... and Canada is the only major nation that covers significant land area to administer those rights over a vast region.
The Netherlands could be a large county within Ontario for all intents and purposes, no other nation on Earth has the vast land coverage with the kinds of advanced social visions of Canada.
And the Netherlands still has more people than Ontario....what's your point? We are geographically large country with a tiny population. And much of that population lives with 200km of the US border.
Owing to that dispersal, I would hardly say that Canadians share a common social vision. You obviously have not traveled through Canada much. I have had the privilege of visiting 8 of 10 provinces. And I'd say while Canadians share certain key concerns (health care, environment, welfare), they differ greatly on the type and degree of government action required. For example, I would argue that in most of the Maritimes (with the exception of Halifax) there is plenty of support for social welfare programs, but there was not that much support for issues like same-sex marriage at the time of that debate. You'd have the reverse of that in Ontario. And Quebec is always an interesting case. They rail against privatization of health care yet allow the highest numbers of private clinics in the country. And no federal governments seems to have cojones to question them, although they usually take on Alberta on every single private clinic even though a majority of Albertans back these clinics.
You even have diversity on government regulation. The prairies get the Wheat Board forced on them, while Ontario farmers don't. But one would not dare to raise a cow and sell milk in Quebec, or raise chickens to sell eggs in Ontario without the licenses that cost thousands and thousands of dollars. Rest of the country? They like to have farmers compete.
In short.....we are both the same and diverse at the same time. We speak the same languages, dress the same, and all consume American culture, but our priorities vary from region to region, and so do the political attitudes that come with those changed priorities and challenges.
If the NDP becomes official opposition all it proves is that Canada is becoming more left...
Given the vagaries of the electoral system, I don't think anyone would construe the NDP's attainment of status as the official opposition as a leftward shift. Particularly so, if the party they were opposing was on the right. The reason the NDP is doing well is because they have concentrated support in key ridings, whereas the Liberals are a true national party with a national support base. If the NDP attains status as opposition, it'll be more a fluke than a trend....I'll believe it if they start winning ridings all over the country instead of in their traditional pockets. Heck, even the Liberals had Iron Annie in Calgary for the longest time.
I don't buy the idea that Canada is moving to the right in any way.
Nor is it moving to the left either. In typical Canadian fashion, we largely sit on the fence in the centre.
The Conservative party has united all right factions that have any notable support and its still barely at 35%...
The old PC and Reform/Alliance party based their pitch to merge on the combined electoral numbers being higher than the Liberals. And look where it got them. The party that sticks to the centre wins in Canada. A Liberal-NDP combo that drifted to the left would probably drop to less than 35%. Either way, the Liberals can bounce back quite easily. Dion will get fired after this election. They'll probably finally get a non-quebecer to take the helm. And they'll ditch all this climate change, green window dressing and go back to what they are good at....running an economy, promoting health care, immigration, etc. Had they run on that platform, they probably would have taken this election.
Canada is one of the most socially progressive societies on the face of the planet.
Now I know you haven't travelled much..... Canada, the MOST socially progressive? Hardly....that honour would probably go to the folks from that other western continent.
Now, if only the purchase and sale of marijuana could be legalized for once and all it'd kind of match the Netherlands on that front.
Would be great....but it'll never happen as long as the US opposes it. We kinda value a free flowing border more than legal access to weed. We don't want every vehicle stopped on the border just because Americans coming up had access to ganja. It's bad enough in Windsor, they do that for college kids who come up from Detroit..... But hey, Canada is fairly permissive on this. The cops hardly prosecute anyone for possession. I have even read somewhere that more Canadians smoke pot than the Dutch. And I believe it. The way I see it, the situation is pretty good right now. The Canadian government gets to pretend it is cracking down on marijuana while the US government gets to pretend that we are serious about helping the with the 'war on drugs', and the trade keeps flowing. I'd rather not upset the balance.