The
2008 Canadian federal election (more formally, the
40th Canadian General Election) was held on
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 to elect members to the Canadian
House of Commons of the 40th Canadian Parliament after the
previous parliament had
been dissolved by the Governor General on September 7,
2008. The election yielded a
minority government under the
Conservative Party of Canada,
led by the incumbent
Prime
Minister,
Stephen Harper.
The election call resulted in the cancellation of four
federal by-elections
that had been scheduled to occur in September.
Background
Results by riding
In 2007, Parliament passed a law fixing federal election dates
every four years and scheduling the next election date as October
19, 2009, but the law does not (and constitutionally cannot) limit
the powers of the Governor General to dissolve Parliament at any
time, such as when
opposition
parties bring down the government on a
vote of confidence. However, in this
election there was no loss of a non-confidence vote, but the Prime
Minister asked the Governor General to call an election
nonetheless.
2006 election
64.7% of all eligible voters cast ballots in the
2006 federal election. The
Conservative Party
received the most votes of any single party, with 36% of the vote
and 124 seats (127 at dissolution). The Liberal Party won fewer
seats than in 2006 — 103 seats (96 at dissolution), and 30% of the
vote. The Bloc Québécois lost three seats, lowering its total to 51
seats (48 at dissolution), with 10.5% of the vote. The NDP retained
its seats held at the
dissolution of Parliament, and won
11 more, making its total 29 seats (30 at dissolution), with 17.5%
of the vote. The
Green Party
received 4.5% of the vote, a minimal increase from the previous
election, but did not win any seats (1 at dissolution).
Independents and other parties
constituted 1% of the total vote with one independent winning a
seat.
Events since the 2006 election
[[Image:Canada 2008 Federal Election
seats.svg|thumb|left|250px|Rendition of party representation in the
40th Canadian parliament
decided by this election.
]]
Since the 2006 election, seven
Members of Parliament (MPs) have
changed party:
David Emerson,
Wajid Khan and
Joe
Comuzzi from Liberal to Conservative;
Garth Turner from Conservative to Independent
to Liberal;
Blair Wilson from Liberal
to Independent to Green;
Louise
Thibault from Bloc Québécois to Independent; and
Bill Casey from Conservative to Independent. In
by-elections, the NDP gained one seat from the Liberal Party, while
the Conservative Party gained two seats, one from the Liberals and
one from the Bloc Québécois. Four seats were vacant when the
election was called: three previously held by the Liberal Party,
one by the Bloc Québécois.
The parliament preceding this
election was led by the Conservatives, who governed with the
smallest minority ever in the Canadian House of Commons, just 40.6%
of the seats. Although the average length of a
minority parliament in Canada is 1 year, 5
months, and 22 days, minorities led by the former
Progressive
Conservative Party have been much shorter: the longest previous
Conservative minority was just 6 months and 19 days. The 39th
Parliament became Canada's longest serving Conservative minority on
October 24, 2006.
On May 30, 2006, the Conservatives
table Bill C-16, which would amend the
Canada Elections Act to provide fixed
election dates. The bill received royal assent on May 3, 2007. The
bill states that there will be an election in 2009, and it would be
the first to have a fixed election date, the third Monday in
October (October 19, 2009). Despite the bill, on September 7, 2008,
the
Prime Minister sought
the dissolution of the 39th Parliament, and the Governor General
agreed to hold a general election on October 14, 2008.
On February 15, 2007,
The Globe
and Mail reported that the Conservatives were preparing
for an election expected to be called shortly after the 2007
budget, due on March 19, 2007. Part of the reason for the timing of
the election was given as strengthening Conservative poll numbers
coupled with the desire to take advantage of the perception that
Harper has "better leadership qualities than Liberal counterpart
Stéphane Dion".
On March 17, 2007, an internal Conservative Party memo was leaked
to
The Canadian Press,
telling members that they "need to be ready to campaign within the
next week". The memo asked members to donate $75 to $150 to help to
fund the early stages of the election campaign. None of these
predictions for a federal election to occur in 2007 proved true,
but the majority of
pundits still
believed a federal election would be triggered before the fixed
election date of October 19, 2009, for sometime in 2008.
Stephen Harper hinted at the
possibility of dissolving parliament on August 14, 2008.
Speaking
in Newfoundland and
Labrador
, he cited Stéphane Dion as the main player in
making Parliament become increasingly "dysfunctional". "I’m
going to have to make a judgment in the next little while as to
whether or not this Parliament can function productively," Harper
said. This came after repeated
confidence votes that resulted in
the NDP and Bloc parties not voting in favour of the government,
and the Liberal Party voting in favour or not attending the vote.
Rumours of a possible fall election were further fuelled by
Harper's announcement of a fourth federal by-election for September
22 in the Toronto riding of
Don Valley
West.
On August 27, 2008. Harper asked Governor General
Michaëlle Jean to cancel her trip to the
Paralympic Games in Beijing,
adding fuel to speculation that the Prime Minister would seek a
dissolution. On September 7, 2008 after much speculation, Harper
asked the Governor General to call a federal election on October
14, 2008.
Results
|
143
|
77
|
49
|
37
|
2
|
|
|
|
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: |
22 |
27 |
13 |
9 |
51 |
10 |
6 |
3 |
1 |
- |
1 |
- |
- |
143
|
Vote: |
44.4 |
64.6 |
53.7 |
48.8 |
39.2 |
21.7 |
39.4 |
26.1 |
36.2 |
16.5 |
34.8 |
37.6 |
32.8 |
37.6
|
Liberal |
Seats: |
5 |
- |
1 |
1 |
38 |
14 |
3 |
5 |
3 |
6 |
- |
- |
1 |
77
|
Vote: |
19.3 |
11.4 |
14.9 |
19.1 |
33.8 |
23.7 |
32.4 |
29.8 |
47.7 |
46.6 |
29.2 |
13.6 |
45.3 |
26.2
|
Bloc
Québécois |
Seats: |
|
|
|
|
|
49 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
49
|
Vote: |
|
|
|
|
|
38.1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10.0
|
New
Democrat |
Seats: |
9 |
1 |
- |
4 |
17 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
- |
1 |
- |
1 |
- |
37
|
Vote: |
25.0 |
12.7 |
25.6 |
24.0 |
18.2 |
12.2 |
21.9 |
28.9 |
9.8 |
33.9 |
27.6 |
41.5 |
9.0 |
18.2
|
Green |
Vote: |
9.4 |
8.8 |
5.6 |
6.8 |
8.0 |
3.5 |
6.2 |
8.0 |
4.7 |
1.7 |
8.4 |
5.5 |
13.0 |
6.8 |
| Independent / No
affiliation |
Seats: |
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
2
|
Vote: |
|
|
|
|
|
0.6 |
|
6.6; |
|
|
|
|
|
0.7
|
Total seats: |
|
36 |
28 |
14 |
14 |
106 |
75 |
10 |
11 |
4 |
7 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
308 |
|
Missing ballot boxes
In
Quebec
City
, several ballot boxes containing votes from
advanced polls disappeared after the close of advance polling on
October 7. The boxes were stored in a closet at the home of
a deputy returning officer. Although there was no tampering of the
boxes or the votes, three deputy returning officers were fired.
Deputy returning officers are the only polling officials allowed to
handle ballots during the vote count and the law did allow for them
to store the sealed boxes as may be necessary in large remote rural
ridings. However the boxes were returned a day late after the
riding returning officer ordered their return.
