The Canadian people woke up 15 October to a new government that looked remarkably like the old government.
“Basically, we have just gone through a $300 million-plus election that we could ill afford and the Conservatives are still stuck with their irksome minority government situation that led them to call the election in the first place,” said Terrence Downey, president of St Mary’s University College in Calgary, Alberta. “Nothing much has changed except for increased levels of voter apathy and cynicism.”
This election saw the lowest national voter turnout in Canadian history at 59 percent, even as a global financial crisis threatened to plunge the nation’s economy into recession. This broke the previous record low of 61 percent in 2004. Canadian voter turnout peaked at close to 80 percent in the general election of 1958. The last four Canadian federal elections have all been under 65 percent, the lowest since 1896.
Stumble It!