Most interesting election maps in Canadian history

[Docere]

This is a very good website tracking federal and provincial election results as far back as 1902.

https://www.election-atlas.ca

What are some of the most interesting maps? I'm going to profile a few:

Ontario, 1943: PCs 38, CCF 34, Liberals 16, LPP 2

1943-44 was when the political Left was at its peak in Canada (the CCF actually led national polls in 1943 and Tommy Douglas led the CCF to power in 1944 in Saskatchewan). The CCF in that year's election formed Official Opposition and came within 4 seats of winning power (they would drop to 8 seats in 1945, increase to 21 in 1948 but then remain relegated to the margins until 1967). They clean up in Northern Ontario and the industrial cities. They also have some decent rural support. Toronto itself is split between the PCs and CCF, while the two heavily Jewish districts elect Labour Progressives (Communists). Especially striking is the CCF wins in the then-rural areas surrounding Toronto.

Federal, 1958: PCs 208, Liberals 49, CCF 8

Diefenbaker sweeps the country. Seats that "never go Conservative", like Westmount and Davenport, did in that election. Diefenbaker turns the Prairies into a Conservative stronghold (it wasn't before then, the Tory base was in Ontario and Atlantic Canada). The Tories win every seat in Toronto. The only weak spot for the PCs is Newfoundland where they win nothing outside St. John's. The CCF win only 8 seats and after that they decide to create the NDP.

Ontario, 1990: NDP 74, Liberals 36, PCs 20

A map that couldn't be replicated today. The NDP performs well in Toronto and wins the industrial cities and in Northern Ontario. What's really strange is the rural seats they win in southern and central Ontario (Muskoka, Haliburton, Huron, Norfolk, Elgin!) The NDP benefits from smaller right-wing parties (Family Coalition, Confederation of Regions) doing well in rural ridings. The NDP doesn't do very well in what would soon become known as the 905 region, but it didn't have the influence it does now. It is now crucial to winning all provincial and federal elections (it was first noticed when the Harris Tories swept the 905 in 1995).

Federal, 1993: Liberals 177, BQ 54, Reform 52, NDP 9, PCs 2

One of the most volatile elections in any advanced democracy - and oddly enough the "natural party of government" ends up winning. The BQ ends up Official Opposition. Reform is close behind with a strong performance in the West. PCs get similar vote share to Reform but only two seats. Liberals win all but one seat in Ontario. NDP loses Official Opposition status and 5 of its 9 seats are in Saskatchewan. Their vote bleeds to the Liberals in Ontario while Reform picks up the populist mantle in BC. In my view, the strangest single riding result was the Liberals eking out a victory in a three-way race in the rural Saskatchewan riding of Souris-Moose Mountain(!), which is pretty much their weakest riding today.

British Columbia, 1996: NDP 39, Liberals 33, Reform 2, PDA 1

Lots of Glen Clark/Preston Manning voters in those days. BC Liberals won the popular vote, but the NDP won where it mattered. BC politics has long been defined by a class polarization more in line with Britain and Australia than North America. Strong showing for the NDP in the interior and north. City of Vancouver had a strong east/west split, with even very socially progressive areas of the West Side going Liberal. Under Horgan and Eby, the BC NDP has been transformed into a big-tent center-left, small-"l" liberal party more in line with the NDP in Alberta and Manitoba.

[SignalHillHiker]

For us, provincially, 2007 was the weirdest recent one. We were left with no real opposition at all. Danny was our first post-Confederation leader actually from St. John's and it showed in his attitude toward Canada, which proved very popular. His legacy will always be the Lower Churchill now, but he basically redefined our place in the federation. I still credit his administration with creating the conditions that allowed me to move home and will be forever grateful for that period.

https://i.postimg.cc/Twc6FxM1/Screenshot-20240205-060344.png

[Taeolas]

I'd say New Brunswick's more interesting one was 1987 (https://www.election-atlas.ca/nb/?e=1987&lat=46.254&lng=-63.451&z=6), the year the Liberals got all 58 seats in the province. I remember very little about that era as I was a bit too young to pay attention to it, but I remember a lot of chatter about how strange it was to have 1 party that in charge. It's rather impressive that with that much power, the McKenna Liberals didn't really blow their power either; they had solid wins in the next 2 election cycles, taking 46/58 and 48/58 seats in '91 and '95. (They finally got blown out in '99 when the Conservatives got 44/55 seats).

[Acajack]

2011 was a doozy.

