Polling and politics

Rachel Harder delivers victory speech after winning Lethbridge riding at Paradise Canyon Golf Resort on Oct. 19.

Rachel Harder delivers victory speech after winning Lethbridge riding at Paradise Canyon Golf Resort on Oct. 19.

Canadians have spoken and their voices have been heard. Monday night marked the official results of the federal election. The votes poured in and the Liberals swept the nation with a majority government. Although this may have been shocking for some, many polls had already predicted similar results prior to the election.

As the weekend approached, many scientific polls such Nanos as EKOS Politics displayed results that closely matched the final election outcomes. In fact, EKOS’ results on the day prior to the election were within one per cent of the actual results for the Conservative and NDP parties on Election Day.

In Alberta, similar polls were conducted. The Citizen Society Research Lab at Lethbridge College conducted public opinion polls earlier this month. The polls they did on the Alberta’s voting intentions had fairly accurate results.

Faron Ellis, Phd., and head of the CSRL says, “There is little difference between our polls and other quality scientific polls,” he explains. “We simply do what they do in an effort at teaching students proper scientific methodology as practiced in industry.”

The CSRL’s results indicated that Conservatives were the party of choice for more than half of Albertans. Southern Alberta voter intention showed a marginal lead for the Conservatives. In the polls the party showed greater than 20 per cent voter support over the Liberal and New Democratics. Locally, those results rang through on election night. Rachel Harder won the Lethbridge riding for the conservatives with 56.7 per cent of the votes.

Rick Dempsey, Harder’s campaign manager, discussed how the polls kept them aware of the potential outcome for the conservatives. Although the Liberals were shown to be leading nationally, they did not let this affect their spirits. “We really weren’t surprised by the numbers,” he said, “we just powered through.”

It was clear Canadians wanted a voice in their government. This election, voter turnout was at an all time-high as record numbers of citizens showed up at polling stations. According to the Elections Canada website, the preliminary results indicate that 68.5 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot.

Leanne Nyirfa, an Elections Canada spokesperson, said a news release would be out later this week with the finalized results of the polls. “It is quite a process to confirm all of the votes,” Nyirfa explains. “Every single ballot is picked out of the box, shown to the people in the room and checked off.” Over 17 and a half million ballots must be verified before results are made official.

Along with one of the highest voter turnouts, it was also one of the longest campaigns in Canadian history. After a long election process, citizens can now sit back for another four years and let the politicians govern their decisions.

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I am in my final year in the Digital Communications and Media program. My strong passion for writing and learning led me to specialize in digital journalism.

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