2021 Canadian federal election
Canada federal elections conducted using First past the post see many candidates win with just a minority of the vote in their districts, but in other districts, the candidate wins with a vast majority of the vote.
My first thought was that that was due to the opposing voters staying home as they considered their cause to be a lost cause so gave up.
But this case does not seem to be the case, at least in Alberta where the largest group of these "super-majority" winners are elected.
Instead we see that the opposing vote is growing as opposing voters hope against hope that finally their vote will mean something.
So this is cause for celebration - at least as far as it shows the hope that springs eternal in the human breast. I just hope that some day that hope will be rewarded that each party will get its fair share of the seats.
2019 Canadian election
The highest portions of the vote won by the successful candidate
(must receive at least 66 percent of valid votes to be on this list)
NFLD none
NS none
NB none
PEI none
Quebec
Saint Leonard Liberal 69 percent
Ontario
Scarborough North Liberal 67 percent
Manitoba none
Saskatchewan
Cypress Hills Conservative 72 percent
Souris Moose Mountain Conservative 76 percent
Battlefords... Conservative 69 percent
Carleton Trail ... Conservative 69 percent
Alberta
Battle River ...
Conservative 71 percent (voter turn-out 72 percent - had dropped 5 percent)
Bow River Conservative 70 percent (voter turn-out 64 percent - had dropped 7 percent)
Foothills Conservative 69 percent (voter turn-out percent - had dropped 2 percent)
Fort McMurray
Conservative 68 percent (voter turn-out percent - had dropped 9 percent)
Grande Prairie
Conservative 68 percent (voter turn-out 64 percent - had dropped 8 percent)
Lakeland Conservative 69 percent (voter turn-out 68 percent - had dropped 4 percent)
Yellowhead
Conservative 66.2 percent (voter turn-out 69 percent - had dropped 7 percent)
Interestingly, non-Conservative vote grew from 2019 to 2021 in most of the Alberta districts.
Voter turn-out was lower than it had been in 2019, but that decline was only among Conservative voters.
So despite the juggernaut-like vote dominance of these Conservative MLAs, non-Conservative actually came out in larger numbers in 2021 compared to 2019.
In Battle River, the non-Conservative vote actually doubled from 2019 to 2021.
The Conservative vote dropped by 11,000 votes from 2019 to 2021.
In 2019 Conservative Damien Kurek won with 86 percent of the vote,
in 2021 he won with 71 percent.
In Yellowhead, the non-Conservative vote increased by 5,000 voters from 2019 to 2021. The Conservative vote dropped by 12,000 votes from 2019 to 2021. In 2019 Conservative Gerald Soroka won with 82 percent of the vote, in 2021 he won with 66.2 percent. So this is cause for hope.
Despite repeated trouncing at the polls and a voting system that produces disproportional misrepresentation, voters of the perennially-unsuccessful parties still show up. I just hope that one day they will vote under a fair system that awards seats in due proportion to the votes cast, and does not see a party with less than two-thirds of the votes cast in rural Alberta take all the seats in rural Alberta.
===================================================
Comments