On August 2nd, Canadian Prime minister Stephen Harper launched the longest and therefore most expensive electoral campaign in Canadian history, one that will culminate on October 19th with Canucks voting for their MPs.
Canada lives under a parliamentary monarchy, a system imported from Great Britain. But unlike in Old Albion, the political parties running in the federal elections differ from those running for provincial or city elections. While non-mainstream parties can do well at local elections if they campaign on local issues, they find it almost impossible to make a breakthrough at the federal level because of the constituency-based electoral system. Because of this, we have no nationalist party like France's Front National or even the BNP. Although we are not trapped in a two-party system, like our Southern neighbours, only a few mainstream parties can hope to have MPs elected.