Strategic voting
A number of political leaders and popular websites supported
strategic voting in the election,
mostly against the Conservative Party. The reasons varied from
regional, such as Newfoundland and Labrador premier Danny Williams
and his "
Anything But
Conservative" campaign, to ideological. The popular website
VoteForEnvironment.ca, which received over one million
page views in the first 12 days of its existence and whose founders
were interviewed on CBC and other mainstream media, showed regional
breakdowns per riding and offered recommendations based on which
candidate was most likely to beat the Conservative candidate. If
the Conservative candidate had little chance of winning the riding
or was strongly entrenched, the site recommended "vote with your
heart." Similarly, a vote swapping organization on
Facebook entitled "Anti-Harper Vote Swap Canada"
also gained press. The premise of that organization is that
eligible voters in different electoral districts may exchange their
votes, so that an opponent of a Conservative candidate in each
district might have a better chance of being elected in that
district. Elections Canada deemed the practice legal.
Green Party leader Elizabeth May sent out mixed signals about
strategic voting. On October 12, she recommended that in close
ridings, supporters of green policies should consider voting for
the NDP or Liberals to defeat the Conservatives, but on the same
day she said "I do not support strategic voting and I have not
advised voters to choose any candidate other than Green." In
addition, during the final days of the campaign the Liberals
attempted to attract strategic NDP and Green votes to stop the
Conservatives, and the Conservatives attempted to attract Bloc
votes to stop the Liberals.
Voter identification
Some students, homeless, and transient voters were turned away at
the polls when they were unable to provide identification showing
or otherwise confirming a place of residence. The legislation
introduced in 2007 requires all voters to show one or two pieces of
identification which confirm the voter's name and address, or to be
vouched for by another voter who is able to show such
identification.
Voter turnout
Voter turnout was the lowest in
Canadian election history, as 59.1% of the
electorate cast a ballot. All federally funded
parties except for the Greens attracted fewer total votes than in
2006; the Greens received nearly 280,000 more votes. The
Conservatives lost about 170,000 votes, the Liberals 850,000, the
Bloc 170,000 and the NDP 70,000. Some voters were at first turned
away because of failure to meet new and stricter proof of address
requirements, including 2/3 of those attempting to vote at
Dalhousie University. The effect this may have had on voter turnout
is unknown.
Judicial recounts
In a federal election, a judicial recount is automatically ordered
in a riding where the margin of victory is less than 0.1% (one
one-thousandth) of the votes cast. In cases where there is a larger
but still narrow margin of victory, an elector can request a
judicial recount.
Judicial recounts were ordered in six ridings. In one case,
Brossard—La Prairie, the
judicial recount overturned the reported victor, giving the seat to
the Liberals'
Alexandra Mendès
instead of the Bloc incumbent
Marcel
Lussier.
In four other ridings, the recount confirmed the election results,
although Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh's
margin in Vancouver South was reduced from 33 votes to just 20.
This was the slimmest victory of any riding in the entire election,
until the results of the Kitchener-Waterloo recount reduced Peter
Braid's margin of victory to a mere 17 votes. Dosanjh's
Conservative opponent, Wai Young, appealed the recount to the
Supreme Court of
British Columbia, citing that not all of the ballot boxes were
fully recounted. All ballots were eventually counted by November 4,
confirming Dosanjh's victory by 20 votes, after the initial partial
recount indicated a margin of 22 votes.
In a sixth riding, the recount was cancelled when the elector who
had requested it withdrew the request.
| Riding |
Initial validated results - First and second
place |
Recount type |
Recount date |
Judicially certified results - First and second
place |
|
Candidate |
Votes |
% |
|
Candidate |
Votes |
% |
| Egmont,
PEI |
|
Gail Shea, Con. |
8,122 |
44.0% |
Requested |
October 23, 2008 |
|
Gail Shea, Con. |
8,110 |
43.9% |
| |
Keith Milligan, Lib. |
8,060 |
43.6% |
|
Keith Milligan, Lib. |
8,055 |
43.6% |
| Brossard—La
Prairie, QC |
|
Marcel Lussier, BQ |
19,202 |
32.6% |
Requested |
October 24, 2008 |
|
Alexandra Mendès, Lib. |
19,103 |
32.6% |
| |
Alexandra Mendès, Lib. |
19,110 |
32.4% |
|
Marcel Lussier, BQ |
19,034 |
32.5% |
| Brampton West, ON |
|
Andrew Kania, Lib. |
21,739 |
40.3% |
Requested |
November 6, 2008 |
|
Andrew Kania, Lib. |
21,746 |
40.3% |
| |
Kyle Seeback, Con. |
21,516 |
39.9% |
|
Kyle Seeback, Con. |
21,515 |
39.9% |
| Kitchener—Waterloo, ON |
|
Peter Braid, Cons. |
21,851 |
36.1% |
Automatic |
October 31, 2008 |
|
Peter Braid, Cons. |
21,830 |
36.1% |
| |
Andrew Telegdi, Lib. |
21,803 |
36.0% |
|
Andrew Telegdi, Lib. |
21,813 |
36.0% |
| Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca,
BC |
|
Keith Martin, Lib. |
20,042 |
34.2% |
Requested |
Judicial recount terminated at the
request of the elector who had requested it |
| |
Troy DeSouza, Con. |
19,974 |
34.1% |
| Vancouver South,
BC |
|
Ujjal Dosanjh, Lib. |
16,101 |
38.5% |
Automatic |
November 4 2008 |
|
Ujjal Dosanjh, Lib. |
16,110 |
38.5% |
| |
Wai Young, Con. |
16,068 |
38.4% |
|
Wai Young, Con. |
16,090 |
38.4% |
Timeline
- February 6, 2006: Harper Cabinet is sworn in.
- May 3, 2007: Bill C-16 receives Royal
Assent. This bill states that the next election must be held on
October 19, 2009, unless there is an earlier dissolution.
- August 26 2008: Harper indicates he may call an election for
the fall of 2008; Parliament could be dissolved as early as the
week of September 1-6.
- August 29, 2008: Harper meets with Gilles Duceppe, the leader
of the Bloc Québécois in an attempt to find common ground between
the Bloc and the Conservatives.
- August 30, 2008: Harper meets with Jack
Layton, the leader of the New Democrats in an attempt to find
common ground between the NDP and the Conservatives.
- September 1, 2008: Harper meets with Stéphane Dion, the leader
of the Liberals, in an attempt to find common ground between the
Liberals and the Conservatives, and avert the dissolution of
Parliament, allowing the fall session to continue as planned.
However,
after a twenty-minute meeting at 24 Sussex Drive
, the PM's official residence, Dion emerges stating
there is no common ground between the two parties, and that an
election is certain.
- September 5, 2008: The Prime Minister's
Office (PMO) announces that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will
visit the Governor General at 9 am on September 7, 2008 to ask for
the dissolution of the 39th Parliament and a general election on
October 14, 2008.
- September 7, 2008: Prime Minister Harper asks Governor General
Michaëlle Jean to call a general election on October 14, 2008. She
accepts the request.
- October 14, 2008: Elections held for members of the House of
Commons in the 40th Canadian
Parliament.
- November 4, 2008: Writs to be returned to the Chief Election
Officer.
- November 10, 2008: 40th Parliament summoned.
- December 1, 2008: The Liberals and NDP sign agreement on
proposed coalition government to replace the governing
Conservatives under Prime Minister Harper.
- December 1, 2008: The Liberals, NDP, and Bloc Québécois sign
"policy accord" whereby the Bloc would support a Liberal/NDP
government for at least 18 months.
- December 4, 2008: Parliament prorogued by the Governor General
during the parliamentary dispute on
advice of the Prime Minister.
- January 26, 2009: Parliament to reconvene for second
session.
