National numbers - A Quick First Look

These are not final results, but within 0.1% of the final results

Total Votes
Party     2011    2008     Change in vote
Cons   5,832,401 5,208,796   +623,605
NDP    4,508,474 2,515,561 +1,992,913
Libs   2,783,175 3,633,185   -850,010
Bloc     896,788 1,379,991   -483,203
Greens   576,221   937,613   -361,392


Percentage of the votes
Party   2011   2008
Cons   39.6%  37.8%
NDP    30.6%  18.2%
Libs   18.9%  26.3%
Bloc    6.0%  10.0%
Greens  3.9%   6.8%

Overall we seem to be about 900,000 votes up on 2008.   We are still below the number of votes in the January 2006 federal election.  

Percentage of vote for the top two parties

• 2011   70.2%
• 2008   62.5%
• 2006   66.5%
• 2004   66.4%
• 2000   66.2%
• 1997   57.8%
• 1993   59.9%
• 1988   74.9%
• 1984   78.0%
• 1980   76.8%
• 1979   76.0%
• 1974   78.6%

You can see two clear eras before yesterday's election, before 1993 and 1993 to 2008.   Does 2011 mark the return to a primarily two party system?   Is the 70.2% result a part way back to the upper 70s or is a one time thing?