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Political families in Canada:
Their influence, their leaders, and their candidates

by Maurice Y. Michaud (he/him)

As mentioned in the introduction of this section, the notion of political party or family has been fluid over the decades. In Atlantic Canada, there have only been a few families: the traditional con­ser­va­tives, liberals, new democrats and, more recently, greens. But there have been many elsewhere in Canada, except that most were minor or merely “banners” under which candidates ran.

This search engine allows you to find four types of political families. Please note that an influence score is given only for a primary or secondary family.

• Primary: The first seven families, by influence.
• Secondary: The next seven families, by infuence. (All the families in the Yukon are primary.)
• Minor: All the remaining families. (None in the Yukon nor in the four Atlantic provinces.)
• Banner: The non-families.