OTTAWA — OTTAWA - Elections Canada says more than 68 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot in the federal election – more than 19.5 million people.
While this election was widely expected to see increased turnout, it did not surpass the record set in March 1958, when 79.4 per cent of eligible Canadians voted.
But the nearly 68.7 per cent turnout was the best since the 1993 federal election, which saw 69.6 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot.
Elections Canada says early estimates indicate 11 million people voted at their polling station or in their long-term care facility on election day.
The agency says nearly 7.3 million Canadians voted at advance polls while 1.2 million voted by special ballot.
Elections Canada does not gather demographics data so it’s not clear which groups turned out to vote, but it says postelection surveys can show which groups faced barriers to voting and what can be done to address them in future elections.
The Liberal party ended the election with 43.7 per cent of the total vote and 169 seats, while the Conservative party secured 41.3 per cent of the vote and 144 seats.
The Bloc Quebecois and the NDP both took 6.3 per cent of the vote, and will hold 22 and seven seats, respectively.
My city is a giant retirement community pretending to be a city, so naturally a Conservative always wins. Didn’t stop me from voting anyway, because fuck 'em. Hopefully things change when the retirees biff it.
It can’t all be retirees voting that way though. Our entire province, aside from Halifax (HRM) is dominated by retirees. Yet we went almost entirely liberal.
Older maritimers remember the reform party and the apparent disdain they had for us. Unfortunately when the pcs and reform merged, we got mostly reform out of the deal
Oh many in the west still think of us like the reformers did. It’s pretty easy to remember when they throw it at you on the regular to see if it sticks.