Best of luck to you, Matt! I’d vote for ya if I could – the NDP is the kind of party I’d support. Your Liberal party seems to be similar to our Democratic party, and the NDP more like Ralph Nader and the Green party – and I’d be voting for Nader if I could vote.
Wow, a Doper is running as an NDP candidate. Cool.
During the last (?) NDP leadership election (1995) I attended a candidate debate with a friend who was an NDP volunteer. The candidates were Alexa McDonough, Svend Robinson, Bjorn Nystrom and a fourth guy whose name I can’t recall but who was a real old-school socialist. My friend and I didn’t actually wear Svend Robinson T-shirts to the debate but we cheered him on and we were gutted when he lost the leadership election.
Wow, I’ll have to e-mail my friend now. Allez matt_mcl! Allez NPD!
A New Democrat in Quebec?
(For you Americans…It’s really hard for a NDP person to get elected in Quebec, so he’ll need all the SDMB good vibes you can send him.)
Kick big-L Liberal butt, Matt!
(Who’s your main foe…the Liberals or the Bloc?)
And BTW…the NDP appears to still be using it’s mostly orange, black and white colour scheme on its lawn signs.
That’s ok - I don’t live large, and trains are romantic. 
OK, now I’m going to finally admit my ignorance - what the hell is this thread all about, anyway? What, exactly, is it you’re running for? Why? What’s the background? Tell me, tell me…
Esprix
Merde, Matt!
Esprix,
Matt’s running for Parliament!
The Prime Minister announced on Sunday that the general election for the federal Parliament will be on Novemeber 27.
Here’s a link to where Matt wants to work: Parliament Hill Cam, courtesy of the Government of Canada. (Image is renewed every minute.)
Ah, MP = Member of Parliament. I was thinking everyone was dyslexicising PM - Prime Minister! 
So this is the federal (i.e., national) house, not the um, er, provincial? Is that right? So you’re going to be the equivalent of a congressman from, say, Pennsylvania in Washington, rather than a representative from, say, Delaware County in Harrisburg - correct?
Somebody help me out here. I know we have similar structures, but they’ve got that queen thing going on that I just can’t get a handle on…
Esprix
I’ve now got a mental image of Esprix trying to get a handle on Liz’ thing - hmmmm.
yes, federal Parliament is equivalent to U.S. Congress. “M.P.” is “Member of Parliament,” meaning a member of the House of Commons.
Esprix: Ignore the Queen. The Queen is irrelevant. Focus on the lower-case queen instead. That’s good.
jti: I didn’t need that.
Quick resummary of Canadian parliamentary system:
Each federal riding (district) elects a member of Parliament, who sits in the House of Commons. The party with the largest number of seats becomes the government and its head becomes prime minister.
Parties:
Canadian Alliance: Slash social programs to the poor and taxes to the rich. The official opposition. Head: Stockwell Gay (I mean, Day). I mean come on, you can’t be that homophobic and not be hiding something yourself.
Liberals: Slash social programs to the poor and taxes to the rich, but at least you can fuck whoever you like. The government. Head: Jean Chretien.
Bloc Quebecois: Vote for us because we don’t want to be in Ottawa anyway. Head: Gilles Duceppe.
Progressive Conservative (Tories): Moderate conservatism. Its head, Joe Clark, is actually slightly to Jean Chretien’s left. Please ignore the Mulroney years.
New Democratic Party: Social programs for the poor, the environment, scrap the GST. Actually in favour of all the stuff the Liberals pretend to be in favour of in order to get votes. Head: Alexa McDonough.