Jason Marsalis (March 4, 1977, New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American jazz drummer and member of the famous New Orleans Marsalis jazz musical family. He is the youngest son of Delores Ferdinand Marsalis and Ellis Marsalis, Jr. .
His brothers are Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis III (1964), Delfeayo Marsalis, and Mboya Kinyatta (1971). Branford, Wynton, and Delfeayo are also jazz musicians. Ellis is a poet, photographer, & network engineer based in Baltimore. Mboya is autistic.
Jason has not only inherited the virtuosity and compositional skills associated with the Marsalis family, but has also developed a distinctive, polyrhythmic drumming style. Though his first professional gig was with his father at the age of twelve, he studied classical percussion at Loyola University in New Orleans, and worked as a sideman with straight-ahead combos, funk fusion bands, a Brazilian percussion ensemble, and even a Celtic group. He introduced percussionist Bill Summers to trumpeter Irvin Mayfield and together they co-founded the wildly successful Los Hombres Calientes. Then, at the height of that band's popularity, Jason left to join up with acclaimed pianist Marcus Roberts. Jason Marsalis still sits in with his father on many occasions, and gigs regularly with many other musicians.

Simplified Chinese character (Simplified Chinese: 简体中文 or 简体字; Traditional Chinese: 簡體中文 or 簡體字; Pinyin: jiǎntǐzhōngwén or jiǎntǐzì) is one of two standard sets of Chinese characters of printed contemporary Chinese written language, simplified from traditional Chinese by the People's Republic of China in an attempt to promote literacy. It is used in mainland People's Republic of China, Singapore, and Malaysia. However, it is one of many simplifications made of the character set over many centuries.
Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and many overseas Chinese communities, but simplified characters are gradually gaining popularity among overseas Chinese as more mainland Chinese emigrate and travel abroad.
Simplified character forms are created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizeable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some characters were simplified by applying regular rules; for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simpler variant. Some characters were simplified irregularly, however, and some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictable from traditional characters. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are thus identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies.

Extent

Origins and history
Although most of the simplified Chinese characters in use today are the result of the works moderated by the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the 1950s and 60s, character simplification predates the PRC's formation in 1949. Cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed (they date back to as early as the Qin Dynasty (221 - 206 BC), though early attempts at simplification actually resulted in more characters being added to the lexicon).
One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lu Feikui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China. Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and therefore proposed that a reform be initiated. It was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the "writing of ox-demons and snake-gods" niúguǐ shéshén de wénzì (牛鬼蛇神的文字). Lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, "If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die." (漢字不滅，中國必亡。) Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the economic problems in China during that time
Within the PRC, further character simplification became associated with the leftists of the Cultural Revolution, culminating in a second round of character simplifications (known as erjian 二简), or "Second-round simplified characters", which were promulgated in 1977. In part due to the shock and unease felt in the wake of the Cultural Revolution and Mao's death, the second-round of simplifications was poorly received, and in 1986 the authorities retracted the second round completely. Later in the same year, the authorities promulgated a final list of simplifications, which is identical to the 1964 list except for six changes (including the restoration of three characters that had been simplified in the First Round: 叠, 覆, 像; note that the form 疊 is used instead of 叠 in regions using Traditional Chinese). Although no longer recognized officially, some second-round characters appear in informal contexts, as many people learned second-round simplified characters in school.
Simplification initiatives have been aimed at eradicating characters entirely and establishing the Hanyu Pinyin romanization as the official written system of the PRC, but the reform never gained quite as much popularity as the leftists had hoped. After the retraction of the second round of simplification, the PRC has stated that it wishes to keep Chinese orthography stable and does not appear to plan any further reforms in the future, nor restore any characters that have already been simplified.

Mainland China
Singapore underwent three successive rounds of character simplification, eventually arriving at the same set of simplified characters as Mainland China.
The first round, consisting of 498 Simplified characters from 502 Traditional characters, was promulgated by the Ministry of Education in 1969. The second round, consisting of 2287 Simplified characters, was promulgated in 1974. The second set contained 49 differences from the Mainland China system; those were removed in the final round in 1976. In 1993, Singapore adopted the six revisions made by Mainland China in 1986.
Malaysia promulgated a set of simplified characters in 1981, which were also completely identical to the simplified characters used in Mainland China.

Singapore and Malaysia
There are several methods in which characters were simplified:
Since traditional characters are sometimes merged, confusion may arise when Classical Chinese texts are printed in simplified characters. In rare instances, simplified characters actually became one or two strokes more complex than their traditional counterparts due to logical revision. An example of this is 搾 mapping to the previously existing variant form 榨. Note that the "hand" radical on the left (扌), with three strokes, is replaced with the "tree" radical (木), with four strokes.

Replacing complicated components of common characters with simpler shapes:

• 對 → 对; 觀 → 观; 風 → 风; etc.
  Changing the phonetic:
  
  
  
  • 潔 → 洁; 鄰 → 邻; 極 → 极; etc.
    Omitting entire components:
    
    
    
    • 廣 → 广; 寧 → 宁; 滅 → 灭; etc.
      Using grass script shapes:
      
      
      
      • 書 → 书; 長 → 长; 馬 → 马; etc.
        Adopting ancient forms that are simpler in form:
        
        
        
        • 涙 → 泪; 網 → 网; 傑 → 杰; etc.
          Creating new radical-radical compounds:
          
          
          
          • 體 → 体; 塵 → 尘; 竃 → 灶; etc.
            Creating new radical-phonetic compounds:
            
            
            
            • 護 → 护; 驚 → 惊; 膚 → 肤; etc.
              Merging a character into another one that sounds the same or similar:
              
              
              
              • 餘 → 余; 穀 → 谷; 後 → 后; etc.
                Merging several characters into a newly created and simpler character:
                
                
                
                • 髮 & 發 → 发; 儘 & 盡 → 尽; etc.
                  Systematically simplifying a shape, so that every character that uses it is simplified:
                  
                  
                  
                  • 門 → 门; 閉 → 闭; 問 → 问; etc (an exception to this type of simplifying is the word for "open": 開 → 开, where the door radical (門) is entirely omitted.) Method of simplification
                    Mainland China and Singapore generally use simplified characters. They appear very sparingly in printed text produced in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese communities, although they are becoming more prevalent as China opens to the world. Conversely, the mainland is seeing an increase in the use of traditional forms, where they are often used on signs and in logos.
                    
