Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Number of Candidates in this Election - Corrected

I thought I had the final list from Elections Canada, but is was short a couple of candidates, this post has been changed to reflect that - if there are any changes on the final formally published list, I will change the numbers again.   We have 1586 candidates registered in the 41st federal election, here are some stats on how that compares to past elections

Total Candidates, at 1586, 2011 will be fewest candidates in an election since 1988 and fewest per riding since 1979.
  • Year - # of Candi.  Candi./riding
  • 1993   -   2155      -   7.31
  • 2000   -   1808      -   6.01
  • 2004   -   1683      -   5.59
  • 1997   -   1672      -   5.67
  • 2006   -   1634      -   5.31
  • 2008   -   1601      -   5.20
  • 1988   -   1573      -   5.58
  • 2011   -   1586      -   5.15
  • 1980   -   1497      -   5.31
  • 1984   -   1449      -   5.14
  • 1979   -   1424      -   5.05
  • 1974   -   1209      -   4.58
We have dropped an average of one candidate per riding since the 2000 election, which was the election in which we have five parties elect MPs.

Candidates by party and election
  • Party   11      08     06     04     00     97      93     88
  • NDP   308   308   308   308   298   301   294   295
  • Libs    308   307   308   308   301   301   295   294
  • Cons  307   307   308   308
  • Reform/CA                              298    227   207     72
  • PC                                            291    301   295    295
  • Bloc      75    75     75     75     75       75     75       0
  • Green 303  303   308   308   111     79      79      68
  • Ind         59    71     90     64     40      76    152    155
  • CHP      46    59     45     62     46*    53      59      63
  • CPC ML 69   59     69    76     84      65      51        0
  • Comm   20    24     21     35     52        0**     0**   51
  • Libert     20    26    10        8       0**     0**  52       88
  • CAP      12    20     34     44     70      58       56***  0
  • Rhino    13      7       0       0        0        0       0       74
  • Prog Can 9   10     25     16
* candidates for the party though the party was not formally recognized in the election
** an unknown number of party members ran as independents
*** there were 56 Canada Party candidates in this election, the party joined CAP in 1997

I should note that in 1993 there were 171 National Party candidates.   Natural Law ran 231 candidates in 1993, 111 in 1997 and 69 in 2000.  These are the only parties to break 100 candidates in the last generation not in the list above.

I am going to look around for which riding has the fewest candidates, I expect it will be one with three candidates, and which riding has the most.
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3 comments:

  1. IanApril 12, 2011 at 1:23 PM

    Interesting that the Cons and Liberals are missing a couple candidates each, while only the NDP has successfully nominated a full slate since '04. Do you know which ridings the Libs and Cons are missing and any reasons for that?

    My guess for the Greens is that their organizational capacity is dropping and many local EDAs have become disenfranchised with (a) not winning and (b) being the personal vehicle for Elizabeth May. Many who claim the Greens are the most democratic party, but there's the odd story of a local candidate getting stepped on by the Green Machine (e.g. May's parachuting into her current riding).

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  2. BernardApril 12, 2011 at 5:00 PM

    I do not know yet know where the Liberals are not running their two and where the missing 11 Green ridings, I would like to find out.

    The missing Conservative is in Andre Arthur's riding, they are supporting him.

    I see a lot of evidence that the Greens are less well organized now than when Jim Harris left as leader. He managed to get 308 candidates and had no money to so in 2004. He managed 308 in 2006 as well.

    As one of the workers for Edith Loring-Kuhunga (NDP) said "running against St Elizabeth is interesting, soon she will not need the Fulford harbour ferry because she will simply walk on water."

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  3. IanApril 13, 2011 at 3:29 PM

    Looks like the Liberals have a full slate to me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_2011

    The Greens are missing at least 2:
    Etobicoke North (ON)
    Lambton-Kent-Middlesex (ON)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Party_of_Canada_candidates,_2011_Canadian_federal_election

    ReplyDelete