Canadian Election Results
I have found myself obsessed with the Canadian election results, particularly in respect to how the Green Party of Canada did. I can’t help asking the question – if the United States had a Parliamentary form of government, and if there were five political parties treated equally in the United States (rather than two privileged parties), would the results in the United States resemble the results in Canada? Or do US and Canadian Green Party results actually coincide more than we think?
As of this writing (10:16 CST) with around two-thirds of the polls counted, the Green Party of Canada is showing 6.6% of the vote, 532,068 votes, with no seats won. The Conservatives lead with 37.3%, The Liberals are at 27.4%, New Democats at 18.4%, Block Quebequois at 9.1%.
Elizabeth May, who probably had the best shot at winning her riding of the Greens running across Canada, took 32.2%, second to Conservative Peter MacKay’s 46.6%, the New Democrats at 19.6%, the Christian Heritage Party at 1.1%, and the Canadian Action Party at 0.5%.
I’ll update this post over the next 24 hours, but please feel free to contribute in the comments in the mean time!
UPDATE: COMPARISON WITH US RETURNS
The Green Party of Canada finished with 6.8% of the vote, with over 940,000 votes.
Lets compare that to the United States. In 2006, U.S. Greens ran candidates for Governor in 18 states, taking in 900,361 votes for 2.1%. The high was 10.36%, the low was 0.15%. Taking all Gubernatorial elections in the U.S. combined since 1990, the Green Party averages 1.98%.
In 2006, 14 Greens ran for U.S. Senate in 14, states, taking in 394,388 votes, for 1.09% of the total. The high was 14.30%, the low was 0.14%. Taking all Senate races combined since 1992, the Green Party averages 1.37%.
I would LOVE to look at U.S. House races historically that Greens have run, but there are too many for me to crunch quickly, but what I take from this generally is that in the United States, Greens range from 0-15% support depending on region and candidate, and there is a baseline two percent support for Green Party candidates in high profile races. I emphasize “High Profile” because we have also seen that “down ballot” support for Green Party candidates is much higher than at the top of the ballot.
UPDATE II – REGIONAL RETURNS
It is interesting to see the distribution of Green Party support across Canada. From East to West:
- Newfoundland & Labrador: 1.7%
- Nova Scotia: 8.0%
- Prince Edward Island: 4.7%
- New Brunswick: 6.2%
- Quebec: 3.5%
- Ontario: 8.0%
- Manitoba: 6.8%
- Nunavut: 8.4%
- Saskatchewan: 5.6%
- Alberta: 8.8%
- Northwest Territories: 5.5%
- British Columbia: 9.4%
- Yukon: 13.0%
Go Yukon! It should also be noted that in the Yukon Territory, The Green Party came in third place, with the NDP finishing with 9%.
I think it’s unfortunate that Elizabeth May chose to run against Peter MacKay, who is the current defense minister and quite possibly the next leader of the Conservative party. I feel it was a big mistake on her part and one that will surely have an impact on the future of her party.
Those rat bastards are that much closer to a majority government. I pray to, well, whatever the hell is out there that we the people (of Canada) get it right next time……….
………….If there is a next time!
Good morning. I think the Green Party can be very proud of the inroads it made in Canada. Although I havent checked the final numbers, it appeared that out of 13 million people who voted, 1 million voted Green. Because of our antiquated electing system, the Greens have zero seats. Im betting the BQ received about 10% of the popular vote and ended up with about 50 seats..hardly fair. Canada needs (as does the USA) proportional representation!
Proportional Represenation? I don’t like that idea. I prefer to be able to select the particular MP I want to represent me, in a proportional representation system, I could end up with any moron the party leader wants to select for my riding. The fact that the Green’s didn’t and likely never will elect an MP is due to their lack of organization and coherent message. It seems the losers in this country always blame the system when it is them that comes up short, if it turned out the other way, Liberals and Green’s would be beating the drums, chanting victory, and their admiration of our political system. I didn’t hear them when the PC’s and Canadian Alliance had more votes than the Liberals during the late 90s.
“…lack of organization and coherent message…”
I can’t speak for organization, but it seems to me that the Green Party is the ONLY one with a coherent message!
I have no idea why so many people keep thinking that our current system is better “because we have a local person representing us”. That might apply in the ‘big city’ but it certainly doesn’t apply to rural areas, unless you happen to live in the one town where the MP comes from. Not only that, they even trade ridings around if it suits them.