                    Distribution and use
                    The Law of the People's Republic of China on the National Common Language and Characters implies simplified Chinese as the standard script, and relegates Traditional Chinese to certain aspects and purposes such as ceremonies, cultural purposes (e.g. calligraphy), decoration, publications and books on ancient literature and poetry, and research purposes. Traditional Chinese remains ubiquitous on buildings predating communist rule, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese is also often used for commercial purposes, such as shopfront displays and advertisements, though this is officially discouraged.
                    The PRC also tends to print material intended for Taiwanese, people in Hong Kong and Macau, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, the PRC prints versions of the People's Daily in traditional characters and both the People's Daily and Xinhua websites have versions in traditional characters using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use Traditional characters on its displays and packaging to communicate with consumers (the reverse is true as well). Also, as part of the one country, two systems model, the PRC has not attempted to force Hong Kong or Macau into using simplified characters.
                    Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. Some traditional character publications other than dictionaries are published in mainland China, for domestic consumption. Moreover, it is possible for residents in Guangdong to receive Chinese language television in Cantonese from Hong Kong (though the politically sensitive issues in news and other current affairs programs may be censored). In addition, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters, thereby exposing mainlanders to the use of traditional characters.
                    
                    Mainland China
                    In Hong Kong, traditional Chinese characters are officially and customarily used, but the increasing influence of mainland China on Hong Kong has boosted the use of simplified characters.
                    With the growing influence of Mainland China, simplified Chinese characters often appear in tourist areas; however textbooks, official statements, newspapers, including the PRC-funded media, show no signs of moving to simplified Chinese characters. However simplified Chinese character version of publications are becoming popular, because these mainland editions are often cheaper.
                    It is common for Hong Kong people to learn both sets of characters. For use on computers, however, people tend to type Chinese characters using a traditional character set such as Big5, but if needed, encode it later into simplified Chinese using available conversion software. In Hong Kong, as well as elsewhere, it is common for people who use both sets to do so because it is much easier to convert from the traditional character set to the simplified character set because of the usage of the aforementioned methods 8 and 9 of simplification.
                    
                    Hong Kong
                    Simplified Chinese characters are not officially used in governmental and civil publications in Taiwan. However, it is legal to import simplified character publications and distribute them. Certain simplified characters that have long existed in informal writing for centuries also have popular usage, while those characters simplified forcefully by PRC government are much less common in daily appearance.
                    In all areas, most handwritten text will include informal character simplifications (alternative script), and some characters (such as the "Tai" in Taiwan: traditional 臺 simplified/alternative 台) have informal simplified forms that appear more commonly than the official forms, even in print. A proliferation of the Japanese hiragana character の　being used in place of the more complex 的 is common. Japanese characters and Chinese simplified characters are not acceptable to use in official documents in Taiwan.
                    
                    Taiwan
                    In general, schools in Mainland China and Singapore use simplified characters exclusively, while schools in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan use traditional characters exclusively.
                    For overseas Chinese going to "Chinese school", which character set is used depends very much on which school one attends. Not surprisingly, parents will generally enroll their children in schools that teach the script they themselves use. Descendants of Hong Kongers and people who emigrated before the simplification will therefore generally be taught traditional (and in Cantonese), whereas children whose parents are of more recent mainland origin will probably be taught simplified.
                    
                    Education
                    In December 2004, Beijing's educational authorities rejected a proposal from a Beijing CPPCC political conference member that called for elementary schools to teach traditional Chinese characters in addition to the simplified ones, but to use simplified characters exclusively. The conference member pointed out that most mainland Chinese, especially young people, have difficulties with traditional Chinese characters; this is especially important in dealing with non-mainland communities such as Taiwan and Hong Kong. The educational authorities did not approve the recommendation, saying that it did not fit in with the "requirements as set out by the law" and it could potentially complicate the curricula. [2]
                    
                    Mainland China
                    Since the 1990s, students in Hong Kong have commonly adopted a hybrid written form, comprising some simplified characters, along with traditional Chinese characters to speed up writing in public examinations. These simplified Chinese characters are considered acceptable by examination administrators.
                    
                    Hong Kong
                    Most universities on the west coast of the United States teach the traditional character set, most likely due to the large population of Chinese Americans who continue to use the traditional forms. The largest Mandarin Chinese program in North America, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, switched to simplified characters at least a decade ago, although the majority of the surrounding Chinese Canadian population, who are non-Mandarin speaking, at that time were users of traditional characters. In places where a particular set is not locally entrenched, e.g., Europe and some of the east coast and midwest of the United States, instruction is in or is swinging towards simplified, as the economic importance of mainland China increases, and also because of the availability of inexpensive decent quality textbooks printed in mainland China. Teachers of international students often recommend learning both systems.
                    
                    Chinese as a foreign language
                    The traditional versus simplified characters (繁簡之爭, more recently: 正簡之爭) debate has existed for a long time among users of Chinese. The debate has stirred up heated responses from supporters of both sides as it has implications of political ideology and cultural identity in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It is important to note that while they reject the set of Simplified Chinese Characters created by the People's Republic of China since the 1950s, traditional characters supporters may not necessarily reject the idea of simplification. (Simplified characters here exclusively refer to those characters simplified by the People's Republic of China )
                    The effect of simplified Characters on the language remains controversial decades after their introduction:
                    
                    Debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters
                    
                    Proponents say that the Chinese writing system has been changing for millennia: it has already passed through the Oracle Script, Bronzeware Script, Seal Script and Clerical Script stages. Moreover, some simplified characters are drawn from conventional abbreviated forms that have been in use for centuries such as the use of 礼 instead of 禮 Cultural legitimacy
                    
