Politics on the Canadian Prairies are puzzling. The provinces share a common landscape and history, but they have nurtured three distinct political cultures - Alberta is Canada's bastion of conservatism, Saskatchewan its cradle of social democracy, and Manitoba its progressive centre. The roots of these cultures run deep and have sparked comment and debate, yet their persistence over a century of change has yet to be explained.

In Code Politics, Jared Wesley draws on over eight hundred pieces of campaign literature to reveal that the region's dominant political parties have...

Based on extensive data collection, Big Worlds examines Canada's ten provinces and three territories as distinct democratic "worlds."

A separate chapter is devoted to each province (and one explores the three territories), creating a cross-country survey of politics and elections. Tracing the history of each provincial and territorial system, with special attention to the twenty-first century, and drawing on the "worlds" theme, the chapters address the "terrain" (political culture, political economy, and political institutions) and the "climate" (the party system, civic...