CANADIAN ELECTION INFORMATION

"The Spirit of Haida Gwaii," by Bill Reid, 1966
sculpture in the entry vestibule of the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
photograph _Kristin Lord 2001

Here are links to some basic information about Canadian elections and political parties. Although I have made every effort to have accurate and up-to-date material, I make no guarantee that everything is in order on this site. Please let me know if you find any obvious errors, omissions, or missing links. (As most of my Canadian friends tell me, none of them expect an American to know anything about Canadian politics!)

GENERAL VOTING INFORMATION:

• Elections Canada is the place to go for information on voter registration and related matters.

For Ontario voters, polls are open from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on election day. There are advance polls and other absentee voting arrangements for those who will be out of town during the election.

ELECTION POLLING AND PROGNOSTICATION (not to mention some post-mortems on previous elections):

• Dr. Barry Kay's LISPOP project from Wilfrid Laurier University
• The Election Prediction website

To the best of my knowledge, both of these sites are non-partisan and make every attempt to be unbiased. There is also some information on particular ridings (Canadian electoral districts) and candidates.

NEWS OF RESULTS:

While many Canadians have their preferred sources of information, I provide links to three sites here, especially for the benefit of my friends outside of Canada. Note: most significant election coverage from English-speaking parts of Canada will begin late in the evening of election day, since polls in Ontario (home of about one-third of all of the seats in Parliament) close at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time.

• the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), with links to Radio-Canada (en fran_ais). The CBC also has coverage of parties, ridings, and candidates as its way of trying to provide a full service for voters of all persuasions.
• Yahoo Canada
• The Canadian Press (wire service)
• the news web site of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which also contains background information in its news summaries and country profiles of individual countries (for Canada, go to the "Americas" section and scroll down)

Disclaimer: a relative is a retired editor for the CBC.

WEBSITES OF POLITICAL PARTIES:

Here are, in alphabetical order, the main websites of the five parties receiving the most votes in the most recent Canadian Federal election.

• Le Bloc Québécois (en français, with a link to a platform summary in English)
• The Conservative Party of Canada
• The Green Party of Canada
• The Liberal Party of Canada
• NDP: The New Democratic Party of Canada

PLANNING TO TRAVEL OUTSIDE THE COUNTRY?

Check the website of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada for information on what services the Federal government can and cannot provide for Canadians overseas.

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information last updated June 25, 2008