1.)"Libertarianism" is idiotic. I will say there are a few people who actually believe in it, but for the most part it is just a way to make insecure college kids feel special. That's how you get these logically dissonant concepts like "economic libertarian" vs. "social libertarian." You can't believe that the state has no place in the bedroom, but does have a place at the ATM, or in the restaurant, or at the bar, or in the classroom and still call yourself a "libertarian." You had this thing in the USA, where during the Bush years a lot of younger people, largely uninspired by the Democrats, just turned to calling themselves "social libertarians." The moment Obama came around though, they just ditched that entirely and grabbed onto a fairly conventional Democratic/center left platform. Now you get a whole bunch of nominal "libertarians" going on about how public health care totally jives with "libertarianism" or how a fat tax is really a great idea. For the most part, "libertarians" are just "libertarian" enough to think they should be free to do what they like, but still be able to tell others what to do. That's why it always fails, it's oxymoronic.
2.) Politics in Toronto is mostly identity as opposed to policy based. If you anonymized the various political parties, 90% of us wouldn't be able to tell the difference. They all support the same issues. A good example is Afghanistan, arguably our most important foreign policy commitment of the past decade, and it wasn't mentioned once in the last election. Our economic policy is bi-partisan. Nobody discusses immigration, at all. There are no major disagreements on social policy. Instead we focus on identity issues. Whether or not Harper can sing, whether or not Ignatieff is too cosmopolitan, or Jack Layton and that stupid bloody kitchen table. So, I'd say Toronto self-identifies as Liberal. I'm less sure that really means anything, though.
