Over 40 years ago, Leon Epstein (1964)
published a comparative study of Canadian political parties in the
American Political Science Review that still merits a careful
read. His aim in that essay was to juxtapose the Canadian experience
against the American in order to learn something of the latter, but in
doing so, he provided a succinct analysis of important dynamics
structuring the Canadian party system. His account reminds us that, like
the United States, Canada is “a diverse nation in a large land
area,” has “developed a structural federalism,” has an
“American-style social and economic class structure,” and uses
“a single-member, simple-plurality election system.” Perhaps
reflecting these underlying similarities, Canadian parties' (like
their American counterpart's) “extra-parliamentary
organizations are loose and non-doctrinal at every level” and
structured federally.