Pre-election
Prime
Minister Stephen Harper said he was considering calling an election
because of a lack of cooperation in Parliament, saying "all the
signs indicate that this Parliament is at the end of its
productiveness," while in Inuvik
, Northwest Territories. The Conservative Party of Canada fueled
rumours of an oncoming election when it released several
campaign advertisements that focused on
a range of issues, and attacked the Liberal Party of Canada for
their proposed
carbon tax. The
Prime Minister's
Office (PMO) confirmed that Harper would call an election for
October 14 after meeting with New Democratic Party leader
Jack Layton and Bloc Québécois leader
Gilles Duceppe, which gave the Prime Minister
little hope that a fall session of Parliament can be productive,
PMO officials said. Senior government officials announced on the
first of September that Stephen Harper would ask the Governor
General,
Michaëlle Jean, to
dissolve parliament and call an election for October 14, after he
met with Liberal leader Stéphane Dion who called the meeting a
"charade". Dion said the two were unable to agree on how to make
the upcoming session of Parliament, slated to begin September 15,
more productive.
Liberal
Party members gathered in Winnipeg
on September 2, for a three day caucus which
changed from preparing for a new parliamentary session to a
strategy session to formulate a plan to attack the Conservatives
while healing internal party rifts that have surfaced in recent
weeks. Conservatives began spending at least $60 million
dollars on pre-election funding projects to a wide variety of
institutions and groups.
A few announcements have been big, including
Industry Minister
Jim Prentice's pledge of $25 million
for the expansion of the Northlands
exhibition facility in Edmonton
. But the Tories have also announced a number
of smaller projects, including $40,000 for the 2008 55+ Games and
$25,000 for the Peace Window of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in
Winnipeg. The announcements have also been spread out across the
country. The Atlantic region is to get more than $500,000 for youth
jobs and eight cultural organizations.
The Association of
Book Publishers of British Columbia will receive $81,000. Jack Layton attacked
the Conservative Party as bribing the public and doing the same
thing they used to complain about the Liberals doing before
elections.
A survey conducted by
Environics
found that 38 per cent of Canadians would vote for the Conservative
party if an election were held immediately, 28 per cent would vote
for the Liberal party, 19 for the NDP, eight for the Bloc Québécois
and seven for the Green party.
The poll shows Conservatives taking early
leads in Ontario, British
Columbia and the Prairies.
In
Atlantic
Canada
, Liberals still hold a strong majority, while in
Quebec the Bloc Québécois leads while the Conservatives and
Liberals are almost tied for second. When asked, most
Canadians said the Conservatives would handle the economy better,
while most said the Liberals would handle the environment
better.
On September 7, Harper officially asked for the dissolution of
Parliament, and called for an election on October 14.
Election campaign
The 40th Canadian Federal Election campaign officially began at
8:20 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time when Governor General Michaëlle
Jean accepted Stephen Harper's request to dissolve Parliament and
call an election for October 14, 2008. The party leaders jumped
right into the campaign, with
Stéphane Dion attacking the
Conservative's record, presenting the Liberal plan, and rejected
the accusation by Harper that the Liberal party is a risky choice.
Jack Layton took a more forceful
approach than previous elections, in which the New Democratic Party
has just tried to maintain a high number of seats in Parliament to
influence government. Layton has made it clear he will campaign for
the position of prime minister itself this time, but also returned
to a longstanding NDP theme: alleged abuses by big business. He
promised to stop what he called "ripoffs" by big oil, cellphone and
banks, and his attacks are expected to focus on the Conservatives
and all but ignore the Liberals.
Elizabeth
May of the Green Party said Canadians would care enough about
the environment to vote for her party, as long as she was able to
get into the television debates. Stephen Harper has stated his
objection to including the Green Party into television debates
because of the similar policies of the Green and Liberal party, and
how it would be unfair. Bloc Québécois Leader
Gilles Duceppe said the Conservatives must be
prevented from winning a majority, and the
BQ is the only party that can do
that. Duceppe compared Harper to
US President George W. Bush,
and said the government is incompetent.
Leaders' Debates
The two
Leaders'
Debates of 2008, one each in French and English, included the
leaders of five parties, Stephen Harper of the Conservatives,
Stéphane Dion of the Liberals, Jack Layton of the NDP, Gilles
Duceppe of the Bloc Québécois and Elizabeth May of the Green
Party.
The French-language debate aired on Wednesday, 1 October from 8 to
10 p.m.
EDT, moderated by
Stéphan Bureau, a journalist and host.
The English-language debate aired Thursday, 2 October from 9 to 11
p.m. EDT, with
Steve Paikin of
TVOntario as moderator.
Participation
Three parties — the Conservatives, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP —
opposed the inclusion of the Green Party, citing statements made by
Green Party leader Elizabeth May to the effect that the best
outcome of the election would be a Liberal-led government, and a
deal struck between the Green Party and Liberals where the Liberals
would not run in May's riding, Central Nova, and the Green party in
Liberal leader Stéphane Dion's riding, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville,
which they say make May a "second Liberal candidate".
Stephen Harper and Jack Layton are reported to have said that if
the Green Party were included, they would not participate in the
Leaders' Debates. Dion said that while he supports May's inclusion,
he would not attend if Harper does not, and the Bloc Québécois has
stated it will not boycott the debates if May is included. The
media consortium in charge of the debate, made up of the
CBC,
CTV,
Global Television and
TVA, had decided that it would prefer to
broadcast the debates with the four major party leaders, rather
than risk not at all or with minimal participation. The Green Party
indicated they had begun procedures to lodge a formal complaint
with the
Canadian
Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, as they
have in past federal elections.
On September 10, Harper and Layton released statements that they
would not oppose May's inclusion in the debate, citing public
backlash and protests — with neither acknowledging making the
threat of boycotting the debate — and that the media consortium
would reconvene to discuss the matter. Layton stated that "debating
about the debate" had become a "distraction", and that he had only
one condition, that Stephen Harper be there. In response, spokesmen
for Stephen Harper announced they would not stand alone in
opposition to the Green Party's inclusion in the debates and also
changed their position on the matter. Later that day the consortium
announced that May would be allowed to participate in the
debate.
Format change
On September 30, Harper announced that he would ask for the 12
minutes on the economy scheduled for the Leader's Debate to be
extended to an hour, citing that the
financial crisis affecting
the U.S. "has deepened since the debate format was finalized",
a change which would require agreement from the other parties in
the debate to be approved. The NDP released a statement soon after
that they supported the move, while public response has been
concerned that other topics such as the environment would not end
up with enough time to cover the issue.
On October 1, the day of the first debate, it was announced that
both debates would get extended time, from 12 to 30 minutes, for
the economy, and leaders would not give opening and closing
statements, to allow for longer discussions on the economy without
removing time from other topics. It was also revealed that instead
of leaders standing at individual podiums for the debate, as had
been done in past years, the debate would be done in a
round table format.
The debates
French debate
- Full Video French Debate - CBC English
Dub
Much of French debate revolved around the economy and the
environment, with the two topics repeatedly being brought up in
discussions allotted for other topics. Stephen Harper came under
criticism from every other leader in nearly every topic, especially
the economy and environment, with the other party leaders stating
that Harper's politics had led to Canada's current crises in those
two areas. Their points included that Harper's environmental plan
was considered the worst of all developing countries by
organizations around the world, with Elizabeth May labeling it "a
type of fraud," and that his attempts to remove regulations in the
financial sectors, similar to those done by the
Bush administration in the
United States, have led Canada to being nearly as hard hit by the
current financial
crisis as the United States.
Continuous comparisons of Harper to
George W. Bush
were made over the course of the debate, with Jack Layton stating
at one point that with Bush ending his presidency at the end of the
year, Harper would be "the last leader of a developed country to
follow the
Bush doctrine."
