Liberal means something different in Canada than it does in the u.s.
Here in Canada it’s pretty much in the center of the political spectrum.
In the u.s. it’s almost a dirty word. An attitude hangover from the McCarthy period. The way people respond to the liberal label, you’d think it was interchangable with the communist label.
United States is much too concerned about labels. As we all have seen, the definition of Republican has shifted much farther to the right than ever before in history, and seems destined to become synonimous with evangelical.
What all successfull western democracies have achieved in the post WWII era is a fine balance between capitalism and socialism. Not one or the other. A marriage of the two, whereby individuals are free to persue their dreams and goals, and yet society still performs its reponsibility to care for the weaker with social safety nets. It functions very well. Nothing is perfect, but to go to either end of the extreme, left or right, is a mistake to be avoided.