                    Proponents feel that simplification makes the Chinese writing system easier to learn. Literacy rates since simplification have risen steadily in rural and urban areas since the simplification of the Chinese characters, though this rise in literacy may not necessarily be due to simplification alone.
                    Opponents argue that the literacy rates is determined by level of access to affordable public education, and the literacy rates of Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan compare favorably, so simplification does not display an obvious correlation with literacy rate. For example, the CIA World Factbook lists the literacy rate as of 2002 as 96.1% in Taiwan compared to 90.9% in mainland China. However, because of the huge disparity in socioeconomic condition between these areas, an analysis of the effect of one factor upon literacy rate is inherently a complex issue. Moreover, the different economic policies pursued in mainland China on the one hand, and Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau on the other, naturally has a dominating effect on both the level of education and the resources dedicated to improving literacy. On a purely theoretical level, opponents of the simplified system argue that the greater etymological coherence of the traditional set may give an advantage when learning to write. It is unclear, however, whether this would outweigh the immense typographical complexity of many traditional characters (e.g. compare jī ("chicken"), a common character, written in Traditional as 雞 (18 strokes) and in Simplified as 鸡 (7 strokes)). Disambiguation
                    
                    Proponents say that many common characters have far too many strokes in traditional form. For example, the common character 邊 (biān, meaning "side") has 18 strokes in traditional form, while its simplified form 边 has only five strokes.
                    Opponents say that the speed advantage of simplified Chinese becomes less relevant in the computer age. With modern computing, entering Chinese characters is now dependent on the convenience of input method editors or IMEs. Some IMEs use phoneme-based input, such as pinyin romanization or bopomofo. Others are grapheme-based, such as cangjie and wubi. These have mainly sidelined the speed issues in handwritten Chinese, as traditional and simplified Chinese often have the same input speed, especially with phoneme-based IMEs. Furthermore, even when it comes to handwriting, a majority of people resort to semi-cursive script to reduce strokes and save time; cursive script is also commonly seen in personal notes as shorthands, which is even more simplified than simplified characters, though in this case readers other than the writer themselves may have a hard time understanding the content. Speed of writing
                    
                    Proponents: Chinese characters are most often made up of a pronunciation-indicating part (called the phonetic) and a part that indicates the general semantic domain (called the radical). During the process of simplification, there are some attempts to bring greater coherence to the system. For example, the shape of 憂 (yōu), meaning "anxious", is not a good indicator of its pronunciation, because there are no clear radical and phonetic components. The simplified version is 忧, a straightforward combination of the "heart" radical to the left (indicating emotion) and the phonetic 尤 (yóu) to the right.
                    Opponents point out that some simplified forms undermine the phonetics of the original characters, e.g 盤 (pán, plate) has the phonetic component 般 (bān) on top, but the simplified form is 盘, whose upper part is now 舟 (zhōu). 盧 (lú, a family name) and 爐 (lú, "furnace") shares the same component 盧 in their original forms, but they were inconsistently simplified into 卢 and 炉 respectively, so that 炉 now has the less helpful 户 (hù) as its phonetic. Some characters were radically stripped of all phonetic elements. Perhaps because of its common recurrence in political vocabulary, the second character in zhǔyì, doctrine, was reduced from 義 with the phonetic element 我 (wǒ) to the unrecognizable 义. Phonetics
                    
                    Proponents say that the radical system is imperfect in the first place. For example, 笑 (smile, laugh) uses the "bamboo" radical.
                    Some argue that simplification results in a broken connection between characters, which makes it more difficult for students to expand their vocabulary in terms of perceiving both the meaning and pronunciation of a new character. For example, 鬧 (din, fuss) is now 闹, with a door radical that is not indicative of its meaning. Radicals
                    
                    Proponents claim the amount of spoken and written deviation of Classical Chinese and the modern vernacular is a greater factor, and has already brought about incompatibility with ancient texts. They also claim that the ambiguity brought about by the merger of characters is minimal.
                    Opponents: Simplified Chinese characters frequently include merged characters, which opponents view as baseless and arbitrary: 後 (hòu, "behind") and 后 (hòu, "queen") are both simplified into 后. Likewise, 隻 (zhī, a measure word) and 只 (zhǐ, "only") are merged into 只; 發 (fā, "happening") and 髮 (fà, "hair") are merged into 发; 穀 (gǔ, "crop") and 谷 (gǔ, "valley") are merged into 谷, and so on. Opponents say that such mergers make Classical Chinese texts in simplified Chinese characters difficult to understand. They discourage the proliferation of such homographs. Merger of characters
                    
                    Traditional Chinese Characters are often used as the de facto standard characters set in Chinese calligraphy in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and even in the People's Republic of China, presumably because of its aesthetic value or partly thereof . This is one of the very few exceptions that the PRC government permits the use of traditional Chinese Character in mainland China.
                    Some people feel that the simplified characters chosen by Mainland China violate the traditional aesthetics of Chinese writing. For example, the use of grass script shapes in simplified Chinese characters is viewed as being incompatible with writing in the regular script or the running script. The symmetry of the character, an age-old principle, was apparently not a criterion in its simplification: for example, 廣 became 广. Supporters of simplified Chinese characters note that character "symmetry" has never been an overriding principle when both traditional and simplified sets have characters like 弋 in 巡弋 (cruise of warships). Aesthetics
                    The sheer difficulties posed by having two concurrent writing systems, which hinders communications between Mainland China and other regions, are used by both sides of the debate to support their arguments. Translating an entire document written using simplified characters to traditional characters, or vice versa, is not a trivial task. For human translators, some simplified Chinese characters can look vastly different from their traditional counterparts to the extent that the two have no signs of simplification and instead appear completely irrelevant to each other (though many other characters are derived systematically). Others claim that it is not difficult for a person educated in one system to become familiarized with the other system quickly through exposure and experience. For computer automated translation, one simplified character may equate to many traditional characters, but not vice versa. Some knowledge of the context of the word usage is required for correct mapping; but it has been difficult for computers to work with word usage perfectly. As a result, direct computer mapping from simplified to traditional is not trivial and requires sophisticated programming. (This line of reasoning is used both by traditional Chinese advocates opposed to simplification, and simplified Chinese advocates opposed to the continued use of traditional characters.)
                    In addition to those practical considerations, many minds link simplified characters with the idea of communism and traditional characters with anticommunism or at least "non-communism". Thus the political implications and affiliations of the writing systems are seen by some as the emotional impetus for the debate. This view interprets most of the back-and-forth debate on the merits of the system, ultimately, as rationalizations.
                    Indeed, the rationale for the simplified form of some characters is hard to trace. Many members of the Committee for Language Reform were purged in the Anti-Rightist Movement or the Cultural Revolution. They had no mandate to consult the broader Chinese academic community. Their personal notes, and the discussion behind this innovation in an ancient language, are lost.
                    Another perspective on the emotional investment in the debate follows a similar issue with computer programming languages: people skilled in any particular language system derive more value from their pre-existing learning investment when more people use and produce works in the language. This provides a selfish motivation for people to encourage others to learn what they already have learned regardless of the details of the system, for the system's details are irrelevant in the face the value of compatibility. Programming language debates have argued over the use of GOTOs, the use of object orientation, and compilation versus interpretation that are sometimes seen later as having been largely pointless or overwhelmingly in favor of one side or the other (see History of programming languages). The basic message of this interpretation is that, as long as there are more than one language, languages will be fiercely promoted and debated no matter what the relative merits of their details are.
                    
