[Canada] 1996 Elections

[Alex]

Gathering at the polls. Ottawa, Ontario.
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The federal Canadian elections are held once every five years within the country. The next election was to be held in 2000, however, after controversial debates the current government under Jean Chretien has called for an early election. This call has been viewed by many in Canada as controversial. They accuse Chretien and his government to have called this election as an attempt to stem a possible rise of support for the growing Conservative Party, and to stop leadership ambitions within the Liberal Party by Paul Martin. Furthermore, the sudden call of election (three years before the scheduled one) left the opposite parties massively unprepared.

As the news began to interview the public and create statistics, it seemed that the public was largely uninterested in the election. Commentators stating that voters expected a repeat of previous regionally divided elections that offered little chance of a change of government. However, this has not stopped the Canadian political parties to begin mass campaigns in the hopes of gathering as many voters as possible. The major concerns with the Canadian citizens at the time of the elections are health care, tourism, crime, and military spending.

The following parties were eligible for voting:

	Full Name: Liberal Party of Canada Founded: 1861 Leader/Candidate: Jean Chretien Ideology: Liberalism, Social Liberalism Political Position: Center to Center-Left		Full Name: Progressive Conservative Party of Canada Founded: 1942 Leader/Candidate: Jean Charest Ideology: Conservatism, Liberal Conservatism, Economic Liberalism Political Position: Center-right
	Full Name: Bloc Québécois Founded: 1991 Leader/Candidate: Michel Gauthier Ideology: Quebec nationalism, Quebec sovereignty, Left-wing nationalism, Regionalism, Environmentalism, Social Democracy Political Position: Center-left		Full Name: New Democratic Party Founded: 1961 Leader/Candidate: Alexa McDonough Ideology: Social democracy, Democratic socialism Political Position: Center-left to left
	Full Name: Reform Party of Canada Founded: 1987 Leader/Candidate: Preston Manning Ideology: Conservatism, Right-wing populism, Fiscal conservatism, Libertarian conservatism, Social conservatism, Direct democracy Political Position: Center-right to right		Full Name: Green Party of Canada Founded: 1983 Leader/Candidate: Jim Harris Ideology: Green politics Political Position: Left
	Full Name: Communist Party of Canada Founded: 1970 Leader/Candidate: Sandra L. Smith Ideology: Communism, Marxist-Leninism, Anti-revisionism Political Position: Far-left		Full Name: Nationalist Party of Canada Founded: 1995 Leader/Candidate: Bianca Wright Ideology: Canadian Nationalism, Anti-multiculturalism, Strassterism. Political Position: Right to Far-right