[MolsonExport]

1993. The Balkanization of Canada. The year that the Tories went down to 2 seats, the Liberals nearly swept Ontario (and Atlantic Canada, save for one seat), the Refooooorrrrrrmmm party grabbed most of Alberta (and BC!!), and the Bloc took most of Quebec.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/Canada_1993_Federal_Election.svg/1200px-Canada_1993_Federal_Election.svg.png

[Docere]

^ As I said in OP, look at the result in Souris-Moose Mountain.

1993

Liberals 32.2%
Reform 30.7%
NDP 16.5%
PCs 15%

2021

Conservatives 76.4%
PPC 9.1%
NDP 7.9%
Liberals 4.2%
Maverick 2.5%

[Build.It]

Thanks for sharing. Very interesting to look at.

[Docere]

2011 was a doozy.

It was a realignment election - or looked like one - though I think 1993 was wilder. Still, it was pretty remarkable to watch the "orange wave" sweep through Quebec. Not much sign of that now (the NDP vote lines up with the QS vote).

[Docere]

More recently are elections in Alberta in 2012 and 2015. In 2012, rural southern Alberta is much more into Wildrose than northern Alberta. In 2015, NDP ends up winning in some strange places like Red Deer and Medicine Hat due to right-wing vote-splitting.

[Acajack]

It was a realignment election - or looked like one - though I think 1993 was wilder. Still, it was pretty remarkable to watch the "orange wave" sweep through Quebec. Not much sign of that now (the NDP vote lines up with the QS vote).

Yet 1993 had more lasting effects. We're basically still living with a variation of the 1993 alignment today.

[SignalHillHiker]

The weirdest federal one for me was 2011. It invigorated me politically, made me feel it was crucial, existential even, that Newfoundland and Labrador become independent. It was my Canadian equivalent of watching George W. Bush win re-election and wondering what the fuck was wrong with people. :haha:

I've calmed down a lot since 2011, though - COVID and Brexit, especially, have assuaged my sense of urgency.

https://i.postimg.cc/nzNXdSrS/Screenshot-2024-02-05-164742.png

[OttCity16]

Election Atlas is such a great resource!

Personally I find Ontario 1990, Nova Scotia 2009, and Alberta 2015 to be three examples of wild election results. In each case the NDP was swept into power seemingly out of nowhere for the first time in the provinces' history. It's worth noting the NDP was swept out of power after one term in all three cases as well.

[VANRIDERFAN]

1993 - The Liberals had no business winning 12 of 14 seats in Manitoba where the Reform/PC vote split caused the Liberals to win in areas where they outright surprised everyone especially themselves.

[Docere]

Another interesting one is the 1980 federal election, with its staggering east/west split.

Pierre Trudeau came back with a majority, with two seats in Western Canada (both in Winnipeg). In fact he actually approached Ed Broadbent about forming a coalition government. He wanted to shore up national support for his constitutional initiatives. The NDP that year had a more Western-heavy caucus than usual (all but 5 of its 32 seats were in the West). Broadbent rejected the idea though because he didn't want to betray supporters and furthermore Trudeau didn't need NDP support to stay in power.

[Docere]

1993 - The Liberals had no business winning 12 of 14 seats in Manitoba where the Reform/PC vote split caused the Liberals to win in areas where they outright surprised everyone especially themselves.

Every now and then Manitoba votes more like Ontario than a Prairie province. That happened in 1993 and that happened in 2015.

[Acajack]

1993 - The Liberals had no business winning 12 of 14 seats in Manitoba where the Reform/PC vote split caused the Liberals to win in areas where they outright surprised everyone especially themselves.

The Liberals won Souris-Moose Mountain SK with 32% of the vote, but Reform + Conservative there was 46%.

[Docere]

And in the last election the Liberals barely outpolled the Maverick Party in that riding.

[VANRIDERFAN]

The Liberals won Souris-Moose Mountain SK with 32% of the vote, but Reform + Conservative there was 46%.

Similar split in Brandon-Souris which butts up against Souris-Moose Mountain.

I've said many times before that the border between that part of SK and MB is imaginary. There is zero difference between the people who live in that region of the prairies.

[Docere]

Similar split in Brandon-Souris which butts up against Souris-Moose Mountain.

I've said many times before that the border between that part of SK and MB is imaginary. There is zero difference between the people who live in that region of the prairies.

Where do you draw a non-arbitrary line in the Prairie provinces?

[VANRIDERFAN]

Where do you draw a non-arbitrary line in the Prairie provinces?

There is no real physical borders on the Prairie. Attitudes and norms evolve as you head west, especially in the Ag community. The Red River Valley is different from the Manitoba escarpment, which is different from the Regina Plain, which is different from the Short Grass Prairie Ranching folks of SW SK/Southern AB.

