List of federal political parties in Canada facts for kids

Unlike other federal political systems, Canadian political parties at the federal level are often loosely or not at all connected to parties at the provincial level, despite having similar names and policy positions. One exception is the New Democratic Party, which is organizationally integrated with most of its provincial counterparts.

Current parties

Represented parties

These parties have seats in the House of Commons, which is Canada's only elected assembly at the federal level. Members were elected in the 2021 Canadian federal election.

Registered parties

The following political parties are registered with Elections Canada and eligible to run candidates in future federal elections, but are not currently represented in the House of Commons.

Eligible parties

Eligible parties have applied to Elections Canada and met all of the legal requirements to be registered, other than running a candidate in a general election or by-election. Such parties are eligible to run candidates in federal elections but will not be considered "registered" by Elections Canada until they have registered a candidate in an election or by-election. As of September 2023, there are no eligible eligible parties.

Non-party parliamentary groups

At various points both the House of Commons and Senate have included non-party parliamentary groups, also called caucuses. These groups are unaffiliated with registered political parties, are not registered with Elections Canada, and do not run candidates in Canadian federal elections. Essentially, these parliamentary groups are equivalent to political parties in the legislative context, but do not exist in an electoral capacity.

Parliamentary groups in the House of Commons of Canada are typically made up of MPs that separate from a party over leadership conflicts. Notable past parliamentary groups in the House of Commons include the Ginger Group (1924–1932; split from Progressive Party), Democratic Representative Caucus (2001–2002; split from Canadian Alliance), and Québec debout (2018; split from Bloc Québécois).

Senate caucuses

The Senate of Canada is Canada's unelected upper chamber. It currently has three non-party parliamentary groups: the Independent Senators Group (ISG), the Canadian Senators Group (CSG), and the Progressive Senate Group (PSG). These three groups do not share a formal ideology, platform, or membership in any one political party; the caucuses primarily serve to provide organizational support and better leverage parliamentary resources. Conservative senators remain formally affiliated with the Conservative Party of Canada.

Historical parties

Registered parties

These are political parties which held seats in the House of Commons and either ceased to exist before Elections Canada was formed, or were once registered with Elections Canada but have become de-registered or ceased to exist due to dissolution.

Non-party parliamentary groups

These caucuses were formed by sitting members of the House of Commons, but never ran in an election as a unified party.

Designations used by single candidates

These titles appear in official records, and may have appeared on ballots, but were only ever used as a personal brand by lone candidates.

Senate technical groups

These groups of Senators each sat together as a caucus, but were not affiliated with an active political party.

Pre-confederation political parties

• Parties in the Dominion of Newfoundland
  • Confederate Association
  • Conservative Party (including Reform Party, Tory Party, and Liberal-Conservative-Progressive Party)
  • Economic Union Party
  • Fishermen's Protective Union (including Union Party)
  • Liberal Party (including Liberal Reform Movement and Liberal-Progressive Party)
  • Newfoundland People's Party (including Liberal-Labour-Progressive Party)
  • Responsible Government League
  • United Newfoundland Party
• Parties in Lower Canada and Canada East (now Quebec)
  • Château Clique
  • Parti bleu
  • Parti canadien
  • Parti rouge
  • Patriote movement
• Parties in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island
  • Anti-Confederation Party
  • Confederation Party
• Parties in Upper Canada and Canada West (now Ontario)
  • Clear Grits
  • Family Compact
  • Reform Party
  • Upper Canada Tories

Unofficial designations and parties who never ran candidates

The following parties do not appear on the federal election archive. They either did not run candidates in any election or ran candidates as independents.

• Aboriginal Peoples Party of Canada (founded in 2005)
• Action Canada (founded in 1971)
• Canadian Labour Party, 1917–1929
• Canadian Renewal Party, 1993
• Canadian Union of Fascists, 1930s
• Christian Credit Party, 1982–1983
• Christian Freedom Party of Canada, c. 1988 – c. 1996 (an extension of the Social Credit Party)
• Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada, 1974
• National Party of Canada (I), 1979–1980s
• New Capitalist Party, 1965
• New Constitution Party of Canada (an unregistered party founded in 2015)
• North American Labour Party, 1970s
• National Unity Party, 1938–1949
• People's Co-operative Commonwealth Federation 1945
• Option Canada (founded in 1991)
• Revolutionary Workers League, 1977–1989
• Workers' Communist Party of Canada, 1972–1980

Name changes

Communist Party

The Communist Party of Canada changed its name multiple times in its history. It was founded as the Communist Party of Canada in 1921. It was underground until 1924, and founded a public face, Workers' Party of Canada, from 1922 until 1924 when the Communist Party was legalized. From 1938 until 1943 its candidates ran under the banner Unity or United Progressive, and won two seats, both in Saskatchewan. The Communist Party was again banned in 1940, but from 1943 operated under the name Labor-Progressive Party. It won one seat under this name in a 1943 by-election, which it retained in 1945. In 1959 it reverted to the name Communist Party of Canada and has kept that name to the present.

The Marxist–Leninist Party of Canada unofficially uses the name "Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist)", but Elections Canada does not allow it to be registered by that name because of potential confusion with the Communist Party of Canada.

Labour Party

Labour Party candidates ran under numerous different designations:

• Conservative-Labour (1872–1875)
• Farmer Labour
• Farmer-United Labour
• Labour-Farmer
• Liberal-Labour (1926–1968)
• National Labour (1940)
• United Farmers-Labour (1920)
• United Farmers of Ontario-Labour (1919–1940)

Liberal Party

During Robert Borden's coalition government of 1917–1920, the Liberal Party of Canada split into two groups: the Liberal–Unionist who supported the coalition and the Laurier Liberals who opposed it.

Liberal-Progressive

Some Liberal-Progressive candidates used the designations:

• Liberal-Labour-Progressive or
• National Liberal Progressive.

New Democratic Party

The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation used the name New Party from 1958 to 1961 while it was transitioning to become the New Democratic Party. In French, the party used a literal translation of its name, Fédération du Commonwealth Coopératif, from until 1955.

Conservative Party

The first Conservative Party used several different names during its existence:

• Liberal-Conservative Party (some MPs until 1911),
• Unionist Party (1917–1921),
• National Liberal and Conservative Party (1920–1921),
• National Government (1940),
• Progressive Conservative Party (1942–2003)

The second (and current) Conservative Party of Canada was a merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party.

Progressive Party and United Farmers

Some candidates for the Progressive Party of Canada used United Farmer designations:

• Farmer (1925 & 1930),
• United Farmers of Canada,
• United Farmers of Alberta, or
• United Farmers of Ontario.

Rhinoceros Party

The first Rhinoceros Party disbanded in 1993. When it was revived in 2006 it used the name "neorhino.ca". The party changed its name to Rhinoceros Party in 2010.

Social Credit Party and Ralliement créditiste

Some Ralliement créditiste used the name Ralliement des créditistes from 1963 to 1967. One candidate used the designation Candidats des électeurs in 1957 and 1958. Others used the name Union des électeurs, although this was never formally registered.

In the 1940 election, 17 candidates ran jointly with the Social Credit Party under the name New Democracy.

See also

In Spanish: Anexo:Partidos federales de Canadá para niños

• Federal political financing in Canada
• List of political parties in Canada