Toronto's voting habit in federal elections returned to its Liberal bias in last night's federal election, which was a major element in securing a majority government for the Grits. Back in 2011, the party lost historic ground in Toronto, with Conservative wins in semi-suburban ridings and a strong push by the NDP across downtown.
Where the 2011 election results map in Toronto was a tri-coloured mosaic, the 2015 version is entirely red. While there were some close races in ridings like Davenport and and Parkdale-High Park, the Liberals managed to take every seat they could in this city.
You'll note that changes to federal ridings for this election is also visible on the 2015 maps, which ultimately served to help the Liberals with the addition of more seats in the GTA. The story outside of Toronto's boundaries is rather different. Southern Ontario is still defined by a sea of blue, even as the Liberals made in-roads in the ridings immediately surrounding Toronto (as was the case in 2008).
The big loser here, of course, is the NDP, a party which had a surge in downtown Toronto in 2011, but failed to carry over any of its seats this time around. There are numerous reasons for this, but New Democrats appeared to lose a ton of steam when Tom Mulcair's polling numbers dipped and the party no longer appeared a viable alternative to Harper's Conservatives.
Compare and contrast Toronto's and Southern Ontario's voting habits over the last three federal elections below.
Toronto:
2008
2011
2015
Southern Ontario:
2008
2011
2015
Photo via Justin Trudeau's Flickr page. 2008 and 2011 maps by the CBC. 2015 maps by CTV.
by Derek Flack via blogTO
No comments:
Post a Comment