Election by Numbers

I've updated my election spreadsheet, and will be posting some riding-by-riding analysis over the next while. For now, a list of somewhat interesting numbers from the last campaign:


1: Ridings the Bloc Quebecois won by more than 3 percentage points, showing how close they came to a complete wipe out.

2: Ridings won by the Liberals without a Liberal incumbent - Charlottetown (Sean Casey) and Kingston and the Islands (Ted Hsu).

3: Number of ridings in Alberta where the Liberals finished second, down from 9 in 2008 and 19 in 2006.

9: The number of ridings where the Greens got at least 10% of the vote, down from 41 in 2008.

10: Number of provinces where Liberal and Green support dropped from 2008. The NDP increased in support everywhere except Newfoundland, with the Conservatives up everywhere except Quebec.

20: The number of ridings the Liberals won by more than 5 percentage points, down from 63 in 2008.

28: The number of ridings where turnout was down from 2008, with the largest drops coming in Bourassa, Saint-Leonard-Saint-Michel, and York West.

33: Number of ridings where the Liberals increased their raw vote total from 2008, with 5000+ vote gains coming in Winnipeg North, Guelph, and Central Nova. Admittedly, increasing Liberal support in Central Nova from 2008 wasn't too hard.

45: The number of seats the NDP took from the BQ. They won 17 former Liberal seats, 7 former CPC seats, and Andre Arthur's.

74: Number of ridings (out of 75) where the Bloc vote went down. Congrats to rookie MP Jean-François Fortin who increased BQ support by 649 votes in Haute-Gaspésie-La Mitis-Matane-Matapédia.

16,283: The most votes received by an independent candidate, by James Ford in Edmonton-Sherwood Park.

26,097: The vote increase from 2008 for the NDP in Montcalm, their largest gain in the country.

57,282: The number of votes the Liberals received in Calgary, marking the first time in a long time (and perhaps ever) the Liberals got more votes in Calgary than in Edmonton (43,331).