What I'm trying to say is that cultural differences on the Prairie will follow a more a Latitudinal line vice a Longitudinal line if you know what I mean. So there is kind of 3 entities that are bisected by the TCH and the Yellowhead highways.

South of the TCH is one. Between the TCH and the Yellowhead is another. North of the Yellowhead to the Canadian shield is a third. And these 3 sections can then be divided by the type of agriculture (depending of soil type and moisture levels as you head west)

Have I confused you enough? :???:

[Docere]

Look at Ontario in 1919 when the United Farmers of Ontario won the election.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Look at Ontario in 1919 when the United Farmers of Ontario won the election.

Wasn't Canada over 70% rural then?

[Docere]

31% of Ontario's workforce was in agriculture in 1921.

[SignalHillHiker]

Look at Ontario in 1919 when the United Farmers of Ontario won the election.

A different world back then.

We actually used some party names that have come up relatively recently in Canada, which suggests to me they were likely names used in Canada before.

Our pre-Confederation national election winners were (italicized is our golden age, to the extent we had one):

1832: Conservative
1836: Liberal
1837: Liberal
1842: Liberal
1848: Liberal
1852: Liberal
1855: Liberal
1859: Liberal
1861: Conservative
1865: Conservative
1869: Anti-Confederation
1874: Conservative
1878: Conservative
1882: Conservative
1885: Reform
1889: Liberal
1893: Liberal
1897: Tory
1900: Liberal
1904: Liberal
1908: Liberal
1909: People's Party
1913: People's Party
1919: Liberal Reform
1923: Liberal Reform
1924: Liberal-Conservative-Progressive (one party; hilariously, opposition was Liberal-Progressive)
1928: Liberal
1932: United Newfoundland

(Then we voted away our independence, and Commission of Government ruled, half appointed by Britain, until Confederation).

[Docere]

I'm guessing Joey Smallwood's feuding with Diefenbaker is the reason Newfoundland resisted the 1958 Diefenbaker tide?

[SignalHillHiker]

I know near nothing about what was going on back then politically, other than since 1949 Liberal was synonymous with Confederate here, and Conservative with Anti-Confederate. Also, Canada made sort of a slow crawl exerting its influence across the island toward the Avalon, where St. John's is located, and which voted overwhelmingly against Confederation (i.e. CBC first went on air in Corner Brook in 1959, but didn't start in St. John's until 1964). So 1958 is still well within those "treading lightly" years. I expect a lot of voters would've heard nothing from Canada except whatever Joey said to local media in 1958. Mary Walsh was born in 1952 and wrote about how Canada was a foreign concept to her for most of her childhood, until they had a Canadian "exchange" student in school - learning through her all about the country, poking fun at her accent, etc. So that would've been the era around 1958.

Couldn't find the interactive exhibit with cartoon illustrations I was looking for, but she touches on similar themes here:

I was born in 1952, and during my childhood anti-confederate feelings ran very high. There was no end to complaining about the shoddiness of Canadian goods, the dour and cheap nature of the Canadian heart.

I didn’t even really run into a Canadian until about grade five, when Janet, a girl from Toronto, came into our class. She had four sisters, a father who had a “big job” with the federal government, and a mother who worked, and they had a maid — all pretty heady stuff for my crowd of Newfoundland ten-year-olds.

...

And then, you know, I don’t remember meeting or seeing any other Canadians. There were Portuguese, Spaniards, Russians, Poles, Americans off the ship, and you’d see all of them down on Water Street, but I don’t remember any Canadians. And in school, except for Janet, it was just basically us. The us sprung, as satirist Ray Guy always said, from a genetic pool the size of a pudding bowl.

https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/arts-culture-society/being-a-newfoundlander-in-canada

[Docere]

For historical context:

% in agriculture, 1931

PEI 57
Nova Scotia 24
New Brunswick 33
Quebec 22
Ontario 27
Manitoba 35
Saskatchewan 60
Alberta 51
BC 14

[Docere]

Another one: the 1917 federal election, fought over conscription which was overwhelmingly supported by English Canadians and opposed in Quebec. A group of pro-war Liberals crossed over to support Borden.

This was a rigged election. The Wartime Elections Act removed voting rights of those born in enemy nations (Austria-Hungary and Germany) who became citizens in 1902. Meanwhile servicemen who previously couldn't vote were allowed to - even those underage. Wives and relatives of those serving in the war could also vote.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/lets-not-forget-the-ugly-history-of-canadas-khaki-election/article37344551/

So you see an overwhelmingly blue ROC and overwhelmingly red Quebec.