                    Some teachers in areas where traditional Chinese characters are used often scold students who use simplified characters, even to the extent of calling them "uneducated". This, in addition to other matters, has enforced a prejudice held by some traditional Chinese character users that traditional Chinese is for the educated and cultured, while simplified Chinese is for the illiterate, dumb, even the barbaric. Social
                    In computer text applications, the GB encoding scheme most often renders simplified Chinese characters, while Big5 most often renders traditional characters. Although neither encoding has an explicit connection with a specific character set, the lack of a one-to-one mapping between the simplified and traditional sets established a de facto linkage.
                    Since simplified Chinese conflated many characters into one and since the initial version of the GB encoding scheme, known as GB2312-80, contained only one code point for each character, it is impossible to use GB2312 to map to the bigger set of traditional characters. It is theoretically possible to use Big5 code to map to the smaller set of simplified character glyphs, although there is little market for such a product. Newer and alternative forms of GB have support for traditional characters. In particular, mainland authorities have now established GB 18030 as the official encoding standard for use in all mainland software publications. The encoding contains all East Asian characters included in Unicode 3.0. As such, GB 18030 encoding contains both simplified and traditional characters found in Big-5 and GB, as well as all characters found in Japanese and Korean encodings.
                    Unicode deals with the issue of simplified and traditional characters as part of the project of Han unification by including code points for each. This was rendered necessary by the fact that the linkage between simplified characters and traditional characters is not one-to-one. While this means that a Unicode system can display both simplified and traditional characters, it also means that different localization files are needed for each type.
                    The Chinese characters used in modern Japanese have also undergone simplification, but generally to a lesser extent than with simplified Chinese. Reconciling these different character sets in Unicode became part of the controversial process of Han unification. Not surprisingly, some of the Chinese characters used in Japan are neither 'traditional' nor 'simplified'. In this case, these characters cannot be found in traditional/simplified Chinese dictionaries.
                    
                    Computer encoding
                    The World Wide Web Consortium recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hans as a language attribute value and Content-Language value to specify web-page content in simplified Chinese characters.
                    
                    See also
                    
                    

Christine Sutton is a physicist associated with the Particle Physics Group in the Physics Department of the University of Oxford.
Sutton is active in outreach programs for particle physics and has previously represented the United Kingdom in the European Particle Physics Outreach Group. She is by far the most prolific contributor to the 2007 Encyclopædia Britannica, with 24 articles on particle physics:
which is nine more articles as the next most prolific contributor, J. Gordon Melton (15 Micropædia articles).
She is also active in physics education and has developed several innovative programs for introducing quantum physics to schoolchildren.
Sutton is the author of three books, Spaceship Neutrino, The Particle Connection and The Particle Explosion (together with Frank Close and Michael Marten).

Argonne National Laboratory (Micropædia article)
Colliding-Beam Storage Ring (Micropædia article)
DESY (Micropædia article)
Electroweak theory (Micropædia article)
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Micropædia article)
Feynman diagram (Micropædia article)
Flavour (Micropædia article)
Gluon (Micropædia article)
Higgs particle (Micropædia article)
Linear accelerator (Micropædia article)
Particle accelerators (in part, Macropædia article)
Quantum chromodynamics (Micropædia article)
Renormalization (Micropædia article)
SLAC (Micropædia article)
Standard model (Micropædia article)
Strong nuclear force (Micropædia article)
Subatomic particles (Macropædia article)
Supergravity (Micropædia article)
Superstring theory (Micropædia article)
Supersymmetry (Micropædia article)
Tau (Micropædia article)
Unified field theory (Micropædia article)
Weak nuclear force (Micropædia article)
Z particle (Micropædia article)

Victoria (IPA: /vɪk.toʊɹ.i.ə/) is the capital city of British Columbia, the westernmost Canadian province. Located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, Victoria is a global tourism destination seeing more than 3.65 million visitors a year who inject more than one billion dollars into the local economy. Victoria is a cruise ship port where cruise liners stop at Ogden Point terminal. The city also receives economic benefits from its close proximity to Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt, the Canadian military's main Pacific naval base. Downtown Victoria also serves as Greater Victoria's regional downtown, where many night clubs, theatres, restaurants and pubs are clustered, and where much larger regional public events occur. In particular, Canada Day fireworks displays and Symphony Splash concerts draw tens of thousands of Greater Victorians and visitors to the downtown core.
The city has hosted various sports events including the 2005 Ford World Men's Curling Championship tournament, the 1994 Commonwealth Games, and 2006 Skate Canada. Victoria also co-hosted the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup at Royal Athletic Park.

Location and population
The city's chief industries are tourism, education, federal and provincial government administration and services. Other nearby employers include the Canadian Forces (the Township of Esquimalt is the home of the Pacific headquarters of the Canadian Forces Maritime Command), and the University of Victoria (located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich). Other sectors of the Greater Victoria area economy include: investment and banking, online book publishing, various public and private schools, foodstuff manufacturing, light aircraft manufacturing (Viking Air), technology products, various high tech firms in pharmaceuticals and computers, engineering, architecture and telecommunications. A large West Corporation call centre is also located in the region (Saanichton), along with call centres of other corporations. Maximus Inc. and EDS corporations operate call centres after winning contracts to administer and operate Medical Services Plan services, formerly run directly by the British Columbia provincial government. Elections BC, an independent agency of the BC Legislature, operates a temporary call centre from Victoria whenever there is a BC provincial general election or by-election.
Vancouver Island Advanced Technology Centre (VIATeC) is an umbrella organization, partnership between industry and education, promoting high tech industry development in the Victoria region. VIATeC members include Abebooks.
The May 24, 2007 edition of the Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper reported that for the first time in Victoria history, high technology has over taken tourism as the top performing economic sector in Greater Victoria. A gala awards event was staged at the Victoria Conference Centre for business executives and companies that achieved excellence in their respective fields.
The Victoria Region is experiencing a booming real estate economy. The labour shortages and high cost of housing seem to mirror the economic trends of other booming Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary.

