The
2006 Canadian federal election (more formally, the
39th General Election) was held on January 23,
2006, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the
39th Parliament of Canada
. The
Conservative Party of
Canada won the greatest number of
seats: 40.3% of seats, or 124
out of 308, up from 99 seats in 2004, and 36.3% of votes: up from
29.6% in the 2004 election. The election resulted in a
minority government led by
the Conservative Party with
Stephen
Harper becoming the 22nd
Prime Minister of Canada. By
proportion of seats, this was Canada's smallest minority government
since
Confederation. Despite
this it was the longest serving minority government led by a party
other than the Liberal Party of Canada, and the third longest
serving minority government overall.
Cause of the election
Map of the ridings and their popular
vote
This unusual winter
general
election was caused by a
motion of no confidence passed by
the House of Commons on November 28, 2005. The following morning,
Prime Minister Paul Martin met Governor General
Michaëlle Jean, who then
dissolved parliament, summoned the
next parliament, and ordered the issuance of writs of election. The
latter set January 23, 2006, as election day and February 13 as the
date for return of the writs. The campaign was almost eight weeks
in length, the longest in two decades, in order to allow time for
the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Recent political events, most notably testimony to the
Gomery Commission investigating the
sponsorship scandal,
significantly weakened the Liberals (who, under Martin, had formed
the first Liberal
minority
government since the Trudeau era) by allegations of criminal
corruption in the party. The first Gomery report, released November
1, 2005, had found a "culture of entitlement" to exist within the
Government. Although the next election was not legally required
until 2009, the opposition had enough votes to force the
dissolution of
Parliament
earlier. While Prime Minister Martin had committed in April 2005 to
dissolve Parliament within a month of the tabling of the second
Gomery Report (which was released on schedule on February 1, 2006),
all three
opposition
parties—the Conservatives,
Bloc Québécois, and
New Democratic Party (NDP) — and three
of the four independents decided that the issue at hand was how to
correct the Liberal corruption, and the motion of non-confidence
passed 171-133.
Results
[[Image:Canada 2006 Federal Election
seats.svg|thumb|right|250px|Rendition of party representation in
the
39th Canadian
parliament decided by this election.
]]
Harper was reelected in
Calgary
Southwest, which he has held since 2002, ensuring that he had a
seat in the new parliament. The election was held on January 23,
2006. The first polls closed at 07:00 p.m.
ET (0000
UTC);
Elections Canada started to publish
preliminary results on its website at 10:00 p.m.
ET as the last polls closed.
Shortly after midnight (ET) that night, incumbent Prime Minister
Paul Martin conceded defeat, and
announced that he would resign as leader of the
Liberal Party.
He continued to sit as
a Member of Parliament
representing LaSalle—Émard, the Montreal
-area riding
he had held since 1988, until his retirement
in 2008.
At 9:30 a.m. on January 24, Martin informed
Governor General Michaëlle Jean that he would not form a
government and intended to resign as Prime Minister. It was
announced a month later that there would be a
Liberal
leadership convention later in the year, during which Stéphane
Dion won the leadership of the Liberal Party. Later that day, at
6:45 p.m., Jean invited Harper to form a government. Martin
formally resigned and Harper was formally appointed and sworn in as
Prime Minister on
February 6.
Overall results
The elections resulted in a Conservative minority government with
124 seats in parliament with a Liberal opposition and a
strengthened NDP. In his speech following the loss, Martin stated
he would not lead the Liberal Party of Canada in another election.
Preliminary results indicated that 64.9% of registered voters cast
a ballot, a notable increase over 2004's 60.9%.
The NDP won new seats in British Columbia and Ontario as their
overall popular vote increased 2% from 2004. The Bloc managed to
win almost as many seats as in 2004 despite losing a significant
percentage of the vote. Most of the Conservatives' gains were in
Ontario and Quebec as they took a net loss in the west. The popular
vote of the Conservatives and Liberals were almost the mirror image
of 2004, though the Conservatives were not able to translate this
into as many seats as the Liberals did in 2004.
