Conservative Momentum Rises in Canada as Provinces Nationwide Steer Politically Rightward

Eastern Canada is experiencing a conservative uprising, as the recent provincial elections in New Brunswick and the upcoming election in French Quebec are generating a possible trend for future elections nationwide.

On September 22, after hundreds of thousands of people cast their votes throughout New Brunswick, the center-right Progressive Conservatives won 22 seats in the unicameral provincial parliament with 121,300 votes. The party gained three seats and lost three seats. The centrist Liberal Party majority decreased by winning 21 seats with 143,791 votes, gaining one seat and losing six seats to other political parties. While it is likely that the Liberals will form a coalition with the Greens, the Progressive Conservatives might form a coalition with a new center-right party called the People’s Alliance of New Brunswick, which gained 3 seats for the first time. The social New Democratic Party, despite getting 19,039 votes, will not get any seats in the provincial legislature.

In neighboring Quebec, latest polling from the CBC shows that the conservative Quebec nationalist coalition Avenir Québec, or, Coalition for Quebec’s Future, is ahead in the upcoming provincial elections against the federalist Liberals and social democratic Parti Québécois, or, Quebec Party. The poll also indicated that the Coalition Avenir Québec may win more seats.

These recent elections show a possible “Tory Wave” for the federal Conservative Party and other provincial center-right political parties in 2018 and beyond. The first signs of this particular political phenomena surfaced in June when Doug Ford and the Ontario’s Conservatives were victorious in the provincial elections.