In the wake of the elections, the parties have faced the task of positioning themselves in their new roles for the first half of the legislative period. In doing so, party strategists often face a whole host of often contradictory factors: what expectations do voters have of parties in the follow-up to the election? What political atmosphere will prevail in the country over the medium term? What topics will dominate the debate? With regards to what issues will electors attribute the skills and competence required to lead to their own party and party heads? What do the grass-root elements of the parties, the party wings, and mainstream supporters want?

In the phase of reorientation after an election, experts make important decisions, staking out the future political strategy of the respective parties. The following graph shows what strategy debates appear plausible and what strategic options there are. Three dimensions are visualised to this end: 1) the current party platform; 2) how a party's core supporters see the world and 3) current debates over the political direction to take.

These three dimensions are mapped onto political attitudes and values of left-to-right (on an economic scale) and libertarian-to-authoritarian (on a social scale). By the same token, the graph indicates that a free market and libertarian world view play a major role in Canada, particularly with respect to immigration and integration. Overall, then, the centre of gravity of both Canadian voters and the political party landscape is significantly further to the right and somewhat more libertarian than in Germany. The aim and objective here is to identify and underscore mutual dependencies between these three dimensions and explore the potential distortions that emanate from the tension between the basic strategic lay of the land, which has in many cases been stable for years, and the highly dynamic tactical positions of individual actors.

When one compares the three dimensions with the situation in Germany (see strategy debates in Germany), one must also keep in mind that while Canadian political parties already have significantly fewer "core" voters and, moreover, even this core exhibits greater mobility from one election to another. Major regional differences can also be identified within the individual parties. Finally, Canadian society is overall less politicised than is frequently the case in Europe.

From a social democratic perspective, it should furthermore be noted that the left-authoritarian quadrant has never had a strong following among Canadian voters, as there has never been any significant communist movement, nor highly ideological trade unions. Thus, over the course of time, the main polarisation has taken place between the Conservatives and the other four parties (which mostly overlap in various grey zones of the libertarian area).

Another factor that is to be considered is the political situation in Canada's big neighbour, the USA, particularly following the election of Donald Trump as new US President. It can be assumed that the NDP will position itself as a sharp critic of Trump, whereas the Liberals must act more along realpolitik lines. They will attempt to reach an accommodation with Trump. Less clear is the situation within the Conservatives, who are torn between a more moderate and a pro-Trump camp. It remains to be seen how this political sea change will impact the strategy debate among Canadian parties in concrete terms, but it will constitute an important factor in coming years.

In the following, the strategic situations of the five political parties in the Canadian Parliament are analysed individually and illustrated by graphs.