The Canadian Conservatives went from two elected members to being able to form a majority government? That's a remarkable comeback and I wonder if my party in the UK, the Liberal Democrats, will be able to do the same from their current opinion poll position!

Who are the conservatives and who are the liberals in Canada? What does each side want? In fact, what's the biggest issue right now on Canada's To-Do List?

Nope.

Conservatives would probably fit into the right-end of your Democrats. At one time they might have been equivalent to moderate Republicans, but the Repub party has wandered way off the reality path in the past few years.

Liberals are similar to Democrats, more center. Both these parties don't hold as extreme values, they're not as wedded to ideology, most voters don't seem to have difficulty switching parties (less of a "my party, right or wrong" approach). They tend to vote for the various platforms put forth and whether or not they think the politicians can fulfil them (Albertans are a large exception--they're the Texas of Canada, lots of oil, and they're the ones that tend to be most like your Tea Party--that is, ideologically wedded to ideas not mirrored by reality; or extreme myopia on some issues).

We do have the NDP (New Democratic Party) who won a large number of seats (103) making them the official opposition. In Quebec, they won 59 out of 72 seats (unprecedented victory, beating the Bloc, whose main platform for a while was to make Quebec its own nation, breaking up Canada).

We also have the Green Party. Elizabeth May won in the last election out in the BC islands.

Big issues right now? Hmm...laundry list and will depend on your social demography.

Gov't trying to make changes to the pension system (again--they keep trying clawbacks and old voters came out in force and scared them off).

Tar sand development and associated pipelines. A divisive issue.

Gov't tendency to dictatorial control (muzzling experts, shutting down important offices that monitor 'minor' things like ozone, pollution).

Protecting Arctic territory and laying claim to it (not shutting down what little we have up there just because you don't like what they're finding).

Settling aboriginal treaties. Seriously upgrading northern communities. Big news in Jan was that some people in the community of Attawapiskat (shores of Hudson Bay) were living in unheated homes, and many communities had a standard of living lower than in many developing countries.

And the voting scandal, Robocalls that told Liberal voters there voting station had moved when it hadn't. Democracy, Not Robocracy (as a picket sign says).

That's a funny way to spell monarchy.

I was listening to a CBC interview with someone in the states who'd just written some sort of political book (tuned in near the end). He was asked, "What is the state of democracy in the states nowadays?". He replied, "Your question is a non-sequiter. Democracy does not exist in the states now".

He pointed out how it is the big companies that have bought the politicians and the elected representatives of the people can be relied upon to introduce and/or pass bills that are on the wish list of the companies that pay the politicans the most. He said the big step toward this was the lifting of the spending limit rules for lobbying in 2008 (I believe I made a comment at the time saying this would undermine democracy in a big way).

On another point, I read today that the oil companies are complaining about Obama's attempt to cut their tax breaks. They claim it will cost jobs, decrease production, lead to increases in higher gas prices. The top 5 companies posted a 137 billion dollar profit, spent 38 billion buying their own stock (makes them richer), 58 billion put into savings, cut 11,000 jobs with more to come and production is down 4% while gas prices are rising anyway.

So they post record profits, funnel much of it to themselves, produce less product, raise the product price, cut jobs, and then say they're being treated unfairly when someone wants to reduce some of the 2 billions in tax breaks.

Ken - you have it all correct.

Ken, nobody buys politicians. They merely rent them.

Some day I need to do an Ambrose Bierce-style Devil's Dictionary for politics, since they use so many words differently than real people do. (For example, in politics, a spending cut is actually a spending increase).

I got a good example of it today. I got an e-mail newsletter from Andrew Cuomo's office about how NY had just passed 5 historic "reforms". One of these reforms was a bill that paved the way for casino gambling. Now, I'm not commenting on the propriety of casino gambling here. If they want it, that's fine. I'm not disapproving. But in no way do I consider it to be a "reform". If it brings jobs to the state, great. It might be a good thing. But not a "reform". To me a reform is when you de fix something that's definitely wrong, not when you move from one reasonable choice to another reasonable choice. Giving women the vote, that's a reform. Introducing casino gambling is not. And I can guarantee you that if it doesn't work out and they change their mind a few years down the line, they won't call it a "deform".

A typical example of why nobody watches MSNBC:

Obama 'confident' health law will be upheld

Everyone who's following this story knows that the health care law only goes down if the moderate swing justices vote with the conservative ones to strike it. MSNBC doesn't want you remembering that, so they way this story tells it, there are only liberal and conservative justices on the court.