English debate
- Full Video English Debate
Following the same tone as the French debate, much of the
discussion revolved around the economy and the environment. The
other four leaders keep criticizing Harper, especially for his lack
of an economic platform despite asking for the format change to
focus more on the economy in light of the ongoing financial crisis,
and instead using the time to criticize the economic platforms of
the other leaders. May lashed out at Harper for not understanding
that Canadians were worried about their homes, jobs and finances,
and comparing the current situation to
Dutch disease, Dion stated that the only thing
that keeps Canada from being hit as hard by the crisis as the US
are laws created by the previous Liberal government that the
Conservatives had been attempting to overturn, Duceppe repeatedly
criticized Harper for financial practices and attitudes similar to
the
Bush
administration, and Layton at one point stated that Harper's
position showed he was either incompetent or uncaring to the
situation, and asked which one he was, to which Harper did not
respond. Harper also came under criticism for his laissez-faire
attitude to the job sector, supporting primarily the oil companies
and companies that outsource jobs in the manufacturing
sector.
When it turned to the environment, the Carbon Tax proposal came up
repeatedly, with both Dion and May supporting it, although May to
more ambitious figures than Dion, pointing out it was the most
recommended and proven way to deal with carbon emissions by
countries and organizations around the world, noting the growth
that Sweden and Germany have had with this system. Harper
criticized the plan, saying would increase taxpayers' burden and
that Dion should be "honest with the people" that some
environmental measures will cost the economy and said the plan
includes $40 billion in carbon taxes and $26 billion in tax cuts.
Dion defended the Liberal's Green Shift, saying that "[Harper's
statements are] not true at all", and that "for every dollar that
we will raise, you will have a tax cut, and these tax cuts will be
on your income". Duceppe commented that he would like targets to be
applied to individual provinces, thereby allowing Quebec to
financially benefit due to already-implemented greenhouse gas
reductions. Layton, who favours a
cap-and-trade system, said that it is a
"figment of Mr. Harper's imagination" that emissions will fall
under his plan.
When Harper sought to outline his
government's record on other environmental fronts, giving examples
of his minority government supported the preservation of hundreds
of thousands of hectares of environmentally sensitive land through
the Nature Conservancy of
Canada, and that the government declared a protected marine
area by Lake
Superior
and created
a whale sanctuary by Baffin Island
, May responded by saying "The only word he said
that's true is on national parks".
Layton also criticized Dion for his lack of accomplishments as
official opposition during the minority government, and his party's
previous leader's broken promises in areas such as Child Care and
Pharmacare.
Duceppe painted the Conservative government's $45 million in
national arts and culture funding cuts as an assault on the
province's identity, saying "How can you recognize the Quebec
nation and then cut culture [funding], which is the soul of a
nation?" followed by citing the economic benefits of culture.
Harper also said he had erred in calling for Canada's participation
in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, saying "It was absolutely an
error, it's obviously clear", adding that the claim of weapons of
mass destruction proved false.
Commenting on the debate, Layton said that he "thoroughly enjoyed"
May's contributions to the debate. Reporter
Julie Van Dusen said that Harper managed to
take the hits calmly, as "someone must have told him … if you fight
back or get too partisan, you're going to alienate voters,
especially women". Duceppe said he was happy to have forced Harper
to admit his support of joining the Iraq war in 2003 was a mistake,
adding he will use the admission in the campaign as "Exhibit A"
that the Conservative leader lacks solid judgment skills, and that
Harper was weakened when he confirmed he does not support a
refundable tax credit for the manufacturing industry to encourage
companies to improve productivity.
Issues
Arts
Stephen
Harper had cut $45 million from arts funding while in office, a
move that drew much criticism from the other leaders and Quebec citizens,
with most leaders seeking to restore the funding.
The
Conservatives have stated that the money is being reallocated to
other arts and cultural programs, including various official
languages projects, the 400th anniversary of Quebec City and projects connected with the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Winter Olympic
Games, although the Conservative's refusal to have a
parliamentary review of their cuts and for a moratorium on the
measures until the
House of Commons Heritage Committee had a chance to hold
hearings on culture and arts funding has most opposition members
calling foul.
Both Stéphane Dion and Jack Layton have promised to reverse the
cut, with Dion also promising to increase funding to
Canada Council for the Arts to
$360 million, while Layton also promised to bring income averaging
for artists to the national level and providing an annual tax
exemption of $20,000 for income earned by copyright and residuals,
stating that "one of the key things we must do, before we start
giving $50-billion tax giveaways to banks and oil companies, is to
protect and promote the arts" and "stable, sure and appropriate
funding" for
CBC/Radio-Canada while
also protecting
Telefilm Canada and
the
Canadian Television
Fund.
Harper has said that he believes that the issue is a "niche topic",
and that "ordinary Canadians" are not particularly concerned with
the issue. A group of Canadian performers, which included
Art Hindle,
Wendy
Crewson and
Gordon Pinsent, held
a press conference on September 24, saying the cuts would cripple
the Canadian arts industry.
On September 29, Harper unveiled a new tax credit plan worth an
estimated $150 million a year to encourage parents to enroll their
kids in arts programs like music and drama. The credit will apply
on up to $500 of eligible fees for children under 16 who
participate in eligible arts activities. Harper said that "[the
Conservatives] spend a lot more on culture and arts" but "in a way
that we ensure is an effective use of taxpayers' money and
ultimately, in this case, benefits families and all of society as
well". Harper has come under criticism when the week before he
expressed his opinion that "ordinary working people were unable to
relate to taxpayer-subsidized cultural elites when they see them at
a rich gala on television".
Alleged Cadman bribe attempt
In early 2008 it was alleged that Independent MP
Chuck Cadman of
Surrey
North, who was terminally ill with cancer at the time, had been
offered a half-million life insurance policy in exchange for voting
against the proposed Liberal budget in May 2005, which he turned
down. Under section 119 of the
Criminal Code of Canada, it is
illegal to bribe an MP.
Accordingly, Opposition Liberal party
Intergovernmental Affairs critic Dominic
LeBlanc asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
(RCMP) in February 2008 to investigate this
allegation, that the Conservatives had offered Mr. Cadman a
million-dollar life insurance policy in exchange for his support on
the budget vote. In May 2008, the RCMP announced that there
was not enough evidence to support charges.Cadman died in July. The
following month, Harper stated in a court deposition that he
personally authorized an offer made to Cadman in 2005. There is
currently an ongoing legal battle between the Liberals and the
Conservatives over the matter.
On September 24, while campaigning in Surrey North, Stephen
Harper's campaign team barred reporters from talking with the local
Conservative candidate,
Dona Cadman, who
is Chuck Cadman's widow.
The campaign team called in the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and ordered them to "Keep [the reporters]
out" while Cadman was taken away by staff. Harper spokesman
Kory Teneycke later stated that he had
not seen the incident, but the local candidates did not need to be
interviewed, that "Local candidates' priority is campaigning in
their local ridings, and not talking to the national media", and
that it should be enough that they hold daily news conferences with
the party's most prominent members.
The incident has reminded people of Conservative tactics during the
2006 election, where attempts by the media to speak with local
candidates were stopped by campaign personnel, especially the
Harold Albrecht incident, where
campaign officials forced Albrecht to stay in a restaurant kitchen
when journalists attempted to interview him.
The
Conservatives chose former FBI agent
Bruce Koenig to analyze
a tape of reporter Tom Zytaruk
interviewing Harper on the Cadman bribe attempt. The tape
was a key piece of evidence in the ongoing legal battle. On October
10, Keonig announced that the tape had not been altered in any way,
contrary to the claims by Stephen Harper that it had been
altered.
