Canadian Politics

[The Gaffer]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

All right then: first, gay marriage in france, and probably abortion rights, thirdly the way he dealt with the Burning Paris issue. It's not my country, but those are reasons to consider someone liberal, eh? Not very conservative is he? unless you're pinning that term to something that has to do with enviromental conservation, right?
But I suppose in the UK you guys are quite far left, and he looks conservative to you.

OK, I can see how that might seem liberal from a certain perspective (far right, over the horizon and into Here Be Dragons territory ).

Nurv is right, though, in that politics in the UK has gone very much down the US road in recent years (i.e. having two centre-right parties who swap power every so often, thus ensuring that nothing ever changes and governments don't unnecessarily impede the shafting of the populace by rampant corporations).

Another thing to bear in mind is the political-cultural context. In Europe, abortion tends to be a moral issue not a political one, and therefore being pro- or anti-abortion doesn't mark yourself out on the political spectrum to the same extent as it does in the US.

Gay rights is similar (there are many openly gay politicians on left and right) plus there are clauses in European legislation which require member states to offer equal rights to all people regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation.

Having said that, as far as I know Chirac opposes gay marriage
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3775847.stm
(from 2004 so could be out of date).

Chirac is a conservative both in the context of French politics (where his official opposition is the Socialist party) and in terms of policies. He is a free market liberaliser, and pro-European integration, which plonks him firmly in the centre right IMO.