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Elections in Canada

Encyclopedia : E : EL : ELE : Elections in Canada

Elections in Canada provides information on elections and election results in Canada. The Parliament of Canada (French: Parlement du Canada) has two chambers. The House of Commons (French: Chambre des Communes) has 308 members, elected for a maximum five-year term in single-seat constituencies. The Senate (French: Sénat) has 105 appointed members.

Although four parties are currently represented in Parliament, Canada has two dominant political parties, the Conservatives and Liberals, that have governed the country since its formation in 1867.

The Prime Minister may ask the Governor General to call an election at virtually any time, although one must be called within five years of the last election under section 4 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Traditionally, governments have waited four years between elections, but under Jean Chrétien's Liberal government in the 1990s, elections were held on average every three and half years. Parties generally only wait the maximum of five years between elections if they expect to lose, and hope a postponement will allow more time for things to change in their favour.

Elections are generally held in either the fall or spring. This avoids the problems of a winter campaign, where outdoor events are harder to hold. It also avoids the problems of the summer, when many Canadians are on holiday.

Using the plurality voting system, Canadians vote for their local Member of Parliament (MP), who sits in the House of Commons. Canadians do not vote directly for the Prime Minister, nor do they vote for senators.

By-elections can be held between general elections when seats become vacant. It is at the discretion of the Prime Minister to call by-elections. The federal government can also hold nation-wide referendums on major issues. The last referendum was held in 1992 on proposed constitutional changes in the Charlottetown Accord. On occasion, one particular issue will dominate an election, and the election will in a sense be a virtual referendum. The most recent instance of this was the 1988 election, which was considered by most parties to be a referendum on free trade with the United States.

Election turn-out has been steadily falling for many decades, although turnout rose by four percent in the last election. Currently, about sixty percent of registered voters vote in federal elections, but this amounts to less than 50% of the eligble, adult population.

The most recent election was held on January 23, 2006.

Contents

Length of election campaigns

The length of election campaigns can vary, but under the Canada Elections Act the minimum length of a campaign is 36 days. There is no explicit maximum length for a campaign, although section 5 of the Charter requires that the Parliament sit at least once every twelve months, and thus a campaign would have to conclude in time for returns to be completed and parliament to be called into session within twelve months of the previous sitting. The federal election date must be set on a Monday (or Tuesday if the Monday is a statutory holiday).

The longest election campaign was the 1926 election following the King-Byng Affair which lasted 74 days. Prior to the adoption of the minimum of 36 days in law, there were six elections that lasted shorter periods of time. The last of these was the 1904 election which occurred many decades before the time limit was imposed.

The 1997, 2000 and 2004 elections were all of the minimum 36 days in length which has led to a common misconception that elections must be 36 days long. However, prior to 1997, elections averaged much longer: aside from the 47 day campaign in 1993, the shortest election period after World War II was 57 days and many were over 60 days in length.

Much speculation had surrounded how long of the campaign for the 39th federal election would be in 2006, especially as it became certain the election would be called in the weeks preceding Christmas 2005. The government of Joe Clark, which fell on December 12, 1979, recommended a campaign of 66 days for the resulting election, and nothing legal barred a similarly lengthed campaign. In the end, the 2006 election was called on November 29, 2005, for January 23, 2006 — making a 55-day long campaign.

List of elections

1867-1879

1880-1899

1900-1919

1920-1939

1940-1959

1960-1979

1980-1999

Since 2000

Latest election results

Provincial elections

The following table lists the results of the most recent provincial and territorial elections. A link to complete lists for each province and territory is below. The winning party is indicated in bold and by the coloured bar at the left of the table. The table does not show the current state of the parties within the leglislative bodies - click the name of the province / territory for the current state.

It is important to note that in some cases the provincal parties are not associated with its federal equivalent. Most notably, in British Columbia the BC Liberals are wholly emancipated from the federal Liberals and associate more strongly with the federal Conservatives while the BC NDP is affiliated with the federal NDP. Thus, names of provincial parties are sometimes misleading when associating a provincial party with a national party.

Province Date         Total Seats
Progressive Conservative Liberal New Democrat Other
British Columbia 2005-05-17     46 33   79
Alberta 2004-11-22   62 16 4 1 (Alberta Alliance) 83
Saskatchewan 2003-11-05       30 28 (Saskatchewan Party) 58
Manitoba 2003-06-03   20 2 35   57
Ontario 2003-10-02   24 72 8   103
Quebec 2003-04-14     76   45 (Parti Québécois), 4 (A.D.Q.) 125
New Brunswick 2003-06-09   28 26 1   55
Nova Scotia 2006-06-13   23 9 20   52
Prince Edward Island 2003-09-29   23 4     27
Newfoundland & Labrador 2003-10-21   34 12 2   48
Yukon 2002-11-04     1 5 12 (Yukon Party) 18

*Nunavut does not have political parties. Political parties in the Northwest Territories were disbanded in 1905.

Municipal

Senate nominee (Alberta)

See also

External links

Publications

[The Hill Times]: Canada's national newsweekly of politics and government

[The Tyee's Election Blog]: Canada's Daily Election Blog based in British Columbia

[The Tyee]: Daily Election stories from this daily independent BC-based online news source

Elections in Canada

Federal elections (Summary)
1867 | 1872 | 1874 | 1878 | 1882 | 1887 | 1891 | 1896 | 1900 | 1904 | 1908 | 1911 | 1917 | 1921 | 1925
1926 | 1930 | 1935 | 1940 | 1945 | 1949 | 1953 | 1957 | 1958 | 1962 | 1963 | 1965 | 1968 | 1972 | 1974
1979 | 1980 | 1984 | 1988 | 1993 | 1997 | 2000 | 2004 | 2006 | 40th (future)
Federal parliaments (Summary)
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | 11th | 12th | 13th | 14th | 15th
16th | 17th | 18th | 19th | 20th | 21st | 22nd | 23rd | 24th | 25th | 26th | 27th | 28th | 29th | 30th
31st | 32nd | 33rd | 34th | 35th | 36th | 37th | 38th | 39th
Federal political parties | Federal electoral districts


The most recent elections in Canada
Federal 2006 | Provinces summary
BC 2005 | Alberta 2004 | Saskatchewan 2003 | Manitoba 2003 | Ontario 2003
Quebec 2003 | New Brunswick 2003 | Nova Scotia 2006 | PEI 2003 | Nfld. & Lab. 2003
Yukon 2002 | NWT 2003 | Nunavut 2004

 

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