PARTISAN DEALIGNMENT, ELECTORAL CHOICE AND PARTY-SYSTEM CHANGE IN CANADA

This paper investigates the conditions under which significant changes can occur in the structure and composition of a party system in a con temporary mature democracy. The empirical focus is Canada. Although on e of the oldline Canadian parties, the Liberals, won a parliamentary m ajority in the most recent (1993) national election, two others, the g overning Progressive Conservatives (PC) and the social democratic oppo sition New Democratic Party (NDP), suffered disastrous defeats. Two ne w parties with regionally concentrated bases of support, Reform and th e Bloc Quebecois, enjoyed marked success. Analyses of national survey data reveal that although economic issues generated by a serious, prot racted recession were the principal proximate forces eroding PC and ND P support, dissatisfaction with all oldline parties was widespread. Th is disaffection, the virtual devastation of two of these parties, and the continuing strength of the two new parties in their regional bases , suggest that 1993 was a type of 'critical election' that significant ly altered Canada's national party system.