Canadian involvement in Afghanistan
The
ongoing involvement of the
Canadian Forces in Afghanistan
may also influence voters. Desmond Morton, a
political science professor at McGill University
suggested that the Conservatives could be blamed
for the war because they have extended the mission twice, despite
the fact that it was then Liberal Leader Jean Chrétien who was Canada's prime
minister when Canada's current military involvement in Afghanistan
first started in 2001. Both the Conservatives and Liberals
have at various times agreed to extend the mission(s) to at least
2011, so this may result in some Canadians who are strongly against
Canada's ongoing involvement, who might have otherwise typically
voted either Liberal or Conservative in the past, to take their
votes elsewhere in 2008.
Cities and infrastructure
Toronto Mayor
David
Miller has spoken out that the parties need to focus more on
cities and their infrastructure, stating that 8 out of 10 Canadians
live in cities, and that so far only the
Green party has revealed a platform on
the issue, with a national transit strategy and plans to give
cities a permanent revenue source to help fix a growing
infrastructure backlog. Miller stated he will not endorse a
specific party, but urges people to choose a party that will "help
cities thrive". He disagrees with Stephen Harper's opinion that
"cities are not of national importance".
On September 18, Stéphane Dion pledged to spend more than $70
billion over the next 10 years to improve Canada's infrastructure
if elected, and budget surpluses that exceed a $3-billion
contingency fund to infrastructure projects, particularly those
with a green focus, calling Canada's cities and towns "the engines
of our economy".
Stephen Harper
immediately lashed out at the spending proposal, saying Dion was
"promising money no government could afford" and that the
Conservative's infrastructure plans "are modest and affordable
within the four-year budget we've published".
On
September 23, Montreal
and Toronto mayors Gérald Tremblay and David Miller laid
out their demands for urban municipalities, describing cities'
current financial problems as a national issue, saying that cities
have become the country's economic, social and cultural development
engines and need appropriate support, and that they need better
"fiscal tools" to continue their role as Canada's economic engines
or the country will suffer. They listed
Homelessness,
traffic
gridlock,
crowded buses and
overstretched
police departments
as just a few of the symptoms, that "These problems are too big and
too important to be solved on the backs of property taxpayers" and
that "in order to remain competitive, transport goods efficiently
and attract new talent, our cities require quality infrastructure,
affordable housing and first-rate recreational and cultural
facilities".
Jean Perrault,
president of the Federation of Canadian
Municipalities and mayor of Sherbrooke
, Quebec, has stated
that things like the Federal Gas
Tax Fund were an important federal commitment, but that more is
needed to tackle cities' overwhelming infrastructure
needs.
On September 29, Layton announced plans to direct one cent per
litre of the gas tax, approximately $400 million a year, into
transit projects across the country, and direct $350 million from
the sale of carbon permits to big polluters, saying that "the major
polluters would be the ones paying to make transit greener, not you
and your families", and that "fighting climate change requires
investing in transit, and that's what our plan does".
Economy
Polls have suggested that the
economy is the major issue going into this
election, especially with the resulting high price of gas, along
with rising prices of other goods and services, such as food, and
the possible impact the
current financial crisis may
have on Canada. Some experts say that Canada has just narrowly
dodged a
recession, although the economy
is in its worst shape since 1991.
Both Dion and Harper have said that the others' plans will lead
Canada into a recession, while Dion also stated that Harper has
"mismanaged a once-booming economy into one with growth dropping to
among the lowest of the
G8 nations".
The Conservatives have stated possible negative consequences that
could happen to the economy based on Liberal election promises if
they were to be elected. As of September 20, 2008, Liberal election
promises have totaled in excess of $80 billion spending over the
next decade. In contrast, the cost of programs promised by the
Conservatives to date is less than $2 billion annually. Stephen
Harper, the Prime Minister, has criticized the Liberal's spending
promises, saying they are making "mind-boggling" spending plans
that he predicts would send Canada into deficit.
After the rejection of the
proposed
bailout of the United States financial system and resulting
market fluctuation all over the world, including the
Toronto Stock Exchange, Jack Layton
called for Harper to call a special meeting for federal party
leaders to discuss the potential effects of the U.S economic crisis
on Canadians, suggestion the afternoon of October 1, since all
leaders would be in Ottawa for the
first Leaders' Debate that night. A
spokesman for Harper later reported that Harper would not call such
a meeting, and to save discussion for the Leader's Debate, as
"[they] will have an opportunity later this week to debate — not
behind closed doors but in front of all Canadians — the issues at
stake not [just] for our economy but for our country". Harper later
announced that he would ask for the 12 minutes on the economy
scheduled for the Leader's Debate to be extended to an hour, citing
that the financial crisis affecting the U.S. "has deepened since
the debate format was finalized", a change which would require
agreement from the other parties in the debate to be approved. The
NDP released a statement soon after that they supported the move,
while public response has been concerned that other topics such as
the environment would not end up with enough time to cover the
issue. All the leaders supported the idea, and the opening and
closing statements were dropped and the allotted time for the
economy extended to 30 minutes without affecting the other
topics.
During the Leaders' Debates Harper repeatedly came under fire for
lack of an economic plan in the current time of crisis and while
campaigning, and for his lack of ability to explain how he would
deal with the current crisis, merely repeating that Canada was
unlikely to face such a crisis as he had made "different choices"
than the US while in power without being able to explain what those
different choices were, as all of his examples were immediately
compared to practices done by the
Bush administration, and
insisted that Canadians "don't panic." In response to mounting
pressure from the public, Harper announced on October 3 that he
would reveal his party's platform, including economic matters, on
October 7, one week before the election.
Environment
Shortly
after the election was called, Harper was criticized for using a
four-vehicle motorcade that included a van
and SUV to travel the across
the street from the door of 24 Sussex Drive to the door of Rideau Hall
to dissolve parliament. In return, the
Conservatives criticized the Liberal party's decision to use a
29-year-old
Boeing 737-200 for
campaigning, saying that the older airplane's poor fuel efficiency
demonstrates hypocrisy on environmental matters. Daniel Lauzon, a
spokesperson for the Liberals, denied their airplane was
substantially less efficient than the Conservatives'
Airbus A319.
The Tories have been previously criticized for backing out of
Canada's commitments under the
Kyoto
Protocol. Their new plan requires industries to reduce the rate
at which they generate
greenhouse
gases, with a goal of reducing overall emissions by 45 to 65
percent by 2050. The plan has been criticized by groups such as the
Sierra Club, who called it "completely
inadequate". Criticism has focused on the use of "intensity-based"
targets, for which emission reductions are relative to overall
production, so overall emissions could potentially increase if
production also increases. This is in contrast to a "hard cap" on
emissions, for which the overall amount cannot increase. The
Conservatives' plan includes a hard cap to begin in 2020 or 2025,
while environmental groups have advocated for an immediate hard
cap.
The Liberals have developed a "
Green Shift"
plan, creating a
carbon tax that will be
coupled with reductions to
income tax
rates. Criticism of the Green Shift plan has focused on its
economic effects, with the Conservatives predicting it would cause
a "big recession". When pressed by reporters to provide evidence of
this impact, Harper "wasn't able to cite a study that specifically
modelled the impact of the Liberal Green Shift plan", instead
citing an older economic model about the implementation of the
Kyoto Protocol.
One
trucking association claimed the Liberal
carbon tax plan could put up to 10,000 jobs in jeopardy in Moncton
alone. Environmental activist
David
Suzuki has come out in support of Dion's plan, saying "To
oppose [the carbon tax plan], it's just nonsense. It's certainly
the way we got to go" and giving an interview explaining why it is
the most effective way to solve the environmental crisis.