A judicial recount was automatically scheduled in the
Parry Sound—Muskoka riding,
where early results showed Conservative
Tony Clement only 21 votes ahead of Liberal
Andy Mitchell, because
the difference of votes cast between the two leading candidates was
less than 0.1%. Clement was confirmed as the winner by 28
votes.
Conservative candidate
Jeremy
Harrison, narrowly defeated by Liberal
Gary Merasty in the Saskatchewan riding of
Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill
River by 72 votes, alleged electoral fraud but decided not to
pursue the matter. A judicial recount was ordered in the riding,
which certified
Gary Merasty the winner
by a reduced margin of 68 votes.
|
124
|
103
|
51
|
29
|
1
|
|
|
|
Conservative
|
Liberal
|
BQ
|
NDP
|
I
|
Vote and seat summaries
Results by province
| Party name |
BC |
AB |
SK |
MB |
ON |
QC |
NB |
NS |
PE |
NL |
NU |
NT |
YT |
Total |
| Conservative |
Seats: |
17 |
28 |
12 |
8 |
40 |
10 |
3 |
3 |
- |
3 |
- |
- |
- |
124
|
Vote: |
37.3 |
65.0 |
48.9 |
42.8 |
35.1 |
24.6 |
35.7 |
29.69 |
33.4 |
42.67 |
29.6 |
19.8 |
23.67 |
36.25
|
Liberal |
Seats: |
9 |
- |
2 |
3 |
54 |
13 |
6 |
6 |
4 |
4 |
1 |
- |
1 |
103
|
Vote: |
27.6 |
15.3 |
22.4 |
26.0 |
39.9 |
20.7 |
39.2 |
37.15 |
52.5 |
42.82 |
39.1 |
34.9 |
48.52 |
30.2
|
Bloc
Québécois |
Seats: |
|
|
|
|
|
51 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
51
|
Vote: |
|
|
|
|
|
42.1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10.5
|
New
Democrat |
Seats: |
10 |
- |
- |
3 |
12 |
- |
1 |
2 |
- |
- |
- |
1 |
- |
29
|
Vote: |
28.6 |
11.6 |
24.0 |
25.4 |
19.4 |
7.5 |
21.9 |
29.84 |
9.6 |
13.58 |
17.6 |
42.1 |
23.85 |
17.5
|
Green |
Vote: |
5.3 |
6.5 |
3.2 |
3.9 |
4.7 |
4.0 |
2.4 |
2.6 |
3.9 |
0.9 |
5.9 |
2.1 |
4.0 |
4.5 |
| Independent / No
affiliation |
Seats: |
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
Vote: |
|
|
|
|
|
0.9 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0.1
|
Total seats: |
|
36 |
28 |
14 |
14 |
106 |
75 |
10 |
11 |
4 |
7 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
308 |
|
Notes
David Emerson, elected on January 23 as a Liberal in the British Columbia riding of Vancouver Kingsway, changed parties on February 6 to join the Conservatives before the new Parliament had taken office. He is reflected here as a Liberal.
André Arthur was elected as an independent candidate in the Quebec riding of Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier.
10 closest ridings
- Parry
Sound—Muskoka, ON: Tony
Clement (Cons) def. Andy
Mitchell (Lib) by 28 votes
- Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill
River, SK: Gary Merasty
(Lib) def. Jeremy Harrison (Cons) by
73 votes
- Winnipeg South,
MB: Rod Bruinooge (Cons) def.
Reg Alcock (Lib) by 111 votes
- Glengarry—Prescott—Russell,
ON: Pierre Lemieux (Cons)
def. René Berthiaume (Lib) by
203 votes
- Louis-Hébert,
QC: Luc Harvey (Cons) def.
Roger Clavet (BQ) by 231 votes
- St.
