Florida Gun Law

[allabootmatt]

Rural Canadaians and Americans: Pretty conservative
Urban Canadians or Americans: Pretty liberal

The difference, in my opinion, is in the suburbs and exurbs. Some of the most fertile ground for Republican BS is in places like Phoenix, Orange County, the Philly suburbs, northern Virginia, and in pretty much every suburban area in the South. These regions routinely vote in people who are way, way, way to the right of anyone who could get even close to being elected in, say, the 905 or Lower Mainland (or the Montreal suburbs). The "middle" in Canada is much further left than it is in the US.

And anyone who does not believe that just needs to read the national news pages in the Times for a week.

 

[unimaginative2]

Go outside Montreal and you can find some pretty conservative attitudes as well.

For sure, but their socially conservative attitudes don't seem to show nearly as much in politics. They also tend to be more fiscally liberal, as seen in the weakness of the ADQ and the failure of Charest's essentially Conservative policies.

allabootmatt's points are also very well taken, but I sometimes wonder if our conservative politicians are really that much less extreme than the American ones. Rob Anders, from an urban riding, frequently attacks multiculturalism and immigration and loudly denounced Nelson Mandela in the House as a communist and terrorist.

 

[bizorky]

For sure, but their socially conservative attitudes don't seem to show nearly as much in politics. They also tend to be more fiscally liberal, as seen in the weakness of the ADQ and the failure of Charest's essentially Conservative policies.

Simply put, politics and social attitudes in Quebec are largely decided by what happens in Montreal. That city holds a sway over the province unlike others in Canada. That does not mean that there are no socially conservative people in Quebec. There certainly are.

The expression of their conservativism may be expressed differently, as well. When I lived in Montreal I knew people who could be easily defined as socially quite liberal in the extreme, yet they were ardent supporters of separatism who viewed immigrants who did not want to integrate into Quebec culture as a threat to Quebec's francophone future. On the one hand, one could say that they were quite liberal with respect to many social issues. Yet when it came to expressing their desire to protect french culture they were arguably quite conservative. How exactly one could categorize this population could be quite difficult. It all depends on how one defines liberal and conservative. Not all liberals are anti-gun, and there are many conservatives who don't support easy access to fire arms.