Sober Thought historical political parties

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Each party, including the eight extant in the House of the Federation right now, appears in bold on first reference in each section (because more than a few parties appear in several spots along the spectrum). It is organised on the right-left spectrum, with a non-spectrum category at the end divided into rough categories. A direct ancestor is a party which can trace its unbroken lineage forward to one of the current parliamentary parties.


Parties of the right

Direct ancestors of Christian Unity Party

Although one may consider Christian parties as non-spectrum single-issue parties, CUP certainly qualifies here as the most rightwing party on the Sober Thought political spectrum. Its understanding of Christianity leads it to support extreme social conservatism. And although it has no comprehensive freemarket or free enterprise economic policy like its immediate neighbour below, its virulent anticommunism ensures that any fiscal suggestions from the godless left wing will be met with open hostility.

As detailed in its main article, the Christian Unity Party has had problems establishing the applicability of all three of the words in its name during its short existence. If Christian means Christ-like, then many of the actions directed at people inside and outside the party would not receive Jesus of Nazareth's the seal of approval. For too many in the party, the question has become WWJS not WWJD.

"Unity" refers to the fact that CUP began as a cross-denominational attempt at forming a single voice for the Christian faith rather than three. The youngest member of the group, Evangelical Alliance founded by Protestants in the 1980s openly doubted if the Catholic Party -- operational and electing members more successfully than any religious party since 1929 -- was really Christian.

The former's more moderate and ecumenical colleagues in the Protestant People's Party sided with the latter when good manners trumped doctrinal similarities. P3, as it like to call itself a decade after its founding in the 1960s, was established when intra-Christian rapprochement seemed not only feasible but inevitable, so it was sensitive to unity and decorum issues.

Faith First was a semi-indirect precursor to CUP in the earlier 1990s, representing an exploratory coalition of Christian parties, churches and popular movements. It was an attempt to reach out to at least to those in the other two Abrahamic religions of Judaism and Islam who were concerned about the unswervingly secular nature of Sober Thought. The EA was actually somewhat relieved that Christ-killing Jews failed to show up at the feast to which they had been invited, forgetting the parable of Luke 14:15-24. Its failure necessitated, at least in the short term, narrowing the focus to strictly Christian parties and people.


Direct ancestors of the Free Enterprise Party

In theory, the FEP too is a non-spectrum party because its monomaniacal about the economy to the exclusion of all else. However, its pool of coalition partners only exists on the right wing so like a chameleon it has taken on the former's hue from proximity rather than conviction.

The party was formed in the booming 1950s by the merger of the Free Trade Alliance and the Libertarian Party. The Free Traders had been toiling away in the political wilderness, offering the panacea of barrier-free trade between nations as a solution to the Great Depression, defusing international tensions to avoid the Second World War and rebuilding after it happened. They never were more than a blip on the radar screen.

Similarly, the Libertarians -- founded as the Objectivist Party in the 1920s just before PR was introduced -- sought in vain to get a wider audience to accept their reasons for adopting Anarcho-Capitalism. The precursor party was also, ironically, prone to the development of personality cults and party splits over minutiae. Small aspects of this carried over to the united party, when in the 1970s popular musicians used some of the more sophomoric and simplistic concepts on their concept albums.

Direct ancestors of the Rural Alliance

The main constituents of the narrowly focused but not always narrow minded Rural Alliance are farmers and rural non-farm residents in smaller provinces. Party consolidation was not especially quick, taking two decades to run its course, but it was not marked with any of the acrimony or intraparty strife commonly seen with other mergers.

On the farming side, both the anglophone Farmers Cooperative and the francophone Union des agricoles had existed before PR but hoped to reap some gains with PR. At that time, they saw the leftwing dark pink labour and workers parties as their natural urban allies. The Commonground Cooperative and the Social Gospel movement-parties formed a useful conduit or mediator between the rural and urban wings.

However, over time policy drift in the farmers parties pulled them further to the right while similar but reverse currents pulled their allies further to the left. When the coalition of radical but practical urbanites and farmers broke down, the parties were forced to consolidate their wing to retain at least some of the potential they had as a wider coalition. By the early 1940s, in keeping with the unity mood of the day, the 'United Farmers was created by the marriage of English- and French-speaking farmers.

Simultaneously, on the rural non-farm side, provincial organisations, movements and proper political parties representing country dwellers in several different provinces began to seek common cause with one another more and more frequently. After the wartime unity government, the Town and Country Alliance emerged as the sole national representative for these constituents. Finally, in the 1950s as the country lost forever the hold it had on the country, the two main strands braided themselves into a whole and the Rural Alliance -- tentative at first but with ever increasing self-assurance -- was born.

Direct ancestors of the Conservative Party

The Conservative Party was one of the two big-tent parties which dominated politics before the arrival of PR, and its size allowed it to ride out the severe internal and external shocks it experienced by the defection of more narrow minded members to the new rightwing parties and the Great Depression of the 1930s.

From its loins sprang the Restoration Party, formed by reactionary elements in the CP proper which did not accept the change to PR and wanted to restore the electoral system as it existed before 1928. Paradoxically, the party could not have existed without the system it sought to destroy. A slightly more nuanced version was the similar sounding Reform Party which was willing to accept PR but preferred a different method of achieving.

