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Factors in Voter Turnout and Party Preference in a Saskatchewan Town*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

Richard Laskin  and
Richard Baird
Richard Laskin
Affiliation:
Illinois Institute of Technology and University of Saskatchewan
Richard Baird
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
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Extract

In 1960 and 1962 an intensive study was conducted of voluntary organizations and social participation in the town of Biggar, Saskatchewan. While the research was primarily focused upon the structure and characteristics of local voluntary groups, their leadership and their participants, it also delved into the related subjects of voter turnout (on the local, provincial, and federal election levels) and political party preference (on the provincial and federal levels). It is the purpose of this paper to present, and examine the implications of, these latter data. Following a brief description of the research site, and the sample chosen for study, the data are first examined in terms of the apparent relationship between voter turnout and party preference in a community where party switching (that is, voting for one party on the provincial level, another on the federal) is not an uncommon phenomenon. This analysis suggests the probability that a relatively small number of “switch voters” may be the key to party success in many Canadian communities, and examines the question of whether party popularity or keenness of a local competition plays a greater role in stimulating voter turnout. A series of eight social factors are then considered, independently, in terms of their relationships to turnout and party preference. A number of significant findings emerge, some of which support, others of which question, expectations based upon previous research in Canada and elsewhere.

Type
Notes de Recherche/Research Notes
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 1970 , pp. 450 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1970

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References

1 See, for example, Laskin, R., Voluntary Organizations in a Saskatchewan Town (2nd ed., 1963)Google Scholar, and Leadership of Voluntary Organizations in a Saskatchewan Town (1962), publications of the Centre for Community Studies; and “Participation and Apathy in a Saskatchewan Town” (unpublished manuscript).

2 Laskin, Voluntary Organizations, 14.

3 See Locke, Jeannine, “Our Town Will Never Be the Same,” Star Weekly, Toronto, Aug. 4, 1962Google Scholar, reprinted in Laskin, R., ed., Social Problems: A Canadian Profile (Toronto, 1964), 342–52.Google Scholar

4 Laskin, Voluntary Organizations, 46–7.

5 This matter is discussed in Laskin, “Participation and Apathy.”

6 Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada Year Book, 1962, p. 68.

7 Ibid., 71.

8 Gagne, W. and Regenstreif, P., “Some Aspects of New Democratic Party Urban Support in 1965,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, XXXIII, 4 (Nov. 1967), 541.Google Scholar

9 In Courtney, J. C., ed., Voting in Canada (Scarborough, 1967), 114.Google Scholar

10 Canada Year Book, 1962, p. 68.

11 Including Almond, G. A. and Verba, S., The Civic Culture (Boston and Toronto, 1965)Google Scholar; Alford, R., Party and Society (Chicago, 1963)Google Scholar; Anderson, G. M., “Voting Behaviour and the Ethnic-Religious Variable: A Study of a Federal Election in Hamilton, Ontario,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, XXXII, 1 (Feb. 1966), 27–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Berelson, B. and Steiner, G. A., Human Behavior: An Inventory of Scientific Findings (New York, 1964)Google Scholar; Courtney, J. C. and Smith, D. E., “Voting in a Provincial General Election and a Federal By-Election: A Constituency Study of Saskatoon City,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, XXXII, 3 (Aug. 1966), 338–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jewett, P., “Voting in the 1960 Federal By-Elections at Peterborough and Niagara Falls: Who Voted New Party and Why?” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science XXVIII, 1 (Feb. 1962), 35–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Knupfer, Genevieve, “Portrait of the Underdog,” Public Opinion Quarterly, 1947, p. 103–14Google Scholar; Lipset, S. M., Agrarian Socialism (Anchor, ed., Garden City, NY, 1968)Google Scholar, and Political Man (Garden City, 1960); Meisel, J., ed., Papers on the 1962 Election (Toronto, 1964)Google Scholar, and Meisel, , “Religious Affiliation and Electoral Behavior: A Case Study,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, XXII, 4 (Nov. 1956), 481–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar, also in abridged form in Blishen, B. R.et al., eds., Canadian Society (Toronto, 1961), 337–52Google Scholar; Regenstreif, S. P., “Some Aspects of National Party Support in Canada,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, XXIX, 1 (Feb. 1963), 59–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar, The Diefenbaker Interlude: Parties and Voting in Canada (Toronto, 1965); Simmons, J. W., “Voting Behaviour and Socio-Economic Characteristics: The Middlesex East Federal Election, 1965,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, XXXIII, 3 (Aug. 1967), 389–400CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Wilson, J., “Politics and Social Class in Canada: The Case of Waterloo South,” this Journal, I, 3 (Sept. 1968), 288–309.Google Scholar

12 This discussion assumes that the terms “liberal” and “conservative” can be reasonably used to characterize the CCF as being on the “left” and the PC as being on the “right,” with the Liberal party falling some-where in between (see, for example Alford, Party and Society, 13). This assumption may indeed be questioned by those familiar with Saskatchewan politics.

13 It should be noted that the use of the chisquare (X2) test in this study is simply for the purpose of suggesting the relative strength of an apparent relationship between two variables. It is not intended to demonstrate that the relationship is causal, or even necessarily direct (that is, without intervening and/or other associated variables).

14 The Diefenbaker Interlude, 92.

15 See, for example, Lipset, Agrarian Socialism.

16 It should be noted that the “farmers” in this sample include only persons who claimed farming to be the major lifetime occupation of the breadwinner in their family, but who have a residence in town (possibly in addition to a farm residence), and including a few who are in fact retired. Thus the category should not be confused with a more representative farm sample.

17 See the relevant “inventory of scientific findings” in Berelson and Steiner, Human Behavior, 423–34.

18 See, for example, Scarrow, “Patterns of Voter Turnout in Canada.”

19 Almond and Verba, The Civic Culture, 57, 83, 94, 110, 134, 161, 175, 315–35.

20 Ibid., chap. 6.

21 Evidence of such a distribution in organizational involvement in Biggar is presented in Laskin, “Participation and Apathy.”

22 Berelson, B. R., Lazarsfeld, P. F., and McPhee, W. N.. Voting (Chicago, 1954).Google Scholar

23 See, for example, Milbraith, L. W., Political Participation (Chicago, 1965), 99–101.Google Scholar

24 Agrarian Socialism.

25 See Political Man, Chap. 7.

26 Other “pockets of class politics” may well be found, for example, in Winnipeg, Vancouver, Toronto, Cape Breton, and Waterloo. See Regenstreif, The Diefenbaker Interlude, 98; T. Peterson and I. Avakumovic, “A Return to the Status Quo: The Election in Winnipeg North Centre,” in Meisel, Papers on the 1962 Election, 102–3; and Wilson, “Politics and Social Class in Canada.”

27 See, for example, the reports by J. Locke and J. J. McCroirie in Laskin, Social Problems, 342–57; J. W. Gouldner, “The Doctors’ Strike: Change and Resistance to Change in Saskatchewan,” and C. Krueger, “Prairie Protest: The Medicare Conflict in Saskatchewan,” both in Lipset, Agrarian Socialism, 393–434; and Badgley, R. F. and Wolfe, S., Doctor’ Strike: Medical Care and Conflict in Saskatchewan (Toronto, 1967)Google Scholar, especially chap. 5.

28 Party and Society, chaps. 5 and 9.

29 See the supporting analysis of Saskatchewan voting in Silverstein, “Occupational Class and Voting Behavior: Electoral Support of a Left-Wing Protest Movement in a Period of Prosperity,” in Lipset, Agrarian Socialism, 435–79.