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A Study of One Constituency in the Canadian Federal Election of 1957
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
Extract
This article attempts to describe the process of election as it occurred in one Canadian constituency in the federal general election of June 10, 1957. Since it would be foolish to generalize on the basis of one example, no effort is made to draw conclusions. The article is expository and intended only to illumine one of the unexamined corners of Canadian political science after the fashion of Larzarsfeld’s work on the 1948 American election and the valuable constituency studies contained in Butler’s book on the British election of 1951.
Constituency X is a large residential electoral district, part of which lies within Metropolitan Toronto. Brought into being by the Redistribution Act of 1952, the riding grew quickly because of the flight to the suburbs and the rapid growth of Toronto. Between 1951 and 1956 the population more than doubled, from 72,117 to 167.310. The huge size of the constituency and its swift increase presented a challenge in organization that is worth noting in itself.
The task rested in the hands of a woman who had served as returning officer in the previous election also. For the 1957 election she began in October, 1956, to make preparations for taking the vote and by the following April she was giving all her working hours to the job. For the three months immediately preceding the election she had a full-time assistant and two part-time workers helping her. The extent of the operations involved can be gathered from the statistics. Enumerating the riding required the appointment of 636 enumerators and the assignment to them of 318 election kits containing about a dozen items each. In addition to supervising the drawing up, posting, and revision of the lists of electors, who totalled 104,000, the returning officer was also responsible for splitting the constituency into 318 polling divisions, for establishing 427 polling stations, and for appointing a deputy returning officer and an election clerk in each. On voting day, with a staff of four people, she tabulated the 74,995 votes cast and was among the first to report results.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , May 1958 , pp. 230 - 240
- Copyright
- Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1958
References
1 Butler, D. E., The British General Election of 1951 (London, 1952), 137–235 Google Scholar; Berelson, B. R., Lazarsfeld, P. F., McPhee, W. N., Voting: A Study of Opinion Formation During a Presidential Campaign (New York, 1954).Google Scholar
2 Canada Year Book, 1956 (Ottawa, 1956), 78 Google Scholar, and Toronto Globe and Mail, Feb. 6, 1957.
3 As prescribed in the Canada Elections Act, secs. 17, 31, 26(1), 9(1), Revised Statutes of Canada (1952), c. 23.
4 Canadian Parliamentary Guide, 1946 (Ottawa, 1946), 282.Google Scholar
5 Toronto Star, May 25, 1957, and C.C.F. News (Toronto), 03, 1957.Google Scholar
6 Canadian Parliamentary Guide, 1955, 411.
7 Toronto Telegram, Feb. 26, 1957.
8 Ibid., Jan. 19, 1957.
9 Toronto Star, May 25, 1957.
10 Ibid., May 25, 1957.
11 Ibid., May 28, 1957.
12 Ibid., May 28, 1957.
13 Toronto Globe and Mail, May 27, 1957.
14 ”If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind” (John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, chap. ii).
15 Toronto Globe and Mail, May 23, 1957.
16 Toronto Telegram, Feb. 26, 1957.
17 Toronto Globe and Matt, May 27, 1957.
18 Toronto Star, May 25, 1957.
19 Toronto Globe and Mail, May 27, 1957.
20 Toronto Telegram, June 2, 1957.
21 Toronto Globe and Mail, May 14, 1957.
22 Ibid., May 31, 1957.
23 Ibid., June 8, 1957.
24 Toronto Telegram, June 2, 1957.
25 Ibid., March 12, 1957.
26 Ibid., March 19, 1957.
27 Toronto Globe and Mail, May 27, 1957.
28 Published in accordance with the Canada Elections Act in the Agincourt News, 09 12, 1957.Google Scholar
29 Toronto Star, June 6, 1957.
30 Wallas, Graham, Human Nature in Politics (4th ed., London, 1948), 30.Google Scholar
31 Retuming officer’s figures.
32 Toronto Telegram, June 11, 1957.
33 Toronto Star, June 11, 1957.