{"id":22929,"date":"2011-05-04T15:37:14","date_gmt":"2011-05-04T19:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/?p=22929"},"modified":"2011-05-04T15:37:14","modified_gmt":"2011-05-04T19:37:14","slug":"the-conservative-majority-in-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2011\/05\/04\/the-conservative-majority-in-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"The Conservative “Majority” In Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Besides the fact that this majority government represents a minority of the electorate, it is also an\u00a0anomaly of a split vote on the left, most especially in the Greater Toronto Area. This is another way of confirming that most voters were looking for a way not to vote for the Conservatives.<\/p>\n

Don’t let lazy reporting or even lazier punditry obscure the facts: a large majority of Canadians — just over 60% — voted to the left of the Harper Conservatives.<\/p>\n

Thomas Walkom<\/a> explains:<\/p>\n

For Canadians unnerved about a Stephen Harper majority government, two facts about Monday\u2019s election stand out.<\/p>\n

The first is that virtually all of the Conservative gains occurred in and around Toronto. Of the 24 new seats Harper won across Canada, 18 came from the Greater Toronto Area \u2014 including nine from Toronto itself.<\/p>\n

Or, to put it another way, Harper owes his majority to the voters of the GTA. His gains elsewhere were minimal. In fact, the Conservatives lost seats in both Quebec and British Columbia.<\/p>\n

The second notable fact is that most of these GTA gains resulted from vote splitting between Liberals and New Democrats \u2014 vote splitting that, ironically, was fuelled by a last minute surge of support toward Jack Layton\u2019s NDP.<\/p>\n

In Toronto\u2019s Don Valley West, for instance, the NDP won 1,182 more votes than it had in 2008 \u2014 just enough to deny victory to Liberal incumbent Rob Oliphant.<\/p>\n

This NDP vote increase occurred even though the party\u2019s candidate, Nicole Yovanoff, spent virtually no time in the riding, instead flying off to Kenora to manage another New Democrat\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

Conservative gains resulting from vote-splitting also occurred in suburban ridings outside Toronto like Bramalea-Gore-Malton that, until Monday, had been Liberal strongholds.<\/p>\n

All of which is to say that pressure will be redoubled on both Liberals and New Democrats to unite the so-called left.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As to that last point, yes, it may be time. The left must unite so that it can do what most Canadians want them to do, and that is to govern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Besides the fact that this majority government represents a minority of the electorate, it is also an\u00a0anomaly of a split vote on the left, most especially in the Greater Toronto Area. This is another way of confirming that most voters were looking for a way not to vote for the Conservatives. Don’t let lazy reporting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18,33,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-canada","category-current-events","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Conservative "Majority" In Perspective - The Educated Imagination<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2011\/05\/04\/the-conservative-majority-in-perspective\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Conservative "Majority" In Perspective - The Educated Imagination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Besides the fact that this majority government represents a minority of the electorate, it is also an\u00a0anomaly of a split vote on the left, most especially in the Greater Toronto Area. 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