Catharines, ON: Rick
Dykstra (Cons) def. Walt Lastewka
(Lib) by 244 votes
- Tobique—Mactaquac, NB:
Mike Allen (Cons)
def. Andy Savoy (Lib) by 254 votes
- Thunder
Bay—Superior North, ON: Joe
Comuzzi (Lib) def. Bruce Hyer (NDP)
by 408 votes
- West Nova, NS:
Robert Thibault (Lib) def. Greg Kerr (Cons) by 511 votes
- Brant,
ON: Lloyd St. Amand (Lib)
def. Phil McColeman (Cons) by 582
votes
Results by electoral district
Parties
Most observers believed only the Liberals and the Conservatives
were capable of forming a government in this election, although
Canadian political history is not without examples of wholly
unexpected outcomes, such as
Ontario's provincial election in
1990. However, with the exception of the Unionist government of
1917 (which combined members of both the Conservatives and the
Liberals), at the Federal stage, only Liberals or Conservatives
have formed government. With the end of the campaign at hand,
pollsters and pundits placed the Conservatives ahead of the
Liberals.
Prime
Minister Paul Martin's Liberals hoped to recapture their majority,
and this appeared likely at one point during the campaign; but it
would have required holding back Bloc pressure in Quebec plus picking
up some new seats there while also gaining seats in English Canada,
most likely in rural Ontario and
southwestern British
Columbia.
Towards the end of the campaign, even high-profile Liberals were
beginning to concede defeat, and the best the Liberals could have
achieved was a razor-thin minority.
Stephen Harper's Conservatives succeeded in bringing their new
party into power in Canada. While continuing weaknesses in Quebec
and urban areas rightfully prompted most observers to consider a
Conservative
majority government
to be mathematically difficult to achieve, early on, Harper's
stated goal was to achieve one nonetheless. Though the
Conservatives were ahead of the Liberals in Quebec, they remained
far behind the Bloc Québécois, and additional gains in rural and
suburban Ontario would have been be necessary to meet Stephen
Harper's goal. The polls had remained pretty well static over the
course of December, with the real shift coming in the first few
days of the New Year. That is when the Conservatives took the lead
and kept it for the rest of the campaign.
Harper started off the first month of the campaign with a
policy-per-day strategy, which included a GST reduction and a
child-care allowance. The Liberals opted to hold any major
announcements until after the Christmas holidays; as a result,
Harper dominated media coverage for the first weeks of the campaign
and was able to define his platform and insulate it from expected
Liberal attacks.
On December 27, 2005, the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police
announced it was investigating allegations that
Liberal Finance
Minister Ralph Goodale's office
had engaged in insider trading
before making an important announcement on the taxation of income trusts. The RCMP indicated that
they had no evidence of wrongdoing or criminal activity from any
party associated with the investigation, including Goodale.
However, the story dominated news coverage for the following week
and prevented the Liberals from making their key policy
announcements, allowing the Conservatives to refocus their previous
attacks about corruption within the Liberal party. The
Conservatives soon found themselves leading in the polls. By early
January, they made a major breakthrough in Quebec, pushing the
Liberals to second place.
As their lead solidified,
media
coverage of the Conservatives was much more positive, while
Liberals found themselves increasingly criticized for running a
poor campaign and making numerous gaffes.
The NDP has claimed that last minute
tactical voting cost them several seats last
time, as left-of-centre voters moved to the Liberals so that they
could prevent a Harper-led government. Jack Layton avoided stating
his party's goal was to win the election outright, instead calling
for enough New Democrats to be elected to hold the
balance of power in a Liberal
or Conservative minority government. Political commentators have
long argued that the NDP's main medium-term goal is to serve as
junior partners to the Liberals in Canada's first-ever true
coalition government. NDP
leader Jack Layton was concerned last time over people voting
Liberal so that they could avoid a Conservative government. Over
the course of the last week of the campaign, Jack Layton called on
Liberal voters disgusted with the corruption to "lend" their votes
to the NDP to elect more NDP members to the House and hold the
Conservatives to a minority.
The Bloc
Québécois had a very successful result in the 2004 election, with
the Liberals reduced to the core areas of federalist support in
portions of Montreal and the Outaouais.
