ESL Civics Lesson 4 Unit 2
Environment, Gov’t and Political Parties (2 class periods)
Expectations:

Describe the role of political parties in the parliamentary process and explain how this role changes in majority,
minority and coalition gov’ts, using provincial and federal examples.
Day 1 Materials:
 2.23 Take a Stand: Where are You on the Political Spectrum? (1 copy per student)
 2.24 Political Spectrum (1 copy per student)
Day 1 Lesson:
1. Put title on board: “Political Parties and Political Spectrum”
2. Review definition of political party (a group of people who share similar beliefs
about gov’t). Recall the federal and provincial parties they may have learned for
the quiz.
3. Have students brainstorm why people would vote for one party rather than
another, or what makes them different?
4. Turn to page 127 and have them define Political Party and Party Platform in their
notes.
Political Party = Group of people who share an ***ideology (way of seeing the world),
have similar views on public issues and work to elect their candidates
Party Platform = statement of where the party stands on major issues as proposed
during an election campaign. (What they would do if they won the election and
became the gov’t)
*** To explain ideology tell students it’s like a pair of glasses. When you put the glasses
on it changes your view of the world. Ask students to think of the things that might
influence a person’s ideology (political views): community, parents, friends, books,
newspapers, radio, television, the music they listen to, etc.
5. Have students read pages 128 and 129. Note that the 5 major and 2 minor political
parties have changed since the textbook was published. And the parties are
different at the federal and provincial levels.
6. What is an independent? Why is it difficult for an independent to win a seat? Tell
them someone can still get elected without a political party but it’s more difficult
because they don’t have the same amount of money to spend in an election
campaign or the organization of a political party to help them.
7. Read Infosource 4-13 on page 127 together and tell students that there is a close
connection between a party’s platform, its ideology and where the party stands on
the Political Spectrum.
8. Give out Take a Stand and have students complete it. Make sure they work alone
as it’s their personal ideology we want, not others’.
9. Add up agrees and disagrees. 7-10 agrees = right wing. 7-10 disagrees = left wing.
Rest is centre.
10. Create a political spectrum line on the board and have students come up and make
a mark on the line where their score places them as they complete the handout.
Indicate with only a mark, no name, to get a sense of where the class stands.
11. Fill in names of political parties and where they stand on the spectrum: Liberals
are now centre, NDP is left of centre, Conservatives are right of centre.
12. Hand out Political Spectrum and go over main differences again.
13. Assign homework. This could include reinforcement of information in the political
spectrum by having the students complete the online self-identifying survey at
polticalcompass.org
14.
Homework:
Note to teacher: you could give half the class federal, half provincial. Then you could
divide them into major areas to look at, such as environment, health, education
(provincial), etc.
1. Search the newspaper or the websites of each political party (either federal or
provincial) and find the following:
- The name of the party leader
- One main idea from their party platform on ____________
Federal:
Liberal (www.liberal.ca ) – under “vision”
Conservative (www.conservative.ca ) – under “policy” then scroll down to “platform
2006”
Bloc Quebecois (www.blocquebecois.org ) – click English at the top, and then look
under “platforms - summary of the electoral platform, 2006”.
New Democratic Party (www.ndp.ca ) – under “issues”
Provincial:
Liberal (www.ontarioliberal.ca ) – click on English, and then “our agenda” and scroll
down to “our platform”
Progressive Conservative (www.ontariopc.com ) – under “our policies”
New Democratic Party (www.ontariondp.ca ) – under “campaigns”
Day 2 Materials:
My Political Party Activity
Day 2 Lesson:
1. Take up homework to emphasize that the parties are different from each other
(which gives voters a choice in an election).
2. Tell students that today they will use yesterday’s information on the political
spectrum to help them make their own political party and platform on the
environment.
3. Divide class up into small groups (about 3 or 4 people each) based on their results
on the political spectrum yesterday. For example, group together people who were
left of centre, centre, and so on.
4. Give each group a copy of My Political Party Activity.
5. Have them follow the steps on the sheet.
6. Near the end of the class, ask each group to present their party name and a few
main ideas from their platform.
Homework:
ESL Civics: My Political Party Activity
1. Determine your shared ideology first, then answer these questions.
Key Questions on the Environment:
 Should private companies be allowed to pollute as much as they want to, or
should there be limits?
 Should the gov’t pay to clean up dirty areas (lakes, rivers, old factory sites,
toxic land, etc.), or should they leave it to someone else?
 Should the gov’t inspect polluting factories, or should they trust companies
to “police” themselves? How many inspectors? How often?
 Should the gov’t test water, or should this be done by private companies?
 Should gov’t do research to encourage alternative fuel sources that don’t
pollute the environment? Or, should private companies do this?
 Should the government encourage use of public transportation (TTC)?
 Should the province continue vehicle emissions testing or not?
 How much money should gov’t spend on environment (compared to other
issues such as education, health care)?
 Should the government encourage the use of nuclear power?
 Should the government shut down coal-fired generating stations?
Other: ???
2. The answers to these questions should help your group come up with a
party platform on the environment.
3. Give your political party a name.
4. Be ready to present your party name and party platform (just a few ideas,
not the whole thing) on the environment near the end of the class.