simplicio comments on Undiscriminating Skepticism - Less Wrong

97 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 14 March 2010 11:23PM

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Comment author: Jack 16 March 2010 03:57:15AM 2 points [-]

Do you Canadians use liberal like we Americans use it or like Europeans use it?

Comment author: simplicio 16 March 2010 04:15:20AM 1 point [-]

More the European way. It definitely does not have the strong negative connotations, even among conservatives. Also worth noting that one of our two main political parties is actually called the Liberal Party of Canada.

Another fun fact: Liberals are also affectionately known as Grits, and Conservatives as Tories.

Comment author: komponisto 16 March 2010 06:25:30PM 3 points [-]

Do you Canadians use liberal like we Americans use it or like Europeans use it?

More the European way...Also worth noting that one of our two main political parties is actually called the Liberal Party of Canada.

My understanding is that that party is roughly the equivalent of the U.S. Democrats or U.K. Labour -- which would make the usage of "liberal" much more like the American usage (meaning "left-wing") than the European usage (meaning "opposed to high levels of economic regulation").

Comment author: taryneast 27 June 2011 11:24:34AM 1 point [-]

uh - interesting. Thanks for pointing that out.

In Australia the Liberal party is right-wing (liberal on free trade policies, not on social policies), so I tend to get confused about discussions of "liberals" in the US unless I remember to switch definitions before reading.

Comment author: simplicio 16 March 2010 07:29:44PM *  0 points [-]

There is that. I thought Jack was getting at the negative connotation aspect.

The Liberal party here is basically centre-left.