Pro-Family Politics and Fringe Parties in Canada, Chris
MacKenzie, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2005, pp.
292.
MacKenzie's title is misleading, for the major focus of the book
is not pro-family parties across Canada. Rather, he uses an intensive
study of a single provincial pro-family party—the Family Coalition
Party of British Columbia (FCP)—as a starting point for an ambitious
and successful attempt to chart the conceptual morass that lies between
the literatures on social movements and political parties. He makes a
strong argument that small, ideologically driven parties on either end of
the ideological spectrum face two distinct sets of challenges: those of
political parties and those of social movements. Understanding how this
double jeopardy affects the success of what he terms party/movements
is important. In this respect, the book is an important contribution to
the literature on what political scientists more usually call minor
parties. The second focus of the book is new right ideology in the
English-speaking world, with the FCP standing in as an example of this
ideology. Here, the book is shakier, as it is not clear that the FCP is
representative of this ideology or that MacKenzie is entirely objective in
approaching this aspect of his topic.