Canadian Election Roundup

We’ve done our best here at 4080 to keep our Canadian readers informed about the big federal election that just happened.

So here is a quick summary of the election results, comparing the 2006 election to the 2008 election.

Party	2006 Seats	2008 Seats	% of public vote
Conservative	124	143	37.63%
	103/102	76	26.24%
	51	50	9.97%
	29	37	18.20%
	0/1	0	6.80%
Independent	1	2	0.65%

As you can see, things have shifted, but not by crazy amounts.  The Conservative government under Stephen Harper was strengthened, but stopped 12 seats short of a majority.  This should be enough to force the Conservatives to take a more moderate approach to government than they would have.

Frankly, another minority may mean an impossible situation yet again.  Minority governments rarely function well, and often don’t accomplish much.  And with voter turnout the lowest in Canadian history, I have a feeling voters are entirely sick of going to the polls.

Take it for what you will.  You may be happy, you may be sad.  This election did have a record number of women candidates were elected to the House of Commons, and I was pleasantly suprised by the number of visible minority candidates.