What about the handful of Opposition ridings in English Canada? The highest Liberal vote in Ontario was in Waterloo North. There was opposition to going to war with Germany among German Canadians (where most could their ancestry prior to Confederation, so few could be disenfranchised). Highest Opposition vote in ROC was in Cape Breton - not sure what's going on there or why.

[Docere]

A different world back then.
1924: Liberal-Conservative-Progressive (one party; hilariously, opposition was Liberal-Progressive)

That outdoes Macdonald's Liberal-Conservatives.

[Docere]

There is no real physical borders on the Prairie. Attitudes and norms evolve as you head west, especially in the Ag community. The Red River Valley is different from the Manitoba escarpment, which is different from the Regina Plain, which is different from the Short Grass Prairie Ranching folks of SW SK/Southern AB.

What I'm trying to say is that cultural differences on the Prairie will follow a more a Latitudinal line vice a Longitudinal line if you know what I mean. So there is kind of 3 entities that are bisected by the TCH and the Yellowhead highways.

South of the TCH is one. Between the TCH and the Yellowhead is another. North of the Yellowhead to the Canadian shield is a third. And these 3 sections can then be divided by the type of agriculture (depending of soil type and moisture levels as you head west)

Have I confused you enough? :???:

Alberta and Saskatchewan were almost admitted as one province.

It's interesting to see here some of the proposed maps for how to divide up the Prairies:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Buffalo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Buffalo#/media/File:Western_Canadian_Province_Proposals.png

[lio45]

The weirdest federal one for me was 2011. It invigorated me politically, made me feel it was crucial, existential even, that Newfoundland and Labrador become independent.Surely you meant to say “that Newfoundland become independent”, unless we’re not looking at the same map … :haha:

[MolsonExport]

Whatever happened to Keewatin? Vanished like a fart in the wind.

On April 1, 1999, the Keewatin Region was formally dissolved, as Nunavut was created from eastern parts of the Northwest Territories, including all of Keewatin. It had ceased to function as an administrative district of the Northwest Territories several years before it was divided.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Keewatin

[Docere]

From the Ontario NDP win in 1990, some of these results are pretty wild.

Huron

NDP 34.5%
PC 31.2%
Liberal 22.9%
Family Coalition Party 10.1%
Libertarian 1.4%

Lambton

NDP 31.4%
PC 27.7%
Liberal 26.3%
Family Coalition Party 12.8%
Confederation of Regions 1.8%

Prince Edward-South Lennox-Hastings

NDP 33.1%
PC 29.9%
Liberal 29.5%
Confederation of Regions 7.5%

[MolsonExport]

Family Coalition Party 12.8%

https://doublebassblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/country-church1.jpg

[Docere]

There were some "normal" wins the NDP that year in such ridings as Muskoka and Haliburton. The public was not in its usual mood.

Anyway strange results do occur. I'm still stunned by Obama's Indiana win in 2008.

[Architype]

I know near nothing about what was going on back then politically, other than since 1949 Liberal was synonymous with Confederate here, and Conservative with Anti-Confederate. Also, Canada made sort of a slow crawl exerting its influence across the island toward the Avalon, where St. John's is located, and which voted overwhelmingly against Confederation (i.e. CBC first went on air in Corner Brook in 1959, but didn't start in St. John's until 1964). So 1958 is still well within those "treading lightly" years. I expect a lot of voters would've heard nothing from Canada except whatever Joey said to local media in 1958. Mary Walsh was born in 1952 and wrote about how Canada was a foreign concept to her for most of her childhood, until they had a Canadian "exchange" student in school - learning through her all about the country, poking fun at her accent, etc. So that would've been the era around 1958.

Couldn't find the interactive exhibit with cartoon illustrations I was looking for, but she touches on similar themes here:



https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/arts-culture-society/being-a-newfoundlander-in-canada


Except that CJON TV (now NTV) in St. John's started as the CBC affiliate in 1955.

[Docere]

In reverse of the mainland pattern, Irish Catholics in Newfoundland traditionally voted Conservative and English Protestants Liberal.

[Docere]

Look at the 1921 federal election, with the Progressives as Official Opposition and Calgary electing two Labour MPs (note that the CCF was founded in Calgary).

[Docere]

Interesting to look at the few Liberals who were elected outside of Quebec in 1917.

Prescott and Russell is obviously French Canadians. In Waterloo, it's the German vote, probably made a difference in Bruce South too. Provencher a mix of French Canadian and Mennonite. There's also Acadian seats in New Brunswick.

But what happened in Kent - where there was no Unionist candidate? Or Middlesex West - don't know was going on there. And Cape Breton delivered the biggest Liberal margin outside of Quebec - why?