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Flawless Campaign, Fragile Victory: Voting in Canada's 2006 Federal Election

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2006

Harold D. Clarke
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Dallas
Allan Kornberg
Affiliation:
Duke University
Thomas Scotto
Affiliation:
West Virginia University
Joe Twyman
Affiliation:
YouGov

Extract

Canada's 23rd general election was held on January 23, 2006. Only 20 months earlier, on June 28, 2004, the governing Liberals—in power continuously since 1993—had been reduced to a minority in Parliament, winning 135 of 308 seats and 37% of the popular vote. Minority governments in Canada typically have quite short half-lives, and the Liberal government formed in 2004 was no exception. After narrowly avoiding defeat on its budget bill in May 2005, the government lost a vote of confidence in the House of Commons on November 28, and Canadians faced the prospect of a winter trek to the polls. And, since the holiday season was fast approaching, Election Day was deferred until late January, making the campaign an atypically long one by Canadian standards. It also proved to be a very exciting one.

Type
SYMPOSIUM—THE POLITICS OF CANADA
Copyright
© 2006 The American Political Science Association

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