Voter turnout highest since 1993
As Canadians voted Monday and elected a majority Liberal government, much more happened on a different scale including increased voter turnout, a rise in the number or indigenous people elected to Parliament and more visible minorities sitting in the Hous
VISIBLE MINORITIES
Canadians elected more visible minority MPs this year than in any previous federal election. In total, 47 visible minority MPs have been elected, making up 14 per cent of Canada’s 42nd national parliament. This represents a five per cent rise over the previous parliament, which had 28 visible minority MPs, also a historic high.
“I think it is a trend,” said Chris Cochrane, a politicalscience professor at the University of Toronto. “It’s going to be increasingly the case in Canadian politics that visible minority MPs will be elected.”
The bulk of the visible minority MPs belong to Canada’s major cities, with many coming from South and East Asian communities. The Greater Toronto Area is home to 20 of the visible minority MPs, followed by the Greater Vancouver Area, which elected six.
Notably, this is the first time that the proportion of visible minority candidates in Parliament reflects the per cent of visible minority candidates who ran for election. Usually, a far greater proportion runs than is actually elected, said Erin Tolley, an expert on visible minorities in Canadian politics at the University of Toronto.
ABORIGINALS ELECTED
A record number of aboriginal people were elected to the House of Commons following Monday’s election. Ten indigenous MPs were elected to office, an increase of three from the 2011 election.
There also was a shift to the Liberals from the Conservatives and NDP during Monday’s vote. Of the 18 indigenous candidates run by the Grits, eight won seats in Parliament.
In the riding of Winnipeg Centre, former mayoral candidate Robert-Falcon Ouellette unseated New Democrat veteran Pat Martin with 56 per cent of the vote.
The NDP had 22 indigenous candidates on its roster and two were elected.
HUMAN RIGHTS
The head of the Canadian Human Rights Commission Tuesday denounced the “erosion of human rights in Canada,” under the Conservatives and called on Parliament to reverse Tory legislation and policies.
In a blistering and partisan public statement, chief commissioner MarieClaude Landry congratulated prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau and the new members of Parliament, then ripped into the outgoing government.
“I call on our newly elected Parliament to begin repairing the erosion of human rights in Canada, and to move swiftly to repeal legislation and reverse policies that promote discrimination and prejudice,” Landry said. “No one should live in fear because of who they are or because they have a belief that is not shared by the majority.
“Canadians have rejected the divisive rhetoric that became prominent in the latter days of the election campaign. Difficult as it was, the Canadian Human Rights Commission remained silent in deference to the electoral process.”
This spring, federal privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien strongly criticized the government’s C-51 security legislation, but the language of his disapproval was far more restrained. Landry’s statement Tuesday was not simply a denunciation of the outgoing government, but a message to the incoming one as well, that government appointees who are supposed to be independent may well speak out in future.
VOTER TURNOUT
Elections Canada says 68.5 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in Monday’s federal election, the largest turnout of voters in more than 20 years.
Of the 25.6 million people registered to vote, close to 17.6 million turned up at polls across the country in an election that handed the Liberals led by Justin Trudeau a majority victory.
That kind of turnout hasn’t been seen since the 1993 election, a campaign that also resulted in a sweeping Liberal win under the stewardship of Jean Chretien.
The swell in numbers was partly due to the 3.6 million Canadians who cast ballots during the four-day advance polling period on the Thanksgiving long weekend — an increase of 71 per cent over the 2011 election, when only three days of advance polls were held.
NDP’S BROSSEAU
Ruth Ellen Brosseau started off as a paper candidate in 2011 and became a joke for spending some of the election campaign in Las Vegas, and was carried into office on the NDP’s Orange wave.
She has since remade herself into a serious politician, working hard and named vice-chair of the NDP caucus. Among her challengers was the Green party leader’s daughter in the riding of Berthier-Maskinonge, where she won a clear victory with more than 22,000 votes. Her nearest competitor was Bloc candidate Yves Perron, who secured almost 14,000 votes.