Last Updated on: 29th March 2016, 05:42 pm
Yes, more election things.
I’m happy to say that it looks like the voter turnout went up. It didn’t go up by much, but at least it went in the right direction instead of setting a new record low like happened in 2008. That year, only 59.1% of voters bothered, but this year the numbers indicate that it’ll come in around 61.4%. That’s better, but it can still improve.
Here in Guelph, turnout was pegged at 64.8%, which is pretty good. I wonder how much of that had to do with the vote mobs. Whatever brought people out, good for it.
And while we’re in Guelph, have the vote totals for each candidate.
Frank Valeriote crushed Marty Burke pretty nicely. He took 43.4% of the votes winding up with 25,574, while Burke pulled in 19,252 votes, good for 32.7%. Last time out Guelph was a very close riding, with less than a couple thousand votes separating Liberals and Conservatives. But back then we had a candidate that people heard from regularly since she was and still is a well known city councillor, while this time we had Burke, who would have been better off plastering his face on milk cartons since at least that way somebody might have seen him once or twice.
I’m proud of you, Guelph. Not only did you turn out in respectable numbers, but many of you also made a good choice when you got there.
One more quick note: When I said that Michael Ignatieff and Gilles Duceppe were likely done as leaders, I had no idea it would come this quickly. Both stepped down this morning.
Duceppe is no huge loss since the entire goal of his party is to mess with Canada’s national unity for the sake of a single province, but I think that Ignatieff, even though he had to go, could have had more to offer the world of politics eventually. Maybe he’ll be back one day somewhere, but for now it sounds like his career is over just a few years after it began.
