Ranking the logos of every Canadian political party

There’s a lot in a political party logo. Lots of them are terrible of course, but usually there’s a lot of research and expense involved in summing up a party’s philosophy, history and desired public image in a mark that will have to last years if not decades.

Canada is a particularly strong source of examples for an article like this, because each of its provincial parties has its own logo — sometimes these are minimally changed tweaks on the national brand, but often they’re quite radically different. Starting from the bottom, let’s work up to the best of them.

NB: I haven’t done every minor sect, that would be madness. This list covers every party represented in at least one provincial or territorial legislature, plus the Federal Parliament. There are no parties represented for the Northwest Territories or Nunavut, as all their representatives are Independents.

#42 — People’s Alliance of New Brunswick

I don’t just hate this because they’re right wing populists, but because it encapsulates the “throwing everything at the wall” approach to logo design. The standard issue maple leaf is cliché, yes, but the others do it too. Outline of the province? Works better for the more geometric ones — but fine. Compass? At least make it point north. All of them at once? Hard pass.

#41 — Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba

Did someone in the local Tories forget they haven’t been the Progressive Conservatives since 2003? Not to mention the strange grey gradient over the state outline, the horrible grey shadow, the system font used for the name, and an overall package reminiscent of a minor league sports team from 1994. This gets extra bonus negative points for the fact they current run the legislature in Manitoba, so there’s clearly life out there, and someone might have pointed out they could use an update.