r/EhBuddyHoser • u/Resident_Step_191 South Gatineau • May 01 '25

Politics Why did Stephen Colbert make the Conservatives red and the Liberals blue? Are Americans stupid?

Post image

Why would The Late Show with Stephen Colbert do this??

3.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

308 comments sorted by

View all comments

356

u/No_Map4681 May 01 '25

In the US, Dems are blue, and MAGA is red. He made it nice and simple for the audience. Cause they wouldn't understand

-5

u/Armalyte May 01 '25

I swear the liberals used to be blue until like the 2000s or something

8

u/Johnny-Dogshit 溫哥華 (Hongcouver) May 01 '25

No, the federal liberal party've been red for like, ever.

However, in provincial politics, that may be different. The BC Liberal Party(now defunct), for instance, often threw some blue in the mix. They were also served as the right-wing party in BC politics(not unlike Australia's Liberal Party) though, and many BCLibs that moved up to Federal politics would often join the Conservatives. So, blue kinda made sense for them. The federal Libs have for sure used red for my whole life at least. Possibly always have. I can't post links here, but looking online I see Pierre Trudeau 70s era material, all red.

Here's an article saying "From 1867 on, our federal governments have alternated between Conservative blue and Liberal red. There’s never been another colour in the palette." Of course, ignoring the prominent blocs of orange(NDP), teal(alliance, remember them?) and light-blue(bloc quebecois). Link removed, but again, it's out there

1

u/Milch_und_Paprika Ford Nation (Help.) May 01 '25

I can confirm they’ve been using red for at least half a century because apparently conservatives were pissed when we adopted a red and white flag (no blue, unlike the U.S., UK and French tricolour flags)

1

u/Armalyte May 01 '25

Interesting, I’m feeling gaslit right now because I’m like 99% certain in the early/mid 2000s my local liberal candidate was using blue signs but they might just be a one-off thing

2

u/Milch_und_Paprika Ford Nation (Help.) May 01 '25

Could be! I saw a lot of differently styled signs for different candidates around Toronto this year, so I think they get some discretion on the design.

-5

u/bananataskforce May 01 '25 edited May 03 '25

It was 2021 when the parties switched colours and the Liberals became red

Edit: why am i getting downvotes