Economy
The Port of Victoria consists of three parts, the Outer Harbour, used by deep sea vessels, the Inner and Upper Harbours, used by coastal and industrial traffic. It is protected by a breakwater with deep and wide opening. The port is a working harbour, tourist attraction and cruise destination. Esquimalt is also a well-protected harbour with large graving dock and shipbuilding and repair facilities.

Port
Prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the late 1700s, the Victoria area was home to several communities of Coast Salish peoples, including the Songhees. The Spanish and British took up the exploration of the northwest coast of North America beginning with the voyage of Captain James Cook in 1776, although the Victoria area of the Strait of Juan de Fuca was not penetrated until 1791. Spanish sailors visited Esquimalt Harbour (within the modern Capital Regional District) in 1790 and again in 1792. Erected in 1843 as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post on a site orginially called Camosun (the native word was "camosack", meaning "rush of water") and known briefly as "Fort Albert", the settlement was later christened Fort Victoria, in honour of the Queen. The opponents of amalgamation state that separate governance affords residents a greater deal of local autonomy. The proponents of amalgamation argue that it would reduce duplication of services, while allowing for more efficient use of resources and the ability to better handle broad, regional issues and long-term planning.

History
Victoria has a temperate climate that is usually classified as Marine west coast(Cfb),
Daily temperatures rise above 30°C (86°F) on an average of one or two days per year and fall below -5°C (23°F) on an average of only 2 nights per year. During the winter, the average daily high and low temperatures are 8.2°C (47°F) and 3.6°C (38°F), respectively. The summer months are equally mild, with an average high temperature of 19.6°C (67°F) and low of 11.3°C (52°F). Victoria does occasionally experience more extreme temperatures. The highest temperature ever recorded in Victoria was 36.3°C (97.3°F) on July 11, 2007, while the coldest temperature on record was -15.6°C (4°F) on December 29, 1968 and January 28, 1950. Victoria has not recorded a temperature below -10°C (14°F) since 1990.
Total annual precipitation is just 608 mm (24in) at the Gonzales weather station in Victoria, contrasted to nearby Seattle, (137 km/85 miles away to the southeast), with 970mm (38in) of rainfall, or Vancouver, 100 km away, with 1,219 mm (48 in) of rainfall. Perhaps even more dramatic is the difference in rainfalls on Vancouver Island. Port Renfrew, just 80 km from Victoria on the wet southwest coast of Vancouver Island receives 3,671 mm (145 in). Even the Victoria Airport, 25 km north of the city, receives about 45 per cent more precipitation than the city proper. One of the most striking features of Victoria's climate is the distinct dry and rainy seasons. Nearly two thirds of the annual precipitation falls during the four wettest months, November to February. Precipitation in December, the wettest month (109 mm/4 in) is nearly eight times as high as in July, the driest month (14 mm/.5 in). During the summer months, Victoria is the driest major city in Canada.
Victoria averages just 26 cm (10 in) of snow annually. Every few decades, Victoria receives very large snowfalls, including the more than 100 cm (39 in) of snow that fell in December 1996. On the other hand, roughly one third of winters will see virtually no snow, with less than 5 cm (2 in) falling during the entire season. When snow does fall, it rarely lasts long on the ground. Victoria averages just 2-3 days per year with at least 5 cm (2 in) of snow on the ground.
The rain shadow effect also means that Victoria gets more sunshine than surrounding areas. With 2,223 hours of sun annually, Victoria is one of the sunniest places in British Columbia, and gets more sunshine than most other cities in Canada except those in the southern Prairies. The benefits of Victoria's climate are evident through the city's gardens, which are more likely to display drought-tolerant oak trees, eucalyptus, arbutus, and even bananas, than they are likely to feature evergreen conifers, which are typically associated with the coastal Pacific Northwest environment.



Victoria's equable climate has also added to its reputation as the "City of Gardens". With its mild temperatures and plentiful sunshine, Victoria boasts gardens that are home to many plant species rarely found elsewhere in Canada. Several species of palms, eucalyptus, and even certain varieties of bananas can be seen growing throughout the area's gardens. The city takes pride in the many flowers that bloom during the winter and early spring, including crocuses, daffodils, early-blooming rhododendrons, cherry and plum trees. Every February there is an annual "flower count" in what for the rest of the country and most of the province is still the dead of winter.
Due to its Mediterranean-type climate, Victoria and its surrounding area (southeastern Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, and parts of the Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast) is also home to many rare, native plants found nowhere else in Canada, including Quercus garryana (Garry oak), Arctostaphylos columbiana (Hairy manzanita), and Canada's only broad leaf evergreen tree, Arbutus menziesii (Pacific madrone). Many of these endangered species exist here at the northern end of their range, and are found as far south as Central and Southern California, and even parts of Mexico.

Climate
The landscape of Victoria was molded by water in various forms. Pleistocene glaciation put the area under a thick ice cover, the weight of which depressed the land below present sea level. These glaciers also deposited stony sandy loam till. As they retreated, their melt water left thick deposits of sand and gravel. Marine clay settled on what would later become dry land. Post-glacial rebound exposed the present-day terrain to air, raising beach and mud deposits well above sea level. The resulting soils are highly variable in texture, and abrupt textural changes are common. In general, clays are most likely to be encountered in the northern part of town and in depressions. The southern part has coarse-textured subsoils and loamy topsoils. Sandy loams and loamy sands are common in the eastern part adjoining Oak Bay. Victoria's soils are relatively unleached and less acidic than soils elsewhere on the British Columbia coast. Their thick dark topsoils denoted a high level of fertility which made them valuable for farming until urbanization took over.

