to move up and down
Voices from the backbench: Some MP opinions that their political parties don’t want you to know
With some Conservative backbenchers expressing concern that their opinions on abortion and other issues are being muzzled by the Prime Minister, the National Postp‘s Steve Murray looks at some other opinions MPs might have that go against their party lines
Infographic: How Canada voted
Canadians elected a historic government to office on Monday, handing the Conservatives their long-coveted majority and promoting the NDP to Official Opposition status for the first time ever.
Elizabeth May becomes Canada’s first elected Green MP
Green Party leader Elizabeth May has been elected as Canada’s first Green MP. Just after 9 pm, Conservative incumbent Gary Lunn called Ms. May to congratulate her on her victory. It’s a landmark moment for the 27-year-old party, who since 1984 has run 9 unsuccessful federal elections.
“I will never shrink from bringing truth to power nor will I embrace the politics of spin,” she told supporters in her acceptance speech.
“What we do now is what will prove the virtues and the benefits of what we’ve done,” said Ms. May. “So far our work in just beginning.” (Photo: Lyle Staddord/Times Colonist)
Election 2011 will be one for the books
One seasoned pollster deemed it the “Seinfeld election” — the election about nothing. But the election about nothing soon became a historic competition with an unprecedented narrative, driven by a cast of characters who were themselves scrambling to understand the suddenly wily electoral landscape.
Live Now: Election 2011 pre-game show
Join the National Post team for our live coverage as results come in for the 2011 Federal Election. Until 10:00 p.m. ET we’ll preview the key ridings and candidates you’ll want to watch. Polls close across the country at 10:00 p.m. ET and we’ll have all the breaking results and instant analysis.
Conservative leader Stephen Harper, NDP Leader Jack Layton, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May cast their ballots for the Canadian Federal Election (Postmedia News/Pool)
Live Now: Election 2011 pre-game show
Join the National Post team for our live coverage as results come in for the 2011 Federal Election. Until 10:00 p.m. ET we’ll preview the key ridings and candidates you’ll want to watch. Polls close across the country at 10:00 p.m. ET and we’ll have all the breaking results and instant analysis.
Follow the leaders: Day 32
How do you stem a surging NDP with less than a week before Canadians head to the polls? If you’re Conservative Stephen Harper, you take on Jack Layton head-on. Both party leaders are travelling to Quebec today to shore up support in a province that is shaping up to be this election’s kingmaker.
Political Donations: How parties pay the rent
Where there’s politics, money is never far behind. In the lead-up to the spring election, federal parties have been busy beefing up their war chests — raising a collective $33-million in the past year alone.
Here, the Post‘s Tamsin McMahon analyzes more than 560,000 individual donations of more than $200 given to all parties between 2007 and 2010 to discover where the money comes from and who gives the most. (Political parties are not required to identify the source of donations under $200.)
When it comes to opening their wallets to federal politicians, Quebec voters are second only to Newfoundlanders for donating the least.
Newfoundland’s low donations are explained through the province’s historically low voter turnout and poverty, which has kept voters both from getting excited about federal elections and writing cheques to parties. It is a different story in Quebec, where the voters gave a mere $1.73 per person on average even as wealthy ridings such as Montreal’s Westmount Ville-Marie made up some of the country’s most generous donors.
Follow the leaders: Day 25 on the trail
Now in their fourth week of riding four wheelers, playing with power tools, eating sandwiches…oh, and meeting constituents and making policy announcements, the federal party leaders are still keeping busy on the trail. On Tuesday, the three major parties are hoping to ratchet up support mostly in Ontario, but will also make appearances in next-door provinces Manitoba and Quebec.
Tories hit home stretch with 12-point lead over Liberals: poll
The Conservatives are hitting the home stretch with a 12-point lead over the Liberals, while the NDP enjoys a swell of national support, a new Ekos-iPolitics poll shows. Pollster Frank Graves said the NDP is the only party that has improved its prospects during the campaign. The survey of 2,400 Canadians finds 37.4% would vote Conservative, 24.9% Liberal, and 20% NDP if an election were held today. Another 8.4% plan to vote for the Green Party and 7.8 % for the Bloc Quebecois.
