Ten Key Insights Into The 2015 Federal Election

(Wonkish)

10. A weaker NDP than polls depicted from the very beginning

Before and during the first half of the election campaign, nearly all opinion polls placed the NDP in first place across Canada. This was particularly deceiving given their huge advance in Quebec where they were polling between 43% and 52%. In reality they were much weaker in the other provinces and territories except for B.C. Even within many of the provinces, the overall provincial scores were misleading, with close battles in and around major cities and some rural ridings.

Major Strategic Mistakes May Still Lead To Lower Voter Turnout

A 70% greater voter turnout than in 2011 at advanced polls suggests that the downward trend could be reversed next Monday, encouraged by a competitive race and multiple get-out-the-vote drives. That however is no guarantee as the last election demonstrated. Additionally, there are some major developments working in the opposite direction and discouraging electors this time around – and apathy is not one of them.

Reply to A. Coyne: Spend All That Money, Mr. Trudeau? Why Yes & On That!

(Revised Sept. 3, 2015)

The Tuesday confirmation by Statistics Canada that the country was officially in a recession the first half of this year is not much offset by June’s growth rate of only 0.5% (0.1% non-annualized), when compared to America’s 3.7%. The electoral debate on the merits of the Liberal promise to stimulate the economy and incur deficits can certainly continue.

Election launch noon-hour national interview on CBC News Network

Quotes by Mr. Stephen Harper, Leader of the CPC

(From: http://www.scandalpedia.ca/Bios/Stephen%20Harper_en.html)

On social programs

“These proposals included cries for billions of new money for social assistance in the name of “child poverty” and for more business subsidies in the name of “cultural identity”. In both cases I was sought out as a rare public figure to oppose such projects.” 

(Stephen Harper, The Bulldog, National Citizens Coalition, February 1997)

How The East Was Won (Open letter to Conservative delegates)

Dear Conservative Party members,

First of all thank you for choosing Montreal for your first national policy convention next March 2005! Now that your party leader, Stephen Harper, is "determined to build a truly national party" by re-establishing roots in Quebec, it seems important to put things in perspective.

Tories, Social Conservatives, and the West

Now that the 2004 federal election shouting match is behind us and everyone has had a chance to calm down, maybe we can have a sensible discussion about its results and some of its most contentious issues.