to move up and down
Gary Clement’s Week in Review for May 1 to May 7
Posting before it is entirely too late…
Analyzing turnout: The ballot box balance
After hitting historic lows in 2008, voter turnout rose to 61.4% in Monday’s election as voters in northern Canada and suburban Ontario flocked to the polls in higher numbers than before. The Post analyzes some of the more surprising results
Bin Laden’s cult of hate will live on
Robert Fulford: Even in death, Osama bin Laden provides fresh reasons why the world should continue to fear the crazed fury of radical Islamists. To admirers, his accomplishments make him a heroic, exemplary figure
Graphic: Cabinet hopefuls in the new government
With his coveted Conservative majority in hand as of Monday, one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s first orders of business will be assembling a new Cabinet. He lost four senior ministers in the election. The new regional dynamics — huge gains in Ontario, several pick-ups in Atlantic Canada, and significant losses in Quebec — will factor into Mr. Harper’s decision-making process. He will have to juggle the expectations of loyal, longtime caucus members looking for promotions with his desire to appoint rookie MPs with stellar resumés. The National Post spoke with a trio of Conservative strategists and Ottawa insiders for a hint of who might be up for which position.
Infographics: How we voted, province-by-province
Elections in modern Canadian history in which turnout was below 65% have all come during the past decade. Monday’s relatively dismal (and still unofficial) figure of 61.4% — the third-lowest ever — continued the trend. The federal election of 2011 may have been a turning point in Canadian politics, but it failed to motivate nearly two in five eligible voters.
National Post front page for May 4, 2011
The Layton Bunch
Jack had better be nimble
PM can relax at last
President, aides had a view to the kill
Conservatives set to form majority, NDP poised to form opposition
The NDP appeared certain to form the country’s official opposition for the first time in the party’s history, coming in second to the reigning Conservatives, whose long-running quest to attain a majority government got off to a strong start in Atlantic Canada and elsewhere in Monday’s federal election.
With 305 of 308 ridings reporting, the Tories were leading or had won 165 seats — well past the 154 needed for a majority — and the NDP were leading or had won 105 ridings. The Liberals were on track to be reduced to just 30 seats, and the Bloc were poised to glean just four.
Photo: Conservative party supporters cheer at the election night headquarters of Conservative leader and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Calgary, Alberta, May 2, 2011. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)
Welcome to the National Post’s election night special feature, Battlefield Canada. Starting at 10 p.m. ET, this map will be updated love as political parties clash to seize control of our key battlegrounds and Canada’s parliament.
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.
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.
Join us tonight for our LIVE #elxn41 night coverage, Battlefield Canada
Mao Tse-Tung once said, “Politics is war without bloodshed.” And while we can assume that there will be no harm done as Canadians head to the polls Monday, there will certainly be no love lost as the country’s five main political parties grapple for control of Canada in what may be the most wide-open election in recent memory.
Indeed, there will be no shortage of action Monday night once the results start pouring in, and the National Post has you covered with our special election night online feature, Battlefield Canada. Click here for details
Our complete Election 2011 coverage
Latest Election 2011 news
Full Comment on Election 2011
After kissing his wife at Niagara Falls (above), Stephen Harper talked to the Post’s John Ivison saying that “world would be astounded” if the NDP won the election. Photo by Chris Wattie/Reuters
Layton would make best PM, voters say
Poll after poll Wednesday confirmed Jack Layton’s NDP is in a solid second place, even as a new leadership survey suggests Canadians now feel he’d make the best prime minister of the pack.
The opposite of ‘stability’ is ‘NDP government’
Kelly McParland: If Jack Layton does win Monday’s vote, he’s going to have a hard time finding coalition partners
Roy Green: Liberal narcissism driving voters to NDP
Increasingly abandoned by even usually loyal Liberal voters, Ignatieff has gradually morphed from a Clint Eastwood wanna-be who challenged “if you mess with me, I will mess with you until I’m done”, to a candidate devoid of headline-snaring one liners. Best forgotten are statements like Canadians “can smell the whiff of sulphur” emanating from Stephen Harper.
Scott Stinson: Liberals, NDP maybe not so compatible
On Wednesday, Michael Ignatieff was again fending off coalition questions, but now the reporters want to know what he thinks of being the junior partner in such an arrangement. It’s a notion that Mr. Ignatieff would have been fair to equate with toads falling from the sky as recently as last weekend, but now several polls suggest he is staring such a possibility right in its ugly, pimpled kisser.
Layton would make best PM, voters say
Poll after poll Wednesday confirmed Jack Layton’s NDP is in a solid second place, even as a new leadership survey suggests Canadians now feel he’d make the best prime minister of the pack.
NDP surge means some unlikely candidates have a shot at Parliament
As long as the NDP has existed, its candidates in Quebec have run secure in the knowledge they would not be moving to Ottawa after election day. Only two New Democrats from the province have ever won office. But now, as opinion polls show the party leading in the province, its slate of 75 largely unknown faces is coming under unprecedented scrutiny, with sometimes surprising results.
NDP surge will give Harper his majority
Lorne Gunter: Unless the NDP surge continues to grow through to next Monday’s election, the biggest beneficiaries will be the Tories. Thanks to vote splitting on the left — the NDP with the Liberals in much of Canada; the NDP with the Bloc in Quebec — the Tories will win a plurality in enough close ridings to take a slim majority of seats.
NDP look a lot like Bloc in Quebec
Graeme Hamilton: A string of recent opinion polls have shown the NDP making remarkable gains in Quebec, overtaking the Bloc Québécois as the first choice of Quebec voters. Mr. Layton is far and away Quebecers’ preferred candidate for prime minister. But just in case anyone thought the projected collapse of the separatist Bloc would mean constitutional peace, Mr. Layton issued a reminder Tuesday that his party is committed to re-opening the Constitution to include Quebec.
NDP favoured by 30% of Canadians: poll
The New Democratic Party continued its strong showing in public opinion polls on Tuesday, earning the support of nearly one-third of Canadians, according to Angus Reid Public Opinion. In a poll conducted for the Toronto Star and La Presse, Angus Reid had the NDP at 30%, only five percentage points behind the governing Conservatives. The Liberals received the support of 22% of respondents.
What would an NDP government actually look like?
The New Democrats could garner as many as 100 seats and bump the party into official opposition status or possibly even into the uncharted territory of a coalition government. The National Post’s Tamsin McMahon tells you everything you need to know about a complicated issue. Today, what an empowered NDP could mean for Canada.
National Post front page for April 27, 2011
Is party over for Liberal brand?
UN readies a slap on the wrist for Syria
Kate, designer tap English maples to build ‘wow’ factor
Post PlayBook app opens new front
Road map to a potential NDP breakthrough
Just six days remain in the federal election campaign, and poll after poll shows the NDP soaring ahead of the Liberals nationally and the Bloc Quebecois in La Belle Province. Analysts say if the momentum sticks, Jack Layton’s party could add dozens of seats to the 37 it already claims in the House of Commons. Which ridings, then, are potential NDP pick-ups? To glean a picture of the cross-country landscape, the National Post’s Kathryn Blaze Carlson spoke with Ipsos Reid president Darrell Bricker, B.C.-based former NDP strategist Bill Tieleman, NDP pundit Ian Capstick, and Youri Rivest, vice-president of Quebec-based polling firm CROP.
Terence Corcoran: Just a smiling Jack-in-the-box
NDP makes ‘astonishing’ move ahead of the Liberals: poll
Fed-up voters fueling NDP rise: pollsters
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.