Chris Selley: Jack Layton + nationalist agenda = NDP surge
This year’s Angus Reid poll, released Monday, was conducted within days of the leaders’ debates, where Mr. Layton landed some pretty good shots on his competition. Stephen Harper was mostly running defence, Mr. Ignatieff ran hot and cold, and Mr. Layton had the advantage of being neither leader’s primary target. It’s also true that the New Democrats are increasingly relevant in Quebec. Both the Angus Reid poll and a Nanos Research poll released Monday have the NDP at roughly double their popular vote haul in 2008, which was 12%. If the nationwide NDP surge is real, it’s safe to assume that’s a huge part of what’s driving it.
Report on G8 spending won’t be released, Auditor General says
The Conservatives defended themselves against allegations an Auditor General investigation had found the government misinformed Parliament on nearly $50-million in funding for projects related to last year’s G8 summit in a Tory Cabinet minister’s Ontario riding.
37 Days: Knockout punches no longer part of debates
Short of Michael Ignatieff acknowledging that he really is Just Visiting, or Stephen Harper producing a black book titled ‘Hidden Agenda’ from his blazer pocket, it will be impossible to state that a decisive blow was struck
Killing vote subsidy could alter electoral landscape: analysts
Behind the principled rhetoric surrounding the debate over $2-a-vote public subsidies for political parties are the parties’ competing self-interests, each with implications for the Canadian electoral landscape
Ignatieff’s time outside of Canada is still a problem for voters
Chris Selley: Every time there’s a citizenship-related debate in this country, Canadians reliably prove that the Liberals’ expansive, hooray-for-everyone vision of Canadian-ness is far from a consensus
Follow the leaders: Day 17 on the campaign trail
The leaders will grind their cross-country tours to a near halt on Monday, gearing up instead for Tuesday evening’s much-anticipated English debate.
Save for Green Party leader Elizabeth May, who is releasing her camp’s platform in Vancouver today, and who has been excluded from the debates, the major leaders have a relatively light schedule for Day 17 of the election campaign — at least in terms of public events.
Follow the Leaders: Day 13 on the trail
It’s the 13th day on the trail and the federal leaders haven’t lost any steam just yet (And look! More campaign stop overlaps from Ignatieff and Harper). Here’s where you’ll find them.
GeoPollster Canada
Part real-world election game, part mobile polling experiment. Sign in with your Foursquare account below, choose the political party you support and start checking in to help it seize control of venues, cities, provinces and perhaps even the country as a whole.
Geopollster Canada
Welcome to GeoPollster Canada: Part real-world election game, part mobile polling experiment. Sign in with your Foursquare account below, choose the political party you support and start checking in to help it seize control of venues, cities, provinces and perhaps even the country as a whole.
Election 2011: Help your favourite party seize control with GeoPollster and Foursquare
If the election took place tomorrow, who would you vote for? It’s the go-to question for pollsters come campaign time. But with most traditional polls conducted by cold-calling random Canadians on landline telephones, it’s also a question that only a very few of us will ever get a chance to answer. It got us at the National Post thinking: What would polling data look like if anyone with a smartphone could answer that same question, anytime they wanted?
Court dashes Green Party’s debate hopes
A federal appeal court judge has dismissed the Green party’s attempts to quickly hear legal arguments over the party’s participation in the televised leaders debate, meaning Green leader Elizabeth May is unlikely to be able to participate next week.
Green Party snubs fringe debate
Green Party leader Elizabeth May has been invited to a party leaders’ debate but likely won’t attend — a coalition of small or fringe political parties are hosting their own public forum this month. “We are not one of the small, fringe parties. They got about 1% of the vote all combined. We do not group ourselves in with them,” said Kieran Green, a Green Party spokesman.
Graphic: The Leader Locator for the first week of the campaign
Where have the party leaders been this week? (HINT: They sure like Toronto!)
Election 2011 Scorecard: Week 1 of campaign goes to Harper
Hobbled Layton squeezed out
