500,000 Ontario Voters -- Mostly Liberals -- Stayed Home: SFU Election Post-Mortem
"The 2008 election appears to have been a real success for the
Conservative Party with a gain of 19 seats from the 2006 election.
However...the number
of Canadians voting for the Conservatives...dipped slightly.
The main factor in Conservative success was the big drop in turnout
among Liberal supporters. While the Green Party managed to split the
Conservative's opposition by capturing a number of defecting Liberals
and NDPers, the Conservatives benefited even more from the hundreds of
thousands of disenchanted Liberals who simply stayed home on election
day. The Conservatives picked up 11 seats in Ontario with an impressive
gain in popular vote from 35 to 48 percent. However, the Conservatives won
hardly any more votes in Ontario compared to 2006. Their gain in vote
share came about because 500,000 Ontario voters went AWOL between the
two elections, most of them Liberal, leaving the Conservative
candidates better supported in comparison."
- Source: 2008 Canadian Election Results, Simon Fraser University
Link fixed. Sorry about that.
Posted by: Ann D | October 20, 2008 at 07:27 PM
Link doesn't work
Posted by: Neil in Calgary Southwest | October 20, 2008 at 03:33 PM
I'm from Ontario and I did vote. However, I did not feel a sense of urgency in the province, or in the country for that matter. My motivation for voting, apart from personal conviction about the process itself, came from my, also personal, and deeply felt aversion for the Neocons personified politically by Stephen Harper and his Alliance/Reform party. I did not vote on any particular issue that the progressive parties were riding hard. I think the following is a correct assessment of the dynamics of that election that kept Ontarions AWOL:
"In their public statements, the Conservatives, Greens, Liberals and New Democrats seem to agree on more than they disagree. [...] As a result, the differences between the parties come down to what priority they place on these principles and how they intend to act on them. But this is not the stuff of great debates. And that means the sharpest differences between the parties concern personality and politics rather than policy. - http://www.publiceyeonline.com/archives/003357.html#more
Posted by: Gene | October 20, 2008 at 10:45 AM
The question is : Why did half a million Liberal's stay away from the polls ?
Posted by: Wayne | October 20, 2008 at 10:17 AM