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Originally Posted by ninty
Just to clarify, the "Liberals" are a political party, and they probably lean a bit to the right side of the spectrum much like the Democrats do in the US. ....
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Sounds like "Conservative" and "liberal", "right" and "left" have different meanings north and south of the border. Democrats in the US are generally considered leaning towards the "liberal" side and in the US that is referred to as the "left", not the "right side of the spectrum". Of course, this has not always been the case. When I was a kid, Southern Democrats were very conservative. That's why most of them have switched to the Republican party over the last couple of decades.
IMHO, this defection and others like it in the Republican party is the root of the recent problems in Congress. In the old days each party had a right wing, a left wing, and a center. They would work out an issue and come to a compromise and then present their case to the other party (who had also debated and compromised within the party). Today, if you lean left in a right leaning party you get pushed aside (i.e Alan Simpson of Wyoming), same goes for a right leaner in the left party (ie. Sam Nunn of Georgia). Each party is too polarized for my taste. I still call myself a Democrat (mainly because Abe Lincoln was a lying SOB and I refuse to officially associate with his party
) but I haven't voted Democratic in a pretty long time, at least on the national level.