Oddly enough, this meant that there were comparatively few winnable
Bloc seats left—perhaps eight or so—for the party to target. With
provincial allies the
Parti
Québécois widely tipped to regain power in 2007, a large
sovereigntist contingent in the
House could play a major role in reopening the matter of
Quebec independence. The Bloc
Québécois only runs candidates in the province of Quebec. However,
Gilles Duceppe's dream of winning 50%+ of the popular vote was
dashed when the polls broke after the New Year, and the
Conservatives became a real threat to that vision in Quebec.
In addition to the four sitting parties, the
Green Party of Canada ran candidates
in all 308 federal ridings for the second consecutive election.
Though the Greens had been an official party since the
1984 election, this campaign
was the first in which they had stable financial support with which
to campaign. After a breakthrough in the 2004 election, they
exceeded the minimum 2% of the popular vote to receive federal
funding. Supporters and sympathisers criticize that the party were
not invited to the nationally televised debates even with its
official status. Though no Green candidate has yet been elected in
Canada, the party has occasionally polled as high as 19% in British
Columbia and 11% nationwide. Critics of the Green Party contend
that, by drawing away left-of-centre votes, the Green Party
actually assists the Conservative Party in some ridings. The Greens
deny this.
Other parties are listed in the table of results above.
Events during the 38th Parliament
An early election seemed likely because the
2004 federal election, held
on June 28, 2004, resulted in the election of a
Liberal minority government. In the past,
minority governments have had an average lifespan of a year and a
half. Some people considered the 38th parliament to be particularly
unstable. It involved four parties, and only very implausible
ideological combinations (e.g., Liberals + Conservatives; Liberals
+ BQ; Conservatives + BQ + NDP) could actually command a majority
of the seats, a necessity if a government is to retain power. From
its earliest moments, there was some threat of the government
falling as even the
Speech from
the Throne almost resulted in a non-confidence vote.
The Liberal government came close to falling when testimony from
the
Gomery Commission caused
public opinion to move sharply against the government. The Bloc
Québécois were eager from the beginning to have an early election.
The Conservatives announced they had also lost confidence in the
government's moral authority. Thus, during much of spring 2005,
there was a widespread belief that the Liberals would lose a
confidence vote, prompting an election taking place in the spring
or summer of 2005.
In a televised speech on April 21, Martin promised to request a
dissolution of Parliament
and begin an election campaign within 30 days of the Gomery
Commission’s final report. The release date of that report would
later solidify as February 1, 2006; Martin then clarified that he
intended to schedule the election call so as to have the polling
day in April 2006.
Later that week, the NDP, who had initially opposed the budget,
opted to endorse Martin's proposal for a later election. The
Liberals agreed to take corporate tax cuts out of the budget on
April 26 in exchange for NDP support on votes of confidence, but
even with NDP support the Liberals still fell three votes short of
a majority. However, a surprise defection of former Conservative
leadership candidate
Belinda
Stronach to the Liberal party on May 17 changed the balance of
power in the House. Independents
Chuck
Cadman and
Carolyn Parrish
provided the last two votes needed for the Liberals to win the
budget vote.
The deal turned out to be rather unnecessary, as the Conservatives
opted to ensure the government's survival on the
motion of confidence surrounding the
original budget, expressing support to the tax cuts and defence
spending therein. When Parliament voted on second reading and
referral of the budget and the amendment on May 19, the previous
events kept the government alive. The original budget bill, C-43,
passed easily, as expected, but the amendment bill, C-48, resulted
in an equality of votes, and the
Speaker of the
House broke the tie to continue the parliament. The government
never got as close to falling after that date. Third reading of
Bill C-48 was held late at night on an unexpected day, and several
Conservatives being absent, the motion passed easily, guaranteeing
there would be no election in the near future.
Aftermath of the first Gomery report
On November 1,
John Gomery released his
interim report, and the scandal returned to prominence. Liberal
support again fell, with some polls registering an immediate ten
percent drop. The Conservatives and Bloc thus resumed their push
for an election before Martin's April date. The NDP stated that
their support was contingent on the Liberals agreeing to move
against the private provision of healthcare. The Liberals and NDP
failed to come to an agreement, however, and the NDP joined the two
other opposition parties in demanding an election.
