Most interesting election maps in Canadian history

[Docere]

Look at Ontario in 1919 when the United Farmers of Ontario won the election.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by Docere

Look at Ontario in 1919 when the United Farmers of Ontario won the election.

Wasn't Canada over 70% rural then?

[Docere]

31% of Ontario's workforce was in agriculture in 1921.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by Docere

Look at Ontario in 1919 when the United Farmers of Ontario won the election.

A different world back then.

We actually used some party names that have come up relatively recently in Canada, which suggests to me they were likely names used in Canada before.

Our pre-Confederation national election winners were (italicized is our golden age, to the extent we had one):

1832: Conservative
1836: Liberal
1837: Liberal
1842: Liberal
1848: Liberal
1852: Liberal
1855: Liberal
1859: Liberal
1861: Conservative
1865: Conservative
1869: Anti-Confederation
1874: Conservative
1878: Conservative
1882: Conservative
1885: Reform
1889: Liberal
1893: Liberal
1897: Tory
1900: Liberal
1904: Liberal
1908: Liberal
1909: People's Party
1913: People's Party
1919: Liberal Reform
1923: Liberal Reform
1924: Liberal-Conservative-Progressive (one party; hilariously, opposition was Liberal-Progressive)
1928: Liberal
1932: United Newfoundland

(Then we voted away our independence, and Commission of Government ruled, half appointed by Britain, until Confederation).

[Docere]

I'm guessing Joey Smallwood's feuding with Diefenbaker is the reason Newfoundland resisted the 1958 Diefenbaker tide?

[SignalHillHiker]

I know near nothing about what was going on back then politically, other than since 1949 Liberal was synonymous with Confederate here, and Conservative with Anti-Confederate. Also, Canada made sort of a slow crawl exerting its influence across the island toward the Avalon, where St. John's is located, and which voted overwhelmingly against Confederation (i.e. CBC first went on air in Corner Brook in 1959, but didn't start in St. John's until 1964). So 1958 is still well within those "treading lightly" years. I expect a lot of voters would've heard nothing from Canada except whatever Joey said to local media in 1958. Mary Walsh was born in 1952 and wrote about how Canada was a foreign concept to her for most of her childhood, until they had a Canadian "exchange" student in school - learning through her all about the country, poking fun at her accent, etc. So that would've been the era around 1958.

Couldn't find the interactive exhibit with cartoon illustrations I was looking for, but she touches on similar themes here:

I was born in 1952, and during my childhood anti-confederate feelings ran very high. There was no end to complaining about the shoddiness of Canadian goods, the dour and cheap nature of the Canadian heart.

I didn’t even really run into a Canadian until about grade five, when Janet, a girl from Toronto, came into our class. She had four sisters, a father who had a “big job” with the federal government, and a mother who worked, and they had a maid — all pretty heady stuff for my crowd of Newfoundland ten-year-olds.

...

And then, you know, I don’t remember meeting or seeing any other Canadians. There were Portuguese, Spaniards, Russians, Poles, Americans off the ship, and you’d see all of them down on Water Street, but I don’t remember any Canadians. And in school, except for Janet, it was just basically us. The us sprung, as satirist Ray Guy always said, from a genetic pool the size of a pudding bowl.

https://www.canadashistory.ca/explor...nder-in-canada

[Docere]

For historical context:

% in agriculture, 1931

PEI 57
Nova Scotia 24
New Brunswick 33
Quebec 22
Ontario 27
Manitoba 35
Saskatchewan 60
Alberta 51
BC 14

[Docere]

Another one: the 1917 federal election, fought over conscription which was overwhelmingly supported by English Canadians and opposed in Quebec. A group of pro-war Liberals crossed over to support Borden.

This was a rigged election. The Wartime Elections Act removed voting rights of those born in enemy nations (Austria-Hungary and Germany) who became citizens in 1902. Meanwhile servicemen who previously couldn't vote were allowed to - even those underage. Wives and relatives of those serving in the war could also vote.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...ticle37344551/

So you see an overwhelmingly blue ROC and overwhelmingly red Quebec.