As tempers burned out, moods mellowed and the more thoughtful leaders among the RPs (as the two parties came to be called) began to realise the inherent contradiction upon which the party was based, reunion was in the cards. The arrival of a world war and consequent national unity government was a convenient way to save face: the parties merged into National Unity for the 1942 election, then reemerged as restored parts of the old Conservatives for the 1946 election.

Similarly, the Law and Order Party] represented the most authoritarian wing of the pre-PR Conservative Party. It was not designed to celebrate the dramatic creations of Dick Wolf. It went into suspended animation during the National Unity government, but resumed operation after the war to fight two new elections.

The birth of the equally rightwing but strictly economy-focused Free Enterprise Party in the 1950s repulsed the L&OP, which could not understand why anybody would dismantle the state which was so necessary for policing people and punishing criminals. When forced to consider whether it was truly more rightwing or just a more traditionalist party, it elected for the latter and rejoined the party from which it splintered a quarter of a century earlier.

In contrast, the Populist Party was an attempt to move from the moderate right to the truly centre-right. A series of external forces served to doom the party to oblivion. Its first election in 1929 was followed shortly thereafter by the Great Depression, an inauspicious time for any party but especially so for a would-be moderate party with no track record and no quick-fix cures for the economic ills the country was suffering.

Its second in 1933 was also the first election in which the similar sounding but decidedly uncentrist Popular Party also competed, adding confusion to the mix. Its third in 1938 was marred by the gathering storm, while its fourth in 1942 was fought under the unity banner. After the war, it tried to find its niche but finally threw in the towel in the early 1950s when the Red Scare made its spurious association with the Popularists an electoral liability in its own constituency. The party decided that twenty-three years of bad luck and lack of visibility was quite enough, thank you, and officially merged with the Conservative Party whence it came.


No living relatives

In one way or another, the following parties had issues but left no metaphorical issue. Most were formed in the first heady days of PR which would bring heaven to earth, or in the brutal days of the GD which brought hell up to earth.

Full exploration to follow:

  • Religious Rights Association, revoke secular nature of government for all religions
  • Salvation Party, impose pseudo-theocracy; imploded before being banned
  • Christian Heritage Party, revoke secular nature of government for Christian religion(s)
  • National Democratic Party, our brush with national socialist parties; imploded before being banned
  • Social Credit.


Parties of the centre

Direct ancestors of Moderate Party (Sober Thought)

Full exploration to follow:

  • Centre Party, straight name change to avoid confounding with Conservative Party (Sober Thought)
  • Sober Thought Party, neither rightwing nor national unity as one might surmise
  • Civic Action, not inordinately concerned with municipal government rights as one might surmise
  • Liberal Party, not leftwing as one might surmise.

No living relatives

Full exploration to follow:

  • Commonground Cooperative, not pinko as one might surmise.
  • Free Democratic Party, not rightwing as one might surmise.
  • Democratic Party
  • Independent Liberal Association
  • Progressive Party, not pinko as one might surmise.
  • Reconstruction Party, rebuild from the Great Depression.


Parties of the left

Direct ancestors of Socialist Party (Sober Thought)

Shades of Pinkoes. Full exploration to follow:

  • Social Democratic Party, mere name change
  • Social Gospel, Christian socialists, see Acts (chapter 4 or 5)
  • Social Movement
  • Union Party, as in party for labour unions not party created by a union of other parties
  • Labour Congress, tied to trade union centrals
  • Labour Party, tied directly to individual trade unions
  • New Deal Party, pinko Reconstruction Party


Direct ancestors of the Liberal Democratic Action (Sober Thought)

Fullblown Reds. Full exploration to follow:

  • Workers Party
  • Independent Labour Party, left wing of Labour Party à la mode Michael Foote
  • Democratic Opposition, left wing of Social Democratic Party à la Waffle
  • Civil Rights Now!, Commie front organization à CCHR
  • Youth Party, Young Commies à la Yippies
  • Drug Law Reform League, dopers united will never be defeated (unless they get the munchies first) à la Bloc pot and Marijuana Party
  • Feminist Cooperative, à la Greenham Common (but not Horsell Common)


No living relatives

Poorly organised and feud-prone fullblown Reds. Full exploration to follow:

  • United Front, front organization to lure pinkoes, fellow travelers and dupes
  • Liberal Labour League, more movement than party
  • Marxist Party, pure Karl and Friedrich, no consideration for errors or adaptations
  • Communist Party, twist the facts to fit the Comintern line today.
  • Popular Party, no, it wasn’t.


Non-spectrum parties

Usually consensus, parochial or single-issue parties.


National unity

Generally during wartime or other severe and lengthy national emergency. Full exploration to follow:

  • National Salvation Front
  • National Unity.

Parochial

Full exploration to follow:

Anti-war parties

  • Bloc pacifique, francophones who were true blue pacifists
  • Neutralist Option, anglophone who were pale blue passivists [sic]

Environmental parties

  • Conservancy
  • Ecological Coalition
  • Environmental Defence League
  • Green Party

Miscellaneous

Full exploration to follow:

  • Party Party, absurdist and youth party
  • Municipal Justice, municipal rights broadly rather than for a specific municipality
  • Technocracy, utopian.
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