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.
These numbers are really encouraging. Voter participation has been a serious issue on all levels of government for a long time, and hopefully this is the beginning of a reverse in trends. Canadians need to at least pay a minimum of attention to what their leaders are doing or else they’ll just do whatever they think they can get away with.
So many Canadian leaders sneak in absurd laws and policies and Canadians just don’t notice or say anything, and I say this in regards to all parties. Not saying anything, especially during elections, is a tacit approval. Because showing disapproval is the only way to make governments know that they can’t get away with ignoring the public good in favour of personal agendas.
Fuck dude Canadians dont even know what provincial governments do. They get mad at: the carbon tax, healthcare, infrastructure, education, and housing yet at every turn that’s on the province to fund and manage. The federal government chips in to help of course but the province MANAGES it at the end of the day. And before anybody says “the carbon tax was Trudeau Though!”, I’m sorry, but the carbon tax was only a federal MINIMUM if your province didn’t have a system in place already. Or when they got rid of any other pricing system like Ontario did, Alberta did and Saskatchewan did and then got all pissy when they had to pay it and not a single fucking moron in those provinces hated on the premiers for it.
Canadians can be just as fucking dumb as Americans and it was really showing these last 5 years