Voter turnout lowest in elections since Confederation (Canada)

[TrogL]

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/06/29/canada/turnout040629

Fewer Canadians voted in the 2004 election than in any national election since Confederation in 1867, according to preliminary reports.

At 60.5 per cent, turnout was down from 2000, when it hit the previous low of 61.2 per cent.

I think many voters stayed home in protest. They had nobody they felt comfortable voting for.

I thing the voting went something like this.

• Freepers and die-hard "Conservatives" who weren't paying attention to the party switch - New Conservative
  
• Liberals, liberals (not necessarily the same thing) and old-school conservatives (eg. Joe Clark) - Liberals
  
• Pissed-off Liberals - NDP or BC
  
• Pissed-off NDPers - Green
  

[Bill McBlueState]

1. 60.5

pffttt... if only we could get that around here.

[Wonk]

2. Lowest ever, and it's still ~10% higher than US turnout in 2000 and ~20%

higher than in the 2002 mid-terms, which had about 51% and 40% turnout respectively (iirc).

[POed_Ex_Repub]

5. Ours will be higher than normal this November

I think there's lots of people interested in "regime change". :-)

[daleo]

3. They said the last turnout was very low

Then just a week or so ago, discovered that they had miscalculated and it was actually significantly higher. So, I will take these claims with a grain of salt from here on in.

On edit: a little more on this

***Note that the official voter turnout figure in 2000 is 61.2%, but that Elections Canada later realized that this was based on a voters' list that was artificially inflated by almost a million duplicate names. The actual turnout figure is now estimated to be about 64.1%. See the CBC News article about this updated information.

http://www.sfu.ca/~aheard/elections/2000-results.html

http://www.cbc.ca/story/election/national/2004/06/25/elxn2_kingsley040625.html

[Frederic Bastiat]

4. It was a negative campign all around

I guess people were just turned off.

[Debi]

6. Maybe 40% of them ate their ballots....n/t

[gula]

8. LOL

[gula]

7. This is shameful..

It never ceases to amaze me how many people will not take any of their responsibilities as citizens seriously.

[wyethwire]

9. Did fear of a Tory victory ...

... Prompt defections to Bloc Quebecois? So they could take Quebec out of a conservative, Western-Province dominated government?

Most of the Lib losses came out of Quebec. If their win had seemed inevitable it might of stemmed losses in Quebec. A self-fulfilling prophecy, if you will.

[Minstrel Boy]

10. No.

Quebec politics follows its own star, and had little to do with Harper.

The BQ surged thanks to Martin's fumbling of a Liberal money scandal in Quebec.

[freeforall]

11. This makes me peeved off!

All these non-voters are the first to complain about the government, but they won't get off of their lazy asses and vote.

And I don't agree that there are only poor choices. In Canada?

Let's see, last night's list of contenders included:

• Liberal Party
  
• Conservative Party
  
• NDP
  
• Green Party
  
• Marijuana Party
  
• Marxist Party
  
• Communist Party
  
• Bloc Quebecois
  
• Canadian Action Party
  
• Marxist-Leninist Party
  
• Christian Heritage Party
  
• Progressive Canadian Party
  
• Libertarian Party of Canada
  
• Various Independents

With all this variety, there is simply no excuse for not voting.

freeforall quotation: "You won't change anything by sitting on your ass!"

My 27 cents (25 cents + GST!)