Physiography and soils
The following is a list of neighbourhoods in the City of Victoria, as defined by the city planning department. For a list of neighbourhoods in other area municipalities, see Greater Victoria, or the individual entries for those municipalities.
Other city districts often regarded as neighbourhoods include:

Burnside
Downtown
Fairfield
James Bay
Fernwood
Harris Green
North Jubilee
North Park
Oaklands
Rockland
South Jubilee
Victoria West
Chinatown
Rock Bay
Oak Bay Border
Uplands
Songhees
Selkirk Neighbourhoods of Victoria
Beacon Hill Park is the central city's main urban green space. Its area of 75 hectares adjacent to Victoria's southern shore includes numerous playing fields, manicured gardens, exotic species of plants and animals such as wild peacocks, a petting zoo, and views of the Straight of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic mountain range. The sport of cricket has been played in Beacon Hill Park since the mid-nineteenth century. Each summer, Beacon Hill Park plays host to several outdoor concerts, and the Luminara Community Lantern Festival.
The extensive system of parks in Victoria also includes a few areas of natural Garry oak meadow habitat, an increasingly scarce ecosystem that once dominated the region.

Parks
In the heart of downtown are the British Columbia Parliament Buildings, The Empress Hotel, the gothic Christ Church Cathedral, and the Royal British Columbia Museum, with large exhibits on local Aboriginal peoples, Natural History, Modern History, along with travelling international exhibits. In addition, the heart of downtown also has the Emily Carr House, Royal London Wax Museum, Victoria Bug Zoo, Market Square and the Pacific Undersea Gardens, which showcases marine life of British Columbia. The oldest (and most intact) Chinatown in Canada is located within downtown. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is located close to downtown in the Rockland neighbourhood several city blocks from Craigdarroch Castle built by industrialist James Dunsmuir and Government House, the official residence of the Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia.
Numerous other buildings of historic importance or interest are also located in central Victoria, including: the 1845 St. Ann's Schoolhouse; the 1852 Helmcken House built for Victoria's first doctor; the 1863 Temple Emanuel, the oldest synagogue in continuous use in Canada; the 1865 Angela College built as Victoria's first Anglican Collegiate School for Girls, now housing retired nuns of the Sisters of St. Ann; the 1871 St. Ann's Academy built as a Catholic school; the 1874 Church of Our Lord, built to house a breakaway congregation from the Anglican Christ Church cathedral; the 1890 St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church; the 1890 Metropolitan Methodist Church (now the Victoria Conservatory of Music; the 1892 St. Andrew's Cathedral; and the 1925 Crystal Gardens, originally a saltwater swimming pool, restored as a conservatory and most recently a tourist attraction called the B.C. Experience, which closed down in 2006.
CFB Esquimalt navy base, in the adjacent municipality of Esquimalt, has a base museum dedicated to naval and military history, located in the Naden part of the base.
North of the city on the Saanich Peninsula are the Butchart Gardens, one of the biggest tourist attractions on Vancouver Island, as well as the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, part of the National Research Council of Canada, Victoria Butterfly Gardens and Centre of the Universe planetarium. There are also numerous National Historic Sites in close proximity to Victoria, such as the Fisgard Lighthouse, Craigflower Manor and Schoolhouse, Hatley Castle and Hatley Park and Fort Rodd Hill, which is a coastal artillery fort built in the late 1890s, located west of the city in Colwood. Also located west of the city is Western Speedway, a 4/10th-mile oval vehicular race track and the largest in Western Canada.

Tourism and landmarks
The Victoria Symphony, led by Tania Miller, performs at the Royal Theatre and the Farquhar Auditorium of the University of Victoria from September to May. Every BC Day weekend, the Symphony mounts Symphony Splash, an outdoor event that includes a performance by the orchestra sitting on a barge in Victoria's Inner Harbour. Streets in the local area are closed, as each year approximately 40,000 people attend a variety of concerts and events throughout the day. The event culminates with the Symphony's evening concert, with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture as the grand finale, complete with cannon-fire, a pealing carillon and a fireworks display to honour BC Day. Pacific Opera Victoria and the Victoria Philharmonic Choir both stage two or three productions each year at the Macpherson or Royal Theatres.
The Theatrical Arts have had somewhat more difficulty making their mark. The Bastion Theatre, a professional dramatic company, functioned in Victoria through the 1970s and '80s and performed high quality dramatic productions calculated to appeal to a middle-brow audience but ultimately was obliged to declare bankruptcy, Victoria's transient and geriatric population with roots elsewhere in Canada not providing sufficient demand for so expensive a cultural enterprise. Other regional Theatre venues include: Phoenix Theatre student theatre at the University of Victoria.
The only Canadian Forces Primary Reserve brass/reed band on Vancouver Island is located in Victoria. The 5th (British Columbia) Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery Band traces its roots back to 1864, making it the oldest, continually-operational military band west of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Its mandate is to support the island's military community by performing at military dinners, parades and ceremonies, and other events. The band performs weekly in August at Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site where the Regiment started manning the guns of the fort in 1896, and also performs every year at the Cameron Bandshell at Beacon Hill Park.
The current major sporting and entertainment complex, for Victoria and Vancouver Island Region, is the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre arena. It replaced the former Victoria Memorial Arena, which was constructed by efforts of World War II veterans as a monument to fallen comrades. World War I, World War II, Korean War, and other conflict veterans are also commemorated. Fallen Canadian soldiers in past, present, and future wars and/or United Nations, NATO missions are noted, or will be noted by the main lobby monument at the Save On Foods Memorial Centre. The arena is the home of the ECHL (formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League) team, Victoria Salmon Kings, owned by RG Properties Limited, a real estate development firm that built the Victoria Save On Foods Memorial Centre, and Prospera Place Arena in Kelowna.
A number of well-known musicians and bands are from Victoria, including Nelly Furtado, David Foster, Bryce Soderberg, Swollen Members, Armchair Cynics, and Hot Hot Heat. From the film industry, Hollywood director Atom Egoyan was raised in Victoria.

Entertainment
The Victoria International Airport has non-stop flights to and from Toronto, Salt Lake City, Seattle and many cities throughout Western Canada. Multiple scheduled helicopter and seaplane flights are available daily from Victoria's Inner Harbour to Vancouver International Airport, Vancouver Harbour, and Seattle. The BC Ferries Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal, located 29 kilometres north of Victoria, has bi-hourly sailings to Tsawwassen (a ferry terminal south of Vancouver) and to many of the Gulf Islands. The Washington State Ferry terminal in Sidney provides ferry service to Friday Harbor, Orcas Island, and ultimately Anacortes, Washington. In Victoria's Inner Harbour, an international ferry terminal provides car ferry service to Port Angeles, Washington, high-speed catamaran service to downtown Seattle, and seasonal passenger ferries to destinations in Washington including Friday Harbor, Port Angeles, and Bellingham. Victoria also serves as the western terminus (Mile Zero) for Canada's Trans-Canada Highway, the longest national highway in the world. The Mile Zero is located in the southern part of the city at the corner of Douglas Street and Dallas Road, where there is a small monument.
Public transportation is run by the Victoria Regional Transit System, which is part of BC Transit. In 2000, they introduced the first double decker buses for public transit use in North America.

