despite its power outage, while the NDP is a legitimate mainstream party, except in the province of Quebec where it has never elected a New Democrat during a general election, it would appear that there will be limits on that legitimacy. Where the party can continue to be a useful official voice, however, is its persistence to criticize of the effects of free trade and globalization, and the ensuing rate of American ownership of Canadian resources. Historically, the NDP essentially forced a 1970s Trudeau Liberal minority government to form the Foreign Investment Review Agency to act as watch dog (Whitehorn n.p.) of sorts."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Clark says NDP lost most in bingo scandal." Cbc. Nov. 13. 1998. Accessed July 19 2007
• <http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/1998/05/06/clark980506a.html>
• "Cooperative Commonwealth Federation." Canadian Encyclopedia. Accessed July 19 2007 <http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0001902>
• Eggertson, Laura and Barbara Sibbald. "Election 2006: Party leaders debate the health of the nation." CMAJ. Accessed July 19 2007
• <http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/174/2/147>

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