However, the Liberals had intentionally scheduled the mandatory
"opposition days" (where a specified opposition party controls the
agenda) on November 15 (Conservative), November 17 (Bloc Québécois)
and November 24 (NDP). These days meant that any election would
come over the
Christmas season, an
unpopular idea. Following negotiations between the opposition
parties, they instead issued an ultimatum to the Prime Minister to
call an election immediately after the Christmas holidays or face
an immediate non-confidence vote which would prompt a
holiday-spanning campaign.
To that end, the NDP introduced a parliamentary motion demanding
that the government
drop the writ in
January 2006 for a February 13 election date; however, only the
prime minister has the authority to advise the Governor General on
an election date, the government was therefore not bound by the
NDP's motion. Martin had indicated that he remained committed to
his April 2006 date, and would disregard the motion, which the
opposition parties managed to pass, as expected, on November 21 by
a vote of 167-129.
The three opposition leaders had agreed to delay the tabling of the
no-confidence motion until the 24th, to ensure that a conference
between the government and aboriginal leaders scheduled on the 24th
would not be disrupted by the campaign. Parliamentary procedure
dictated that the vote be deferred until the 28th. Even if the
opposition hadn't put forward the non-confidence motion, the
government was still expected to fall—there was to have been a vote
on supplementary budget estimates on
December
8, and if it had been defeated,
loss
of Supply would have toppled the Liberals.
Conservative leader
Stephen Harper,
the
leader of
the Opposition, introduced a motion of no confidence on
November 24, which NDP leader
Jack
Layton seconded. The motion was voted upon and passed in the
evening of November 28, with all present MPs from the NDP, Bloc
Québécois, and Conservatives and 3
Independents (
Bev Desjarlais,
David Kilgour and
Pat O'Brien), voting with a
combined strength of 171 votes for the motion and 132 Liberals and
one Independent (
Carolyn Parrish)
voting against. One Bloc Québécois MP was absent from the vote. It
is the fifth time a Canadian government has lost the confidence of
Parliament, but the first time this has happened on a straight
motion of no confidence. The four previous instances have been due
to loss of supply or votes of
censure.
Martin visited
Governor
General Michaëlle Jean the
following morning, where he formally advised her to dissolve
Parliament and schedule an election for January 23. In accordance
with Canadian constitutional practice, she consented (such a
request has only been turned down
once
in Canadian history), officially beginning an election campaign
that had been simmering for months.
Early on in the campaign, polls showed the Liberals with a solid
5-10 point lead over the Conservatives, and poised to form a strong
minority government at worst. Around Christmas, after reports of an
RCMP investigation into allegations of insider trading within the
Finance department, this situation changed dramatically, leading to
the opposition parties to consistently attack the Liberals on
corruption.
Almost at the same time, the Boxing Day shooting, an unusually
violent gun fight between rival gangs on December 26 in downtown
Toronto
(resulting in the death of 15-year-old Jane Creba,
an innocent bystander), may have swayed some Ontario voters to
support the more hardline CPC policies on crime. The
Conservatives enjoyed a fairly significant lead in polls leading up
to the election, but the gap narrowed in the last few days.
Issues
Several issues—some long-standing (notably
fiscal imbalance, the
gun registry,
abortion, and
Quebec sovereigntism), others
recently brought forth by media coverage or court decisions (the
sponsorship scandal,
same-sex marriages,
income trusts, or
Canada-United States relations)—took
the fore in debate among the parties and also influenced aspects of
the parties’ electoral platforms.
Opinion polls
Prior to and during the election campaign,
opinion polling showed variable support for the
governing Liberals and opposition Conservatives. In November 2005,
the
first report by Justice John
Gomery was released to the public; subsequently, poll numbers
for the Liberals again dropped. Just days later, polling showed the
Liberals were already bouncing back; upon the election call, the
Liberals held a small lead over the Conservatives and maintained
this for much of December.
Renewed accusations of corruption and impropriety at the end
of 2005 – amid Royal Canadian Mounted Police criminal probes of possible government leaks
regarding income trust tax changes and
advertising sponsorships – led
to an upswing of Conservative support again and gave them a lead
over the Liberals, portending a change in government.
