Hi all, I am in a first year university political science class and I have a paper due in the upcoming days. My topic may be difficult to answer for those not living in Canada(Or even British Columbia) as it relates to a controversial politician in British Columbia. My topic is: Is Christy Clark a ‘liberal’? Define liberalism and provide some specific examples of policies of the Clark government that both embrace and contradict this definition. On balance, does the Premier fit your definition of ‘liberal’?

So I was wondering how to go about writing this paper.. I was thinking that I could write two body paragraphs about her policies that are/are not liberal, but I don't know if there would be anything else to write about. Also regarding my thesis, should I argue a definite yes or no on whether Christy Clark is or is not a a liberal? At the moment I have: "Christy Clark, the Premier of British Columbia, through her liberal and non-liberal policies does not fit the definition of a liberal." this doesn't make much sense to me as the whole point of my paper is to say whether she is or is not a liberal, while talking about both her liberal and non liberal policies in my body.

I would just like to hear some input/thoughts, thanks!

I would first figure out how you want to define "liberal". To me, the classic definitions seem to fit better with "libertarian" today. Given that Canada has multiple liberal parties, people in your country probably have conflicting definitions on what a liberal really is. So, you have the freedom to decide for yourself.

Also, the objective of your paper is really to learn about a politician and use that knowledge to make a statement about their politics and support it. The actual definition and argument that you chose won't matter too much. The only wrong answer is one that doesn't have any evidence or is full of misinterpretation.

From what I saw with a quick search, Clark has a lot of opposition because her actions don't match her words (I'll resist calling that a liberal attribute). I will, however, correlate huge debt increases such as that occurring in her province to likely liberal policy-making.