On 2 May 2011, Canadians watched as the Stephen Harper Conservatives won their first majority government. Jack Layton led the NDP to its best performance in history, and Michael Ignatieff and the federal Liberals had their worst showing to date. For most casual observers, this election marked a major shift in Canadian politics. In reality, the country’s political landscape and national party system had been changing for quite some time.

Parties, Elections, and the Future of Canadian Politics offers the first comprehensive account of political change in Canada over the past two decades. It explores developments in the political landscape from both historical and contemporary perspectives and speculates on the future of the national party system. By documenting how parties and voters responded to new challenges between 1993 and 2011, this volume enhances our understanding of one of the most tumultuous periods in Canadian political history.

Amanda Bittner is a professor of political science and director of the Gender and Politics Laboratory at Memorial University.

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Royce Koop writes about political parties, representation, local politics, and online political communication. He is the author of Grassroots Liberals: Organizing for Local National Politics (UBC Press, 2015), which won the 2014 Seymour Martin Lipset Best Book Award from the American Political Science Association, and, with Peter J. Loewen, Jaime Settle, and James H. Fowler, “A Natural Experiment in Proposal Power and Electoral Success,” American Journal of Political Science 58, no. 1 (2014).

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• Commended, The Hill Times List of Top 100 Best Books for 2013