Transportation
The city of Victoria lies entirely within the Greater Victoria School District. There is one high school located within the city boundaries, Victoria High School, founded in 1876, making it the oldest High School in North America north of San Francisco and west of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Most of the elementary schools in Victoria now offer the popular French immersion programmes in addition to programs in English. The educational needs of the local francophone community are served by the recently-completed Ecole Victor Brodeur. In addition, within the city proper there are several smaller schools serving segments of the community such as the Chinese School in Chinatown, St. Andrew's Elementary School or the Anglican School adjacent to Christ Church Cathedral. Numerous other private schools are located in the municipalities adjacent to Victoria, including St. Michael's University School, Glenlyon-Norfolk House, St. Patrick's Elementary School, St. Margaret's and Pacific Christian Schools.
The Victoria area has three public post secondary educational institutions: University of Victoria (UVic), Camosun College, Royal Roads University. UVic was once rated the 2nd and 3rd best comprehensive university in all Canada by MacLean's magazine's college/university ratings issue.Notable Canadian politicians like former British Columbia cabinet minister Andrew Petter and Stockwell Day were once students of UVic. Day was the former Canadian Alliance Party leader and currently Public Security Minister in Stephen Harper's Conservative Party of Canada government. There is one international school, in Metchosin Municipality, devoted to the ideals of a united world of peaceful cooperation and coexistence, Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific. Pearson College is named after former Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and architect of the United Nations Peace Keeping program.
There are also several private vocational and English (ESL) training schools available for people who want to learn the English language or upgrade new job market skills. University Canada West is a private degree granting school headed by former UVic President David Strong.

Education
Victoria has four Sister Cities:

Suzhou, People's Republic of China
Morioka, Japan
Napier, New Zealand
Khabarovsk, Russia Sister cities

The Victoria Cougars are perhaps the most famous sports franchise the city has known, winning the Stanley Cup as members of the PCHA in 1925. They exist today in the form of a Junior 'B' team playing in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League and there was also a team called the Victoria Cougars in the WHL, but are now the Prince George Cougars. Other Victoria sport teams include:
Victoria Salmon Kings (ECHL)
Victoria Grizzlies (British Columbia Hockey League)
Victoria Shamrocks (Western Lacrosse Association)
Victoria Rebels (CJFL)
Victoria United (Pacific Coast Soccer League)
Victoria Vikes teams at the University of Victoria
Chargers sports teams of Camosun College Sports teams

Victoria Capitals (Canadian Baseball League) Defunct teams

Former NASCAR driver Rick O'Dell is from the city.
Two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash, although born in South Africa, grew up in Victoria.
MLB pitcher Rich Harden grew up in Victoria.
Former NHL stars Russ Courtnall and Geoff Courtnall are from the Victoria area.
Lacrosse players Gary Gait and Paul Gait were born and raised in Victoria.
Former field hockey international Deb Whitten was born in Victoria.
NHLer Matt Pettinger was raised in Victoria.
Former NHLer Don Barber
Hockey Hall of Fame member Lynn Patrick Media outlets

Victoria Times-Colonist
Monday Magazine
The Martlet - UVic student newspaper
Black Press
The Nexus - Camosun College student newspaper
LookOut - CFB Esquimalt navy base newspaper Print

AM 900 - CKMO, Camosun College campus radio
AM 1070 - CFAX, news/talk AM radio

FM 88.9 - CBUX, Espace musique
FM 90.5 - CBCV, CBC Radio One
FM 91.3 - CJZN (The Zone @ 91-3), modern rock
FM 92.1 - CBU-2, CBC Radio Two
FM 98.5 - CIOC (Ocean 98.5), soft adult contemporary
FM 100.3 - CKKQ (100.3 The Q!), active rock
FM 101.9 - CFUV, University of Victoria campus radio
FM 103.1 - CHTT (Jack FM), adult hits
FM 107.3 - CHBE (Kool FM), hot adult contemporary Television

List of mayors of Victoria, British Columbia
Canadian cities
Monarchy in British Columbia
School District 61 Greater Victoria

The Christian Democrats (Kristdemokraterna) is a political party in Sweden. The party was founded in 1964 but did not enter parliament until 1985 in an electoral cooperation with the Centre Party and on their own accord in 1991. The leader since April 3, 2004 is Göran Hägglund. He succeeded Alf Svensson, who had been the party's leader since 1973. The three most important issues for the party are:

Improving the care for elderly
Freedom of choice for families with children in selecting their childcare
Decreasing regulations on companies, lowering taxes to promote growth and combat unemployment History
The party had its roots in a movement against the Swedish government's decision in 1963 to remove religious education from the elementary school syllabus. The organisation called "Christian Social Responsibility" that would later become the Christian Democratic Unity organised several marches against the decision, one of which became one of the largest in Swedish modern history. Despite the public outcry and over 2.1 million protest signatures, the decision went through. The group which had worked in the campaign felt it was a sign that Swedish politics needed a Christian Democratic Party.
It should be noted the political and social origins of the Swedish Christian Democracy clearly differs from those of the European continental Christian Democratic parties (like in Italy or West Germany). In those countries, Christian Democracy represented the mainstream of the social-conservative political forces and was closely tied to majoritarian religious practice. In, Sweden Christian Democracy surged as minority grouping amongst the center-right forces and was tied to religious minority tendencies in society (the Free Churches).