The NDP's plan for the environment has focused on
emissions trading, claiming their system
will decrease greenhouse emissions by 80% by 2050. The plan
includes a series of financial incentives to retrofit
public transit systems and transition the
economy to be "
green-collar".
The plan
would also halt new tar sands
development until emissions have been
capped. Layton has also criticized the Liberal carbon tax
plan, stating it taxes families instead of polluters.
Equalization
Danny Williams, the Progressive
Conservative premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, launched a campaign called Anything But Conservative,
primarily targeted at Harper and the federal Conservatives.
He opposes a Conservative majority, due in part to Harper's promise
during the 2006 election to modify the
equalization formula to fully share
offshore oil revenues with the province, which Williams says Harper
has broken, and what Harper has stated he will do with a majority
government. Accordingly, virtually all members of the provincial PC
caucus supported Liberal or NDP candidates in this election.
Leo Power, a veteran of federal politics and the Conservative Party
of Canada's campaign co-chair for Newfoundland and Labrador, said
raising money and recruiting volunteers has proved difficult, and
blames Williams's ABC campaign, saying it has cut deep into the
federal election machine that is struggling to compete. Power has
also said his party's best hope of winning a seat in the province
is in the riding of
Avalon with incumbent candidate
Fabian Manning. Manning was defeated
by Liberal
Scott Andrews,
while
St. John's East and
St. John's South—Mount
Pearl, which were represented by Conservatives not running for
re-election, were won by the NDP and Liberals, respectively,
leaving the Conservatives with no representatives in Newfoundland
and Labrador.
Leadership
Since before the election was announced, the Conservative party has
been running attack ads about Dion, saying he is not a capable
leader. Dion has criticized the Conservatives for running the
ads.
On October 9, Stephen Harper called into question the abilities of
Liberal leader Dion after footage from the false starts of an
interview on
CTV Atlantic, and later
rebroadcast on
Mike Duffy
Live, were aired to the public, and criticized Dion's
grasp of the English language and the strength of the Liberals'
plan for the Canadian economy.
The footage shows interviewer
Steve Murphy asking Dion the
question: "If you were the Prime Minister now, what would you have
done about the economy, and this crisis, that Mr. Harper has not
done?". Dion had difficulty in understanding the question,
repeatedly asking Murphy to clarify if he meant if Dion was Prime
Minister now, next Tuesday on election day, last week, last month,
60 weeks ago, or two and a half years ago. Eventually, after three
start overs to the interview, Dion responded with what he would do
if elected Prime Minister in the future. CTV initially agreed to
re-start the interviews and not air the false starts but changed
their minds and announced that they felt it was their
responsibility to show it. Harper responded to the clips by saying
that "When you're running a trillion-and-a-half-dollar economy you
don't get a chance to have do-overs, over and over again" and "What
this incident actually indicates very clearly is Mr. Dion and the
Liberal Party really don't know what they would do on the economy",
and when told that the difficulties were in part due to English
being Dion's second language, Harper said "I don't think this is a
question of language at all. The question was very clear. It was
asked repeatedly."
Mark Dunn, a spokesman for Dion, accused
the Tories of making fun of the Liberal leader's hearing issues.
Dion responded to Harper's comments, saying Harper had "no class",
saying "I did not understand the question", and "Maybe it's because
I have a hearing problem, maybe because [English is] my second
language, but I did not understand the question." Both the
Conservatives and the CTV have come under criticism for their
handling of the footage, but they have stated they stand by their
actions. Duceppe has called Harper's comments a "double standard",
saying that many English-speaking politicians have little or no
ability to speak French, yet francophones are somehow always
expected to be perfect, and that the attack was an attempted "low
blow". But Duceppe also took the opportunity to criticise Dion,
suggesting he understood the question. "The real question is that I
think Dion understood the question. The real problem wasn't the
language, it was the substance," Duceppe said, "He had nothing to
say". Layton also defended Dion, saying he has "struggled with
questions, too."
Former Prime Minister
Jean
Chrétien has come out criticizing Harper's leadership
abilities, noting especially Harper's controlling ways with his
cabinet ministers, saying he would have quit if former prime
minister
Pierre Elliott
Trudeau had treated him that way, that "Mr. Dion was a minister
for nine years. And Mr. Harper arrived there with no experience and
it shows", that the phrase 'Tory times are bad times', in use since
the 1930s, was still true and that "Harper destroyed 50 years of
relationships with China", Canada's second biggest trading partner
after the US, noting both past Liberal and Progressive Conservative
governments sought to maintain its dealings with the key trading
partner. Former Prime Minister
Paul
Martin has also supported Dion's plans and abilities, and many
have noted Dion's ability to get both Chrétien and Martin to
support him, despite Chrétien and Martin's ongoing feud.
Listeriosis outbreak
The
Minister of
Agriculture Gerry Ritz, who has
already been criticized by Canada's food scientists for his
handling of the
2008
listeriosis outbreak, has also been criticized for making
inappropriate comments, further angering the families of those
affected. Ritz had joked about the outbreak while he was on a
conference call with scientists and political staffers on August
30, saying the political fallout from the outbreak was "like a
death by a thousand cuts, or should I say cold cuts".
In addition, when he
was informed of a listeriosis-related death in Prince
Edward Island, he quipped "Please tell me it's [Liberal
agriculture critic] Wayne
Easter." Despite calls for Ritz's resignation from the
other parties and the public, Stephen Harper has supported Ritz and
rebuffed calls for his resignation.
The
Public Service
Alliance of Canada revealed to the media that the Conservative
party plans to cut federal funding to meat inspection programs by
$3 million, effectively ending their operation in Manitoba,
Saskatchewan and British Columbia.
Speech plagiarism
On September 30, it was revealed by
Bob Rae
of the Liberal Party that on March 20, 2003, Stephen Harper had
plagiarized a speech that called for
troops to be
deployed to Iraq to
assist the US invasion from Australian Prime Minister
John Howard, which Howard had delivered two days
before, on March 18.
Following Rae's statement, Harper's spokesman
Kory Teneycke dismissed the issue as
irrelevant, saying "I'm not going to get into a debate about a
five-year-old speech that was delivered three Parliaments ago, two
elections ago, when the prime minister was the leader of a party
that no longer exists".
The Canadian Alliance staff member and former
Fraser Institute policy analyst, Owen
Lippert, who wrote that speech was working on the current election
campaign at Conservative campaign headquarters. On September 30,
2008 he issued a statement and resigned as a result of the
incident.
He stated:
On October 3, there was a second plagiarism allegation from the
Liberals, who said that Harper had copied several sentences from a
speech by former Ontario premier
Mike
Harris. Harper denied the allegation, saying "we're talking
about a couple of sentences of fairly standard political
rhetoric".
On October 6, the Conservatives contended that Dion had also
committed plagiarism when, as Minister of the Environment in 2005,
he went to a
United Nations
conference on climate change to deliver a speech which had
substantial similarities to the executive summary of a year old UN
report. The Liberal party has yet to respond to the plagiarism
allegation.
Controversies
Candidates
Conservative
Chris Reid, the Conservative candidate from
Toronto Centre, resigned over controversial
statements on his blog, which advocated revising Canadian
gun control legislation to legalize
concealed carriage of handguns. He was
replaced by David Gentili.
The Conservatives apologized after an aide to
Pontiac candidate
Lawrence Cannon told
Aboriginal protesters that they
were free to meet with Cannon "if you behave and you're sober and
there's no problems and if you don't do a sit down and
whatever."
Liberal
Liberal candidate Simon Bédard was also asked to resign after he
reiterated his 1990 comments, suggesting that lethal force should
have been used in the
Oka Crisis.
