>You're right. In my mind I always vote for a party, never for a candidate. That's why I wasn't clear enough. (I might precise that in the last years I usually vote against a party than for a party, given the poor choices that we have these days)
>
>The Independants are generaly deputies who resigned from their original party. There're exception of course (like André Arthur who is an exception by himself...)
>
>>No, in a federal election you may only vote for a candidate in your riding. That candidate may or may not belong to a federal party. For example, Quebec's own Andre Arthur is an Independent. Another recent one was the late Chuck Cadman, who arguably changed the course of Canadian federal politics.

It's really unfortunate that many people feel they have to vote for a party rather than a candidate. The case of Chuck Cadman in the 2004 federal election was heart-warming for those who like to see democracy in action.

Cadman used to be a Conservative, and intended to run again as a Conservative in the 2004 election. His riding, Surrey North here in BC, has a large South Asian population. Just before the deadline for signing up new party members expired, Jasbir Singh Cheema indicated that he had signed up a large number of new Conservative party supporters (so-called "instant members"). With no time left to increase his own count of signed-up party members, Cadman was defeated for the riding nomination.

Despite being diagnosed with malignant melanoma (which eventually killed him), Cadman ran as an Independent and easily won re-election, receiving more than 3 times Cheema's votes and nearly twice that of his nearest challenger. The Conservatives immediately asked him to re-join the party but to his great credit, he refused.

A man of principle, whether you agreed with his politics or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Cadman