If you are voting for the first time, or you just moved to Canada, this one is for you. You will hear people talk about the “left” and the “right” during an election, and it can sound like everyone else already knows what that means. Here it is, in plain words.
Left and right in one minute
Think of it as a line. On one end is the left. On the other end is the right. In the middle is the centre. Every political party sits somewhere on that line, and where they sit tells you, in general, what they think government should do.
- Left — government should do more. More public services, more help for people who need it, and higher taxes — mostly on people and companies with more money — to pay for it.
- Right — government should do less. Lower taxes, fewer rules for businesses, and more left to people and the private sector to sort out themselves.
- Centre — a mix of both. Some government help and some room for the private sector, depending on the issue.
That is the whole idea. Everything else is detail.
A few words, explained
- Government: the people elected to run the country, and the public services they run — like health care, schools, and roads.
- Taxes: money everyone pays to the government, which is how public services get paid for. Parties disagree about how much tax to collect, and from whom.
- Public services: things the government provides for everyone, like hospitals, schools, and roads — as opposed to things you buy yourself.
- Regulation: rules the government sets, for example for businesses or banks.
- Party: a group of people with shared ideas about how the country should be run. In a federal election you vote for a local candidate, and that candidate usually belongs to a party.
- Candidate: a person running to be your Member of Parliament (MP) — the person who represents this area in Ottawa.
- Riding: your local voting area. Ours is Brantford—Brant South or Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North.
- By-election: a vote in just one riding, held between general elections, to fill an empty seat. Ours is on Monday, December 7, 2026.
Where the words come from
The terms go back to the French Revolution, when supporters of the king sat on the right side of the assembly and supporters of change sat on the left. The seating is gone, but the labels stuck — and they are still just a shorthand, not a precise measurement.
What it looks like in practice
In Canada the spectrum plays out on a few different questions at once:
- Money and the economy: parties on the left generally favour more public services, stronger rules for businesses, and higher taxes on higher incomes to pay for them. Parties on the right generally favour lower taxes, fewer rules, and more room for the private sector.
- Social issues: parties on the left generally favour change and expanded rights and protections; parties on the right generally favour tradition and a slower pace of change.
- The environment: parties on the left, and the Greens in particular, generally put a bigger emphasis on climate action and environmental protection as a government priority.
A party can sit in different places on different questions. A party can be on the right on taxes and in the centre on social issues, for example. And parties move: what counted as “centre” twenty years ago is not necessarily the centre today. So treat the line below as a guide to where parties generally sit right now, not as a fixed fact about them.
The political line
Where the parties in this by-election sit
| Party | Where it sits | Candidate here |
|---|---|---|
| New Democratic Party (NDP) | Left | Brad Ward |
| Green Party of Canada | Left | Kathryn Kissinger |
| Liberal Party of Canada | Centre-left / centre | Joy O’Donnell |
| Conservative Party of Canada | Right | Kevin Davis |
| People’s Party of Canada | Far right | No candidate named yet in this riding |
A note on Dave Carrol
Dave Carrol is running as an Independent, which means he does not belong to any party, so he has no party placement of his own. We have placed him here with the Conservatives because of his background: he is a former Conservative riding association president, he sought the Conservative nomination for this by-election, and he has been endorsed by former Conservative MPs. His own positions are his own — read his candidate page and his campaign material to see where he stands.
A note on the People’s Party
The People’s Party of Canada (PPC) is included on the line because it is a national party that ran in this riding in 2025, when it took 0.60% of the vote. As of November 8, 2026, it has not named a candidate for this by-election. Nominations do not close until Monday, November 16, 2026 at 2:00 p.m., so that could still change.
Why this matters — and what it does not tell you
The spectrum is a useful starting point, but it is not a substitute for reading what the candidates themselves say. Two candidates from the same party can disagree, an Independent can borrow ideas from anywhere, and local issues — roads, housing, jobs in Brantford and Brant — do not always line up neatly on a left-right line.
Use the line to orient yourself, then look at the candidates: their candidate pages, the by-election explainer, and the riding guide. The by-election is on Monday, December 7, 2026.
BrantVotes is non-partisan. This article explains the political spectrum and where parties generally sit on it; it is not an endorsement of any party or candidate.
