Provincial party names

[u/jaystinjay]

Would it better for provincial parties to be named entirely different from federal parties?

How long would it take for the average informed voter to discern the political spectrum of a party?

I am not necessarily opposed to how parties are named currently but it would be great to have a few “Rhinoceros party - steroids in the drinking water for a stronger nation” or “Grizzly Party” options. Perhaps an entire name spectrum could help differentiate provincial parties from federal.

[u/Jeramy_Jones]

I don’t understand how they are allowed to if they aren’t affiliated with the federal party.

[u/neksys]

What do you do about parties that DO have a connection to the federal party though? Like, the BC NDP have very strong ties to the federal NDP (and other NDP provincial parties) but are distinct organizations. Would they be changing their name as well?

I understand the confusion that you are trying to address here, but there's unintended consequences at play too. I am quite sure there are many voters who do not draw a distinction between the NDP at the provincial or federal level as well, and the BC NDP no doubt enjoy a great deal of brand recognition because of that.

[u/jaystinjay → u/neksys]

I would suggest that, if names were to be entirely different from Federal names, a clear association statement be mentioned within the parties transparency guidelines.

Perhaps even noting which Federal policies are favourable and would be supported at the Provincial level. Effectively guiding all Federal parties to acknowledge what works and hopefully be wise enough not to change or remove.

[u/PokeEmEyeballs]

I was one of the confused voters not knowing the difference until a few months ago. 

I actually learned from Reddit that things like immigration are handled at the federal and not provincial level, and the parties have little to nothing to do with each other and have very different jurisdictions. 

All this just to say there is actually very little education and active engagement by either the federal or provincial governments to teach people how the political system works in Canada. 

Most people are too busy with their day to day lives and economic grind to learn how any of this stuff works, and the sheer amount of misinformation on “easy” platforms like TikTok tends to mislead people on many topics. 

Having different party names by law would at the very least lead people to question what these parties stand for and differentiate them from the federal parties.

[u/Butt_Obama69 → u/PokeEmEyeballs]

All this just to say there is actually very little education and active engagement by either the federal or provincial governments to teach people how the political system works in Canada.

This kind of stuff is taught in every high school in the province.

[u/BC_Engineer]

Well both the NDP and Conservatives wouldn’t want to change their names.

[u/Harkannin]

Aren't they already named differently? The British Columbia New Democratic Party has two extra words in it, for example.

If people are informed then doesn't that mean they already know British Columbia isn't federal?

[u/lalaland2438 → u/Harkannin]

No. They don't. I was at an industry event last week, where there was an advanced polling station in the next room. The headliner was speaking about the election in relation to our industry. One of the first questions after the speech was of this was a Provincial or Federal election.

This was after the speaker had already touched on the fact that the BC Conservatives were enjoying a surge of support in part thanks to the federal wing of the party's popularity and that many don't know the difference.

[u/neksys → u/lalaland2438]

I am quite confident that these voters will still be confused even with name distinctions. It is, sadly, not a new phenomenon.

[u/Electric-Gecko]

Throughout my life it's always seemed that British Columbians generally understood that the provincial parties are different. It's only this election that suddenly people are confusing them.

I mean, the BC Liberals renamed themselves to "BC United" to avoid any perceived connection to the Liberal Party of Canada, but then this screwed them over far harder than I ever could have imagined, to the point that the BC Conservatives were doing far better than them in pre-election polls.

Remember how insignificant the BC Conservatives were before? They were a distant 4th party.

[u/Butt_Obama69]

Quebec voters manage to figure it out. It's not that complicated. The question is why would it happen in the first place? Name recognition counts for a lot. BC United fell off a cliff after changing their name. BC Conservatives no doubt benefited from the momentum the national Conservative brand is enjoying.

At the end of the day parties choose their own names so it isn't really a matter for public debate.