What about the handful of Opposition ridings in English Canada? The highest Liberal vote in Ontario was in Waterloo North. There was opposition to going to war with Germany among German Canadians (where most could their ancestry prior to Confederation, so few could be disenfranchised). Highest Opposition vote in ROC was in Cape Breton - not sure what's going on there or why.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

A different world back then.
1924: Liberal-Conservative-Progressive (one party; hilariously, opposition was Liberal-Progressive)

That outdoes Macdonald's Liberal-Conservatives.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by VANRIDERFAN

There is no real physical borders on the Prairie. Attitudes and norms evolve as you head west, especially in the Ag community. The Red River Valley is different from the Manitoba escarpment, which is different from the Regina Plain, which is different from the Short Grass Prairie Ranching folks of SW SK/Southern AB.

What I'm trying to say is that cultural differences on the Prairie will follow a more a Latitudinal line vice a Longitudinal line if you know what I mean. So there is kind of 3 entities that are bisected by the TCH and the Yellowhead highways.

South of the TCH is one. Between the TCH and the Yellowhead is another. North of the Yellowhead to the Canadian shield is a third. And these 3 sections can then be divided by the type of agriculture (depending of soil type and moisture levels as you head west)

Have I confused you enough?

Alberta and Saskatchewan were almost admitted as one province.

It's interesting to see here some of the proposed maps for how to divide up the Prairies:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Buffalo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provin..._Proposals.png

[lio45]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

The weirdest federal one for me was 2011. It invigorated me politically, made me feel it was crucial, existential even, that Newfoundland and Labrador become independent.

Surely you meant to say “that Newfoundland become independent”, unless we’re not looking at the same map …

[MolsonExport]

Whatever happened to Keewatin? Vanished like a fart in the wind.

On April 1, 1999, the Keewatin Region was formally dissolved, as Nunavut was created from eastern parts of the Northwest Territories, including all of Keewatin. It had ceased to function as an administrative district of the Northwest Territories several years before it was divided.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Keewatin

[Docere]

From the Ontario NDP win in 1990, some of these results are pretty wild.

Huron

NDP 34.5%
PC 31.2%
Liberal 22.9%
Family Coalition Party 10.1%
Libertarian 1.4%

Lambton

NDP 31.4%
PC 27.7%
Liberal 26.3%
Family Coalition Party 12.8%
Confederation of Regions 1.8%

Prince Edward-South Lennox-Hastings

NDP 33.1%
PC 29.9%
Liberal 29.5%
Confederation of Regions 7.5%

[MolsonExport]

Family Coalition Party 12.8%

[Docere]

There were some "normal" wins the NDP that year in such ridings as Muskoka and Haliburton. The public was not in its usual mood.

Anyway strange results do occur. I'm still stunned by Obama's Indiana win in 2008.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

I know near nothing about what was going on back then politically, other than since 1949 Liberal was synonymous with Confederate here, and Conservative with Anti-Confederate. Also, Canada made sort of a slow crawl exerting its influence across the island toward the Avalon, where St. John's is located, and which voted overwhelmingly against Confederation (i.e. CBC first went on air in Corner Brook in 1959, but didn't start in St. John's until 1964). So 1958 is still well within those "treading lightly" years. I expect a lot of voters would've heard nothing from Canada except whatever Joey said to local media in 1958. Mary Walsh was born in 1952 and wrote about how Canada was a foreign concept to her for most of her childhood, until they had a Canadian "exchange" student in school - learning through her all about the country, poking fun at her accent, etc. So that would've been the era around 1958.

Couldn't find the interactive exhibit with cartoon illustrations I was looking for, but she touches on similar themes here:



https://www.canadashistory.ca/explor...nder-in-canada

Except that CJON TV (now NTV) in St. John's started as the CBC affiliate in 1955.

[Docere]

In reverse of the mainland pattern, Irish Catholics in Newfoundland traditionally voted Conservative and English Protestants Liberal.

[Docere]

Look at the 1921 federal election, with the Progressives as Official Opposition and Calgary electing two Labour MPs (note that the CCF was founded in Calgary).

[Docere]

Interesting to look at the few Liberals who were elected outside of Quebec in 1917.

Prescott and Russell is obviously French Canadians. In Waterloo, it's the German vote, probably made a difference in Bruce South too. Provencher a mix of French Canadian and Mennonite. There's also Acadian seats in New Brunswick.

But what happened in Kent - where there was no Unionist candidate? Or Middlesex West - don't know was going on there. And Cape Breton delivered the biggest Liberal margin outside of Quebec - why?