Sadly, it makes no difference how we feel about it, since the current system favours the parties ‘on top’ and it will continue that way till we all die horrible deaths from their short sighted thinking. We are basically human lemmings, heading for the bluffs and there’s not much we can do so slow down the pace, even though we keep trying, or at least redirect the hoards away from the danger as much as possible.
The reality of the situation in Canada is that even our “Conservative” party is more leftist than the Democrats in the U.S. Looking from the outside in, one might be concerned with the number of seats the Conservatives have, but they are balanced well in a minority government, especially in a House of Commons that has space for almost 40 NDP socialists…. ;)
Most people realize that it was due to the Green Party that other political parties had to recognize and include in their manifesto the issues of environmental protection, which is an indirect achievement indeed and the moral victory of Green Party. The political victory will soon follow if the green party leadership continues to reflect intellectually and seriously on other national issues as voiced during this election which was nothing short of a remarkable performance. Environmental protection alone is the broad spectrum protection of humanity the Canada is known for.
I think one of the problems the greens had was that they are still thought of as a one platform party. That their only platform is environmental. However, a very little bit of research shows that they have a brilliant anti-poverty plan, they have a solid health promotion platform, economy, etc. It’s a shame that people can’t see beyond the word “green”.
I think that Elizabeth May & the greens made great inroads this election. I’m particularly pleased about this because Canada has been turning into a two party country. Liberals and Conservatives with the other parties being incidental.
It is true – the Greens have wonderful plans for so much… but they will never be taken seriously in this country. Sad, but the title “Green” is not a good one to so many people. Elizabeth May has so much to say and no one will listen. They might as well call themselves “The Treehuggers” – even though it still kills me that people use that as a negitive lable – they would be taken just as seriously by the masses. I only wish there was a way to get people to listen to what they have to say! I do feel that Elizabeth May did a WONDERFUL job at the federal debate… but I am wondering how many people even watched it.
One last comment – Proportional Representation is the only way our system can truely work. A vote for your MP and a vote for the party you want in control would be the best system! Maybe, just maybe Elizabeth May could get in power that way. I hate to say it, but there are a lot of Green Party reps running, that have no experience with politics, speaking or even business… it makes it hard even for a true Green supporter to vote for them… I still do, but I do not always feel that they are the best choice in my riding.
It seems like the race against MacKay might have been Canda’s Sheehan vs. Pelosi. I hope that our version turns out better…
Sorry greens, but Layton’s exlusivism aside I’m quite happy the NDP did pretty well. It’s the only silver lining I can find in this dismal election of possibly 4 more years of Harper. Blah.
The Canadian Greens not only increased their vote substantially, but their positive, issued-focused campaign forced other parties to steal their issues or become irrelevant. It’s nice that Canadian voters seem to understand the power of voting for the candidate you agree with, and the very real effect it has on government policy.
It’s too bad that Elizabeth May didn’t become an MP this time around (instant runoff voting might have produced a different result, since I doubt many of the NDP voters in her riding would have gone Conservative #2). I think that by any objective standard, this is an impressive performance for a young party and bodes well for the future. New parties take a little longer to catch on – don’t forget that Abe Lincoln lost a whole bunch of races before he bagged the big one.
Wake up … once you vote your local rep that is suppose to support you they forget about you until the next election and vote however the party tells them too.
Remember this next time you think equal representation isnt the way to go ..
% of vote seats won
—————————————
NDP 18.1 37
Bloc 9.1 50
Green 6.8 0
I am not a supporter of the Green party but I now they deserve almost as much of a voice in parliment as the Bloc… more actually. The Bloc has no idea what Canada is about. They run in 1 province
Firstly frog, let me say that imitation in the sincerest form of flattery….
Secondly, as a Green Party that has successfuly reformed the New Zealand electoral system and then gone on to win seats in parliament, all I can say is “Keep It Up”. Your perseverance will pay off in the long run. It has here and it will there as well. With your results we would have ended up with 7 or 8 MPs here. As our elections are on November 8th, keep your fingers crossed that we score 10% or better of the popular vote.
FROG BLOG! FROG BLOG!
I love you New Zealand Greens! You guys rock, and we’ll try to cover your Nov. 8 elections down there. I also love your ex-pats that move to Wisconsin, I had one call me up last week to see if we had more candidates he should vote for besides Cynthia McKinney. (Unfortunately not…)
However you guys hog the google news feed – stop that. Maybe we can share a little?
As for the “frog” – I asked my friend to make us a sweet banner that said “Green Party Watch”, and maybe use a little cartoonish turtle or frog or something… This is what we got!
But I still bestow the utmost flattery upon you and your blog, and I would love to have you cross-post here now and then.
~the Management