Reasons for founding the party
In the beginning 1964 Lewi Pethrus, founder of the Swedish Pentecostal movement and chief editor of the Swedish newspaper Dagen, discussed the idea of a Swedish Christian democratic party on the editorial pages of Dagen. He stated that many people had contacted him about the idea, and that the current Swedish political climate was dominated by atheist economic materialism.
Principal Algot Terel hosted a conference in February 7 the same year. The topic of the conference was "Christianity and Politics", and during the conference the idea of starting a Christian Democratic Party was discussed. A committee consisting of Lewi Pethrus and 8 other Free Church leaders was formed.
A large and widespread debate followed this decision to create a commitée. Dagen published an interview with the leader of the Norwegian Christian Democratic Party Kjell Bondevik and there were talks about creating a Christian Democratic Party in Finland as well.
On March 20, 1964 the party was founded as the Christian Democratic Unity (Kristen Demokratisk Samling). At first it was only an organisation, but at a board meeting later that year it was decided the organisation would be revamped into a party and that it would run for the national elections in Sweden. The first roughly 100 members elected Birger Ekstedt to the post of party chairman and Lewi Pethrus to the post of vice chairman.
Then began the intensive work of spreading the party all over the nation and preparing the necessary infrastructure in preparation for the elections. The party grew rapidly, by the end of the year it had 14 500 members.

The founding
The party was sometimes called the "Air and Water" party at a start because of the party's strong emphasis on environmental politics. At that time the Green Party of Sweden did not exist and thus the Christian Democratic Unity had a unique position with its environmentally friendly politics. In the Swedish national elections in 1964 the party gained 1,8%, not enough to get any seats in the riksdag, but the party already gained influence on the municipal level. In the municipal elections of 1966, the party gained 354 seats.
At this time the established major parties of Sweden began discussing new ways of prohibiting minor parties in Sweden from getting into the riksdag. In 1971 the riksdag was reformed, and with it came the D'Hondt method of voting. The threshold was set to 4%, which meant that the political breakthrough was far away for the KDS.
In 1972, the 51 year old Birger Ekstedt died only a few days after having been reelected as the party chairman. An emergency congress was called, and the relatively unknown chairman of the youth-wing of the party was elected chairman. His name was Alf Svensson, and he later became one of the most important figures in modern Swedish politics. In the national elections in 1973 the party gained the same result as the two preceding elections, 1,8%.
Before the national elections in 1976 there was a strong call for a change to a right-wing government in Sweden. The organisation "Vote right-wing" was formed to promote the change to a right-wing government. The KDS however announced they didn't want to be placed on the traditional right-wing/left-wing scale, a measurement system they felt was outdated. Therefore, the Vote right-wing organisation started a campaign of negative campaigning against the KDS with the slogan "Don't vote for KDS, don't throw away your vote" as the KDS party had not climbed the 4% threshold the last elections. The effects of a large campaign on a small and relatively new party like the KDS was disastrous, and the party only gained 1.4% of the votes in the election.
In the beginning of the 1980s, the party revamped their entire political manifesto. The party abandoned its conservative stance on abortion and instead assumed a moderate pro-choice stance and stated they wanted to work to lower the total amount of abortions in Sweden through preventive measures instead. In the 1980 Nuclear power referendums they party supported the "no" campaign, which meant a no to any further construction of new nuclear power-plants in Sweden and the phase-out of all nuclear power plants in Sweden within 10 years complete with increased investments in alternative energy.
In 1982 the Christian Democratic Women's league was founded and the party gained 1.9% of the votes, for the first getting more than 100 000 votes.

The way into the riksdag
In 1987 the party manifesto was revamped once again (although not as heavily as the last time) and the party changed its name to Christian Democratic Social Party (Kristdemokratiska Samhällspartiet). In the 1988 national elections the party grew significantly and gained 2.8% of the votes. But the Centre Party did not want any further electoral cooperation and the KDS MP had to leave the riksdag. Something had happened however. The party was now recognised as one of the major parties in Sweden, and Alf Svensson had become famous. According to many polls, he was in fact the most popular politician in the entire nation.
Several famous people joined the party and in the right-wing breakthrough national elections of 1991 the party grew explosively yet again and gained over 7% of the votes. The right-wing bloc gained a majority and the KDS formed government with the right-wing bloc. Several Christian Democrats got positions within the new government; Alf Svensson as the minister of foreign aid (and vice foreign minister), Inger Davidson as minister of civilian infrastructure and Mats Odell as minister of communications.
After the right-wing bloc lost the 1994 elections, the KDS managed to stay in the riksdag and had assumed a permanent position within Swedish national politics. In 1996 the party changed its name to the current form, Christian Democrats (Kristdemokraterna). The party believed this would help deter the belief that it was a religious party. In 1998 the party had its best elections ever, gaining over 11% of the votes, it established itself as the 4th largest party in Sweden, becoming larger than their former electoral partner the Centre Party. In the 2002 national elections the party got less votes but still held on to its position as the 4th largest party.
In 2004, the famous Alf Svensson stepped down in favor of his long designated successor Göran Hägglund.
At the end of 2005, the party had 24 202 confirmed members making it the 4th largest party in size as well. Its one of the few parties in Sweden not continuously losing a lot of members. The Christian Democrats are represented in almost every municipality and region in Sweden.

The real breakthrough
Ideologically it is a centre-right Christian Democrat party, having a big part of their voter base among those who belong to evangelical denominations, known in Sweden as free churches - Pentecostals, Methodists, Baptists, etc. These churches have many followers in Småland, which is the region where the party is strongest. Other important voter groups are senior citizens and young families. Party's political message has been called 'neo-liberalism with a human face.'[1]
The party is a member of the European People's Party (EPP).

Voter base

Christian Democratic Politicians

Party chairman
This list is not yet complete.

Vice chairman
This list is not yet complete.

Second vice chairman

Party secretary

Group leader in the riksdag

Peter Althin, MP and judicial spokesman
Jerzy Einhorn, cancer researcher and MP 1991-1994
Gert Fylking
Bror Stefenson, Chairman of the Christian Democratic Senior League
Anders Wijkman, MEP Other famous Christian democrats

Christian Democratic Youth League
Christian Democratic Student League
Christian Democratic Senior League
Christian Democratic Women's league
The foundation Civitas
Study organisation Framtidsbildarna Affiliated organisations
* - This type of election did not occur this year because of the electoral system.
** - The Christian Democrats stood on a joint list with the Centre Party, and thus no separate election results. The number supplied is the number of tickets with Christian Democratic candidates that were voted with under the common name.

Literature

Alliance for Sweden
Government of Sweden
Parliament of Sweden
Elections in Sweden
European People's Party