The left/right factor in party identification.

This paper analyzes the use of left/right reasons for identifying with the major federal and provincial political parties by respondents in the 1984 Canadian National Election Study (CNES). Only a minority of Canadians invoked such explanations and left-wing reasons greatly exceeded right-wing reasons. New Democrats were much more likely to offer leftist reasons, as expected, and this tendency varied directly with the intensity of their support for the NDP. The same pattern held for federal Progressive Conservatives tendency to give right-wing reasons. There was no such relationship for Liberal partisans whose use of left-wing and right-wing justifications placed them between New Democrats and Conservatives. The paper also tested hypotheses on the contributions of union membership, region, socio-economic status, and education to leftist thinking. The paper concludes with some speculation about the political and ideological significance of the NDPs elevated popularity in the public opinion polls in 1987.