Ultimately this scandal was linked to a blackberry exchange to a
banking official by Liberal candidate
Scott
Brison. Polling figures for the NDP increased slightly, while
Bloc figures experienced a slight dip; figures for the Green Party
did not change appreciably throughout the campaign.
Candidates
The
election involved the same 308 electoral districts as in 2004,
except in New
Brunswick, where the
boundary between Acadie—Bathurst and Miramichi was ruled to be
illegal. Many of the candidates were also the same: fewer
incumbents chose to leave than if they had served a full term, and
the parties have generally blocked challenges to sitting MPs for
the duration of the minority government, although there had been
some exceptions.
Gender breakdown of candidates
An on-going issue in Canadian politics is the imbalance between the
genders in selection by political parties of candidates. Although
in the past some parties, particularly the New Democrats, have
focused on the necessity of having equal gender representation in
Parliament, no major party has ever nominated as many or more women
than men in a given election. In 2006, the New Democrats had the
highest percentage of female candidates (35.1%) of any party aside
from the Animal Alliance, which only had one candidate, its leader,
Liz White. The proportion of
female New Democrats elected was greater than the proportion
nominated, indicating female New Democrats were nominated in
winnable ridings. 12.3% of Conservative candidates and 25.6% of
Liberal candidates were female.
Campaign slogans
The parties'
campaign slogansfor
the 2006 election:
Endorsements
Target ridings
Incumbent MPs who did not run for re-election
See also
Articles on parties' candidates in this election:
>
References
- Date for the Swearing-in of the Honourable Stephen
Harper as the 22nd Prime Minister and of his Cabinet
- Elections Canada - Electoral Districts
- Elections Canada-Election Night Results
- http://www.cbc.ca/sask/story/harrison-appeal060124.html
- Liberals hold on to Saskatchewan riding after
judicial recount
-
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060118/elxn_green_vote_060119/20060119?s_name=election2006
External links
Government links
colspan="7"|Gender breakdown
|
|
| Party |
Leader's
gender
|
| Candidates |
|
| Total |
| Female |
| Male |
| % female |
|
| Canadian Action |
| F |
| 34 |
| 8 |
| 26 |
23.5%
|
| Communist |
| M |
| 21 |
| 7 |
| 14 |
33.3%
|
| Libertarian |
| M |
| 10 |
| 1 |
| 9 |
10.0%
|
| First
Peoples |
| F |
| 5 |
| 0 |
| 5 |
0.0%
|
| Western Block |
| M |
| 4 |
| 1 |
| 3 |
25.0%
|
| Animal
Alliance |
| F |
| 1 |
| 1 |
| 0 |
100.0%
|
| Independent |
| 90 |
| 8 |
| 82 |
| 8.9% |
|
| Total |
| 1634 |
| 380 |
| 1254 |
| 23.3% |
|
| Source: Elections Canada |
|
|
|
|
| English slogan |
| French slogan |
| Literal English translation |
|
| Conservative |
Stand up for Canada |
Changeons pour vrai |
Let's change for real / for truth (pun)
|
|
| Liberal |
Choose your Canada |
Un Canada à votre image |
A Canada in your image |
|
| NDP |
Getting results for people |
Des réalisations concrètes pour les gens |
Solid results for people |
|
| BQ |
Thankfully, the Bloc is here! |
Heureusement, ici, c'est le Bloc! |
Fortunately, here, it's the Bloc! |
|
| Green |
We can |
Oui, nous pouvons |
Yes, we can |
|
Liberals
- Peter Adams, Peterborough
- David
Anderson, Victoria
- Jean Augustine, Etobicoke—Lakeshore
- Don Boudria, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell
- Claudette Bradshaw, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe
- Marlene Catterall, Ottawa West—Nepean
- Claude Drouin, Beauce
- Paul DeVillers, Simcoe North
- John Efford, Avalon
- Beth Phinney, Hamilton Mountain
- Jerry Pickard, Chatham-Kent—Essex
- Rose-Marie Ur, Middlesex—Kent—Lambton
Independents
|
Conservatives
New Democrats
Bloquistes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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