Liberal candidate Lesley Hughes was dropped by the Liberal Party
after making controversial comments about the
September 11, 2001 attacks. She
continued to campaign as an independent, though she appeared as a
Liberal on the ballot.
NDP
Andrew McKeever, an NDP candidate in
Durham, announced on October 3
that he would resign from the election campaign after it was
revealed that he had posted comments on
Facebook in which he called one war activist a
“fascist bitch” and threatened to beat up another person. Mr.
McKeever wrote comments peppered with expletives and calling the
operators of a war resister website “Nazis.” McKeever was also
quoted as saying “I like the part in
Schindler’s List when
the guard starts waxing the prisoners.” McKeever’s decision to drop
out of the race came with just over a week left in the campaign,
meaning his name would remain on the ballot. One week before the
publication of McKeever's resignation, NDP leader Jack Layton
defended McKeever and refused to make him step down.
Julian West, the candidate
for the riding of
Saanich—Gulf Islands, dropped
out of the race after details surfaced about an environmental event
he attended 12 years ago when he went skinny-dipping and asked two
teenagers to body-paint him. Two other candidates in British
Columbia who were proponents of marijuana decriminalization —
Dana Larsen and Kirk Tousaw — resigned
earlier after videos they had produced for Internet site Pot-TV
were released to the media. One of the videos, filmed in 2000,
showed Mr. Larsen, former leader of the
BC Marijuana Party, preparing to light up
a joint before driving a car, after having taken the short-acting
hallucinogenic drug DMT earlier in the evening.
Green
John
Shavluk, the Green candidate in Newton—North Delta, was removed
from the party's slate of candidates on September 4, just before
the election call, after it was revealed that he had previously
published comments in his blog about the September 11 attacks in 2001, in which
he referred to the World Trade Center
as "the shoddily built Jewish world bank
headquarters". He was replaced by Liz Walker as the Green
Party candidate, but remained on the ballot as an
independent.
Independent
At an all-candidates debate staged for a high school student
audience in
Sudbury on
September 29, independent candidate
David Popescu responded to a
question about same-sex marriage by stating that "homosexuals
should be executed". His remarks were widely criticized across
Canada, and the
Greater
Sudbury Police Service announced an investigation into whether
the comments constituted a crime under Canadian
hate speech legislation. He was subsequently
investigated by the
Toronto Police as
well, after a radio interview on October 2 in which he specifically
advocated the execution of
Egale Canada
executive director
Helen
Kennedy.
Vandalism
Supporters of Ontario Liberal MPs
Carolyn Bennett (
St.
Paul's) and
Gerard Kennedy
(
Parkdale—High Park) who
had Liberal signs outside their houses were subject to
vandalism during the later hours of October 3,
including graffiti, phone and cable lines being cut, and damage to
vehicles that included brake cutting. Toronto police reported over
30 incidents of vandalism as of October 6. Some of the victims did
not realize their brakes had been cut until they were in traffic,
and there was at least one near-accident. Liberal Senator
Jerry Grafstein was one of the residents who
reported vandalism to his car.
Vandalism was also reported at the campaign offices of
Trinity—Spadina Liberal candidate
Christine Innes and Beaches—East York
New Democratic Party candidate
Marilyn Churley, as well as in
Niagara Falls.
Legality of the election
After the election was called,
Democracy Watch, an Ottawa-based
advocacy group, filed a legal suit claiming that the election call
was illegal because it violated the 2007 amendments to the
Canada Elections Act. These amendments,
introduced by the Harper government, set fixed dates for elections,
and fulfilled a 2006 promise made by Harper to end the Prime
Minister's ability to call snap elections.
On September 17, 2009, the
Federal Court of Canada ruled that
the election was not unfair, and therefore not illegal. Democracy
Watch has announced that they plan to appeal.
Target seats
The following is a list of ridings which had narrowly been lost by
the indicated party in the 2006 election. For instance, under the
Liberal column are the 15 seats in which they came closest to
winning but did not. Listed is the name of the riding, followed by
the party which was victorious (in parentheses) and the margin, in
terms of percentage of the vote, by which the party lost.
These ridings were targeted by the specified party because the
party had lost them by a very slim margin in the 2006
election.
Up to 15 are shown, with a maximum margin of victory of 15%.
* Indicates incumbent not running again. To clarify further; this
is a list of federal election winners with their party in
parentheses, and their margin as a percentage of the vote over the
party whose list the seat is on (not the same as the margin of
victory if the party potentially "targeting" the seat in that list
did not finish second in the previous election). "Won" means that
the targeting party won the seat from the incumbent party. "Held"
means the incumbent party held the seat.
| Conservative |
Liberal |
- Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill
River, SK (Lib) 0.3%* (won)†
- Brant, ON (Lib) 0.9%
(won)
- West Nova, NS (Lib) 1.1% (won)
- Vancouver Island North,
BC (NDP) 1.1% (won)
- Oakville, ON (Lib)
1.3% (won)
-
West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC (Lib) 1.5%
(won)‡
- Huron—Bruce, ON (Lib) 1.8%*
(won)
- London West, ON (Lib) 2.2%
(won)
- Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
(Lib) 2.4% (held)
- Newton—North Delta,
BC (Lib) 3.6% (held)
- Saint
Boniface, MB (Lib) 3.6% (won)
- Saint John, NB
(Lib) 3.6% (won)
- Mississauga South, ON (Lib)
4.1% (held)
- Richmond, BC (Lib)
4.1% (won)
- Random—Burin—St.
George's, NL (Lib) 4.7% (held)
|
- Parry Sound—Muskoka,
ON (Con) <0.1% (held)=""></0.1%>
- Winnipeg South, MB (Con) 0.3%
(held)
- Glengarry—Prescott—Russell,
ON (Con) 0.4% (held)
- Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
(Con) 0.9% (held)
- St.
Catharines, ON (Con) 1.1% (held)
- Ahuntsic, QC (BQ)
1.7% (held)
- Fleetwood—Port
Kells, BC (Con) 1.9% (held)
- London—Fanshawe, ON
(NDP) 1.9% (held)
- Ottawa—Orléans, ON
(Con) 2.0% (held)
- Simcoe North, ON (Con) 2.0%
(held)
- Brossard—La Prairie,
QC (BQ) 2.2% (won)
- Papineau, QC (BQ)
2.2% (won)
- Burnaby—Douglas, BC
(NDP) 2.6% (held)
- Barrie, ON (Con)
2.7% (held)
- Kitchener—Conestoga,
ON (Con) 2.7% (held)
|
| Bloc Québécois |
New Democratic |
- Louis-Hébert, QC
(Con) 0.4% (won)
- Beauport—Limoilou, QC
(Con) 1.6% (held)
- Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles,
QC (Con) 2.7% (held)
- Hull—Aylmer, QC (Lib) 3.3%
(held)
- Honoré-Mercier, QC
(Lib) 3.8% (held)
- Pontiac, QC (Con)
5.0% (held)
- Laval—Les Îles, QC
(Lib) 6.1% (held)
- Outremont, QC
(Lib) 6.3%¹ (held by NDP)
- Bourassa, QC (Lib)
11.4% (held)
- Jonquière—Alma, QC
(Con) 12.8% (held)
- Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier,
QC (Ind) 13.9% (held)
|
- Thunder
Bay—Superior North, ON (Lib) 1.0%* (won)
- Newton—North Delta,
BC (Lib) 1.6% (held)
- Thunder Bay—Rainy
River, ON (Lib) 1.7% (won)
- Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing,
ON (Lib) 3.7% (won)
- Nickel Belt, ON (Lib) 4.6%* *
(won)
- Esquimalt—Juan de
Fuca, BC (Lib) 4.6% (held)
- Welland, ON (Lib)
4.8% (won)
- Oshawa, ON (Con)
5.2% (held)
- Pitt
Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC (Con) 5.2% (held)
- Beaches—East York, ON
(Lib) 5.4% (held)
- Kenora, ON (Lib)
5.7% (won by Conservatives)
- Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar,
SK (Con) 6.5%* (held)
- Central Nova, NS (Con) 7.8%
(held)
- South Shore—St.
Margaret's, NS (Con) 8.3% (held)
- Fleetwood—Port
Kells, BC (Con) 8.3% (held)
|
† Won by the Conservatives in an intervening
by-election with more than a 15% margin over the Liberals.
‡ The incumbent had become an independent and was sitting as a
Green at the time of dissolution.
¹ Won by the NDP in an intervening by-election with more
than a 19% margin over the Liberals. |
Targeted Cabinet ministers
The following Cabinet ministers were elected by a margin of less
than 10% in 2006:
- Tony Clement, Health and Federal
Economic Initiative for Northern Ontario: 0.1% over Lib in Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
- Lawrence Cannon, Transport,
Infrastructure and Communities: 5.0% over BQ in Pontiac, QC
- Jim Flaherty, Finance: 5.7% over
Lib in Whitby—Oshawa, ON
- Rob Nicholson, Justice: 5.9% over
Lib in Niagara
Falls, ON
- Peter MacKay, Defence and Atlantic
Opportunities: 7.8% over NDP in Central
Nova, NS
- John Baird,
Environment: 9.0% over Lib in Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
Potential fall of government
On December 1, 2008, as the result of opposition dissatisfaction
with the government's economic update (which failed to include
stimulus measures to help the Canadian economy contend with the
global crisis and included a
'poison pill' regarding the cessation of public party financing),
the leaders of the Liberal Party, New Democratic Party, and Bloc
Québécois announced they had reached an agreement to approach the
governor general for the
purpose of forming a
coalition
government. Combined, the three opposition parties constitute a
majority of seats in the House of Commons. Parliament was due to
vote on a
no-confidence
motion on December 8; if successful, the Liberals and NDP would
have formally formed the coalition for 30 months, while the BQ
pledged to support it for at least 18 months. Liberal leader
Stéphane Dion would have become prime minister until the selection
of his successor at the Liberal leadership convention in May 2009,
and a coalition
cabinet would have
comprised 18 Liberal members (including a finance minister) and 6
NDP members. Governor General
Michaëlle Jean had cut short a
state visit to
Europe "in
light of the current political situation in Canada."On December 4,
2008, Jean granted Harper's request to
prorogue Parliament until January 26,
2009, thereby staving off the prospect of an imminent change in
government.
Opinion polls
Plot of Opinion Polls during the
election period
Endorsements
Candidates by party
Seats that changed hands
Incumbent MPs not running for re-election
Conservatives
Liberals
Bloc Québécois
New Democrats
Vacancies upon dissolution
By-elections in
progress in four vacant ridings were cancelled when the general
election was called.
Defeated incumbents
Conservatives
Liberals
New Democrats
Bloc Québécois
Greens
Independents
References
- Key Dates for each Parliament,
Parliament of Canada
- Tories prepped for March campaign,
The Globe and Mail, February 15,
2007
- Anti-Harper/Tory, pro-environment website slammed
with pageviews LondonTopic.ca. October 6, 2008.
- Tutton, Michael. May says to vote NDP or Liberal in close ridings.
The Toronto Star. October 12, 2008.
- Green party says leader not calling for strategic
voting to block Tories. CBC News. October 12,
2008.
- Dion urges Greens to go red, May muddies
waters. The Canadian Press. October 12, 2008.
- [1]
- Elections Canada Announces Results of Judicial
Recount in the Electoral District of Vancouver South
- Elections Canada – Election Night Results
- "Tory candidate to appeal recount",
The Globe and Mail, October 28,
2008.
- 3 Three letters patent dissolving Parliament,
setting calling election, and summoning a new Parliament.
- Layton says no doubt there will be federal
election, CBC
News, March 21, 2007
- "Tories launch attack ads aimed at Dion",
cbc.ca, January 29,
2007.
- Harper denies latest allegations of speech
plagiarism. CBC News. October 4, 2008.
- TheStar.com
- Ottawa Citizen
- Canada.com
- Winnipeg Sun
- National Post
- [2]
- "John Shavluk and political Darwinism at its finest",
The
Varsity, September 11, 2008.
- Sudbury police investigate independent candidate
over gay comments, Canwest News Service, October 01, 2008.
- "Sudbury candidate probed after second anti-gay
remark", ctv.ca, October 8, 2008.
- More cars damaged as election vandalism spreads in
Toronto, CBCnews.ca, October 6, 2008
- Vandals target Toronto Liberals, The Globe and
Mail, October 6, 2008
- "Liberal senator's Cadillac damaged",
Toronto
Star, October 11, 2008.
- Police confirm three reports of brakes damage,
Niagara Falls Review, October 08, 2008.
-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desneth%C3%A9%E2%80%94Missinippi%E2%80%94Churchill_River
- Veteran St. John's MP Doyle retiring from
politics, CBC
News, March 13, 2007
- Emerson won't run again: sources,
The Globe and Mail, September 2,
2008
- Comuzzi won't run in upcoming election,
Thunder Bay's Source, September 5,
2008
- Pallister to quit politics, Winnipeg Sun, January
10, 2008
- Sask. MP Batters won't run again, citing
depression, CBC
News, September 2, 2008
- Sask. Tory MP says he won't run again,
CBC News,
January 9, 2007
- Tory cabinet minister to step down,
CanWest News Service, August 3,
2007
- Alta. MP Art Hanger won't run in next election,
CTV News,
October 10, 2007
- Edmonton-St. Albert MP won't run again,
CBC News,
August 11, 2006
- Thirteen years long enough for MP Ken Epp,
Edmonton Journal, August 18, 2006
- Solberg retiring from politics,
The Globe and Mail, September 3,
2008
- Longtime Red Deer MP won't pursue sixth term,
Calgary
Herald, February 8, 2008
- Thompson will leave politics, Edmonton
Journal, June 19, 2007
- MP Betty Hinton Will Not Seek Re-election,
bettyhinton.ca, October 10, 2007
- Time right to retire, Liberal MP Matthews says,
CBC News,
April 3, 2007
- Veteran P.E.I. MP to retire, CBC News, March 7, 2007
- Veteran Liberal MP Andy Scott to quit politics,
CTV News,
March 5, 2007
- Liberal MPs to step aside in Montreal,
The Globe and Mail, December 13,
2006
- Longtime MP resigns and opens door for new election
candidate, The Brampton Guardian, September
5, 2008
- Etobicoke MP will not run in next election,
CBC News,
February 21, 2008
- Veteran MP to retire from politics,
The London Free Press, March 7,
2007
- Belinda Stronach to quit politics, Toronto Star, April
11, 2007
- MP Ray Bonin doesn’t plan to run again,
Northern Life, November 16,
2006
- Outspoken Liberal MP Wappel retiring,
CBC News,
March 23, 2007
- It’s my last term as MP, Nancy Karetak-Lindell
says, Nunatsiaq News, December 22, 2006
- Priest MP leaves politics after pressure from
Vatican, CBC
News, September 3, 2008
- Alexa McDonough retires from federal politics,
CTV News,
June 2]], 2008
- NDP's Bill Blaikie won't seek re-election,
CTV News,
March 15]], 2007
- NDP's Penny Priddy says she won't run again,
Vancouver
Sun, July 16, 2008
- "Liberals win seat in Quebec following
recount", The Globe and Mail, October 24,
2008.
External links
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