The Cosmopolitan Party of Canada webpage
What do you think of the word Cosmopolitan to describe a political party? A cosmopolitan person is defined as:
having no fixed residence; at home in any place; free from
local attachments or prejudices; not provincial; liberal.
[1913 Webster]
Here is a quote from The Cosmopolitan Party of Canada web page:
Canada's socially progressive political choice. January 20, 2007
OUR COSMOLOGY
Our CosmologyPROGRESSIVE 'WORLDLY' VALUES. We embrace human rights, social justice; cultural diversity; universality (including to basic amenities of life, public healthcare, and Higher Education); and environmental protection.
QUALITY-OF-LIVING FOR ALL CANADIANS, WITHOUT PREJUDICE. We embrace a 'quantuum' economic approach to economic development. This approach fully integrates social and environmental considerations and potential costs.
We support the development of a 'people-oriented' economy. Such an alternatively developed, quality-of-living focused 'economy' includes a shift to "Green" energy production toward healthy pollution-free communities. We also seek to eradicate poverty in a timely manner; and to overall, rejuvenate Canada as a compassionate society.
CANADIAN SOVEREIGNTY. Canadians critically rely on social, cultural, and economic sovereignty to express their individuality and community civic identity.
Representative government in a democracy must protect these civil rights.
In addition, an 'independent Canadian foreign policy' agenda which represents articulated convictions by Canadians on global peace and social justice also rely on the popular sovereignty of government in Canada, from anti-democratic external coercion.
The clue for the origin of this new political party is found in the discription of the party taken from the quote above.
Canada's socially progressive political choice
About two years ago a movement took place by the Alliance Party (Basically a regional extreme right wing party from Alberta with an ideology similar to the ned-cons in the U.S.) to merge with the Progressive Conservative Party (PCs) in order to end vote splitting between the Alliance Party and the PC Party on the right wing of the political spectrum. Well to shorten a long story this was not a merger of the Alliance and the PC parties as much as it was a takeover of the PC part by the Alliance. All of this took place before the last federal election.
If you are familiar with Canadian politics you might know that the Progressive Conservative party was a delicate mix of two juxtaposed ideas: progressive and conservative. The Progressive Conservative Party was progressive socially and conservative fiscally. A progressive is defined as a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties. Liberal is often used as a synonym for progressive. After the Alliance Party took over the Progressive Conservatives the newly formed party adopted the name Conservative and even used the PC party's name Tories with the hopes that voters would not notice change in their party. By continuing to use the term Tories the Conservatives hoped to hide the fact that the Conservatives Party was now a party of extreme right wingers and the progressives of the old PC party had been thrown out.
The progressives did not fade away. Are the progressives alive and well today? I am not sure. Have they given up? No! The progressives have formed a new political party The Cosmopolitan Party of Canada. From what I have read on their web page I like what they have to say. Would I vote for this party? I am not sure. I need to hear more about this party and its policies.
The sad thing is that most Canadians still understand the Conservative Party of Canada to be the old Progressive Conservatives. This mistaken idea is re-enforced by the use of the term Tory to refer to the Conservatives. Tory should only be used to refer to the PC party. It leads people to wrongly believe that Conservative Party = Progressive Conservative Party; it does not! The progressives from the now defunct PC party was the liberal wing of the party. With the progressives, the PCs were seen as a centrist party. Without the progressives the Conservatives are understood as an extreme right wing party. Voters in Canada traditionally do not elected a right or left wing government. Centrist parties have won the majority of elections. After a year in government, the Conservatives without the progressives are no longer seen as a centrist party. Will voters in Canada elect a non-centrist party, one decidedly right wing, to lead the next government? That's the question that will have to wait until after the next election to answer.
So here is a new Canadian political party begun by the progressives from the now defunct Progressive Conservatives party now called The Cosmopolitan Party of Canada. I don't know a lot about this party. I like what I have read about the Cosmopolitan Party from their web page. My guess is that most voters in Canada have never heard of the Cosmopolitan Party or know that this is now the new home of the progressives who used to call the Progressive Conservative party home. Hopefully voters in Canada, including myself, will begin to hear more from the Cosmopolitan Party. This new political party seems to have made a good start. Here's hoping that we will hear more from the Cosmopolitan Party.
