Urban–rural political divide
Canada
#### Canada

Research published in 2021 by professors David Armstrong and Zack Taylor of Western University in London, Ontario, and Jack Lucas from the [University of Calgary](/wiki/University_of_Calgary "University of Calgary") suggests that, like in Europe, both the centre\-left ([Liberals](/wiki/Liberal_Party_of_Canada "Liberal Party of Canada")) and left\-wing ([New Democratic Party](/wiki/New_Democratic_Party "New Democratic Party"), NDP) are over represented in urban constituencies. Unlike the Liberals, the NDP still maintains support in certain rural areas with a history of unionized extractive industries, such as mining and logging, which are much more important than urban manufacturing in the [history of Canadian labour movement](/wiki/Timeline_of_labour_in_Greater_Sudbury "Timeline of labour in Greater Sudbury") in many regions, particularly [Northern Ontario](/wiki/Northern_Ontario "Northern Ontario") and the [British Columbia Interior](/wiki/British_Columbia_Interior "British Columbia Interior") where the NDP are still competitive. In primarily agricultural and petroleum\-producing regions, such as the [Prairie Provinces](/wiki/Canadian_Prairies "Canadian Prairies"), which was the first heartland of the NDP, the [Conservative Party of Canada](/wiki/Conservative_Party_of_Canada "Conservative Party of Canada") has dominated since its re\-formation in 2003, building on a trend that saw its predecessor parties skewing towards over representation in rural areas since the 1960s. During the 1990s, the Liberals lost some of the traditional support they once had in rural [Quebec](/wiki/Quebec "Quebec"), and by the new millennium they were almost entirely limited to winning urban and suburban constituencies (outside of Atlantic Canada) while the Conservatives were nearly shut out of the largest cities, further accelerating the trend. , the Liberals held 86 seats in the three largest metropolitan areas compared to just eight for the Conservatives.

Trends in provincial elections are broadly similar. After the [2023 Alberta general election](/wiki/2023_Alberta_general_election "2023 Alberta general election"), which saw the [United Conservative Party](/wiki/United_Conservative_Party "United Conservative Party") win a majority government despite losing many urban seats, Paul Kellogg of [Athabasca University](/wiki/Athabasca_University "Athabasca University") called the urban–rural divide "one of the most important political questions of our generation". Jared Wesley, a political scientist at the [University of Alberta](/wiki/University_of_Alberta "University of Alberta"), suggested that although the policy differences between the two main parties in Alberta are small, each one appeals to different cohort of people based primarily on a sense of identity, where many rural voters instinctively label themselves as conservative even if they have centrist or centre\-left policy preferences. To a lesser extent, urban voters may also label themselves as progressive without regard to policy preferences but the conservative identity has a much older and more durable image in the Albertan cultural imagination. After the [2022 Quebec general election](/wiki/2022_Quebec_general_election "2022 Quebec general election"), columnist Emile Nicolas described the province as being split in two, between a liberal Montreal as an island in an otherwise conservative and nationalist province.


In which regions do the Conservative Party of Canada dominate?