Pro-Family Politics and Fringe Parties in Canada

Extract

Pro-Family Politics and Fringe Parties in Canada, Chris MacKenzie, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2005, pp. 292.

MacKenzie's title is misleading, for the major focus of the book is not pro-family parties across Canada. Rather, he uses an intensive study of a single provincial pro-family party—the Family Coalition Party of British Columbia (FCP)—as a starting point for an ambitious and successful attempt to chart the conceptual morass that lies between the literatures on social movements and political parties. He makes a strong argument that small, ideologically driven parties on either end of the ideological spectrum face two distinct sets of challenges: those of political parties and those of social movements. Understanding how this double jeopardy affects the success of what he terms party/movements is important. In this respect, the book is an important contribution to the literature on what political scientists more usually call minor parties. The second focus of the book is new right ideology in the English-speaking world, with the FCP standing in as an example of this ideology. Here, the book is shakier, as it is not clear that the FCP is representative of this ideology or that MacKenzie is entirely objective in approaching this aspect of his topic.