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CBC
5 days ago
- General
- CBC
Senator says 'onus is on Elections Canada' to educate voters, given high number of rejected ballots
In the wake of a recount in a tightly contested federal riding in rural Newfoundland, a longtime politician says Elections Canada needs to do a better job educating people on how to vote. An unprecedented number of disputed ballots in the Terra Nova-The Peninsulas riding forced a lengthy delay on the outcome of what was among the tightest races in this year's federal election. More than 41,000 people voted in the newly named riding. After a marathon recount, 819 ballots were ultimately rejected, according to the Elections Canada website. Fabian Manning, a senator and former Newfoundland and Labrador MHA and Conservative MP, said he's never seen so many ballots rejected. "When I look at the numbers of people who voted in the election, the numbers were much larger than they were in my campaigns," he told CBC News. He said there's no doubt in his mind that there was confusion among voters over the difference between federal and provincial ballots. Manning was in Marystown for the full two days of the recount as a scrutineer. Elections Canada ballots are grey, with white rectangles containing each candidate's name and party. A white circle to the right of each rectangle is where voters are supposed to mark their choice. A recount was ordered by Elections Canada after the initial tally following the April 28 federal election showed Liberal candidate Anthony Germain ahead of Conservative Jonathan Rowe by 12 votes. Rowe was declared the winner on May 23 by that same margin. In his decision released on Monday, Justice Garrett Handrigan wrote that on many of the disputed ballots — maybe as many as half — voters had left their mark in the rectangular box. In some of these so-called "rectangle ballots," voters had also left a mark in the circle. Manning said the Canadian Elections Act states a mark has to be made behind the candidate's name and doesn't stipulate if it's an X, check mark or initial, as long as it doesn't identify the voter. But in Newfoundland and Labrador provincial elections, voters can use an X or a check by the name on a ballot to signify who they are voting for. "People may think that, you know, put a check mark next to the person's name and that ballot is counted," said Manning. In contrast, a federal ballot is rejected if a mark isn't in the circle. "The Elections Canada people in the polling station and the judge, under the Canadian Elections Act, would not be allowed to accept that," said Manning. "That's why I think we ended up with a lot of rejected ballots." Manning says there are signs posted at polling stations telling people how to mark their ballots, but he worries the process isn't explained very well to people, especially seniors. He said there was a high number of rejected ballots across the country.
CBC
7 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Federal election result shows urban-rural divide in N.L., says political scientist
After a drawn-out recount in Terra Nova-The Peninsulas, the federal Conservatives now have three parliamentary seats in Newfoundland and Labrador for the first time in nearly 20 years. The previous trend toward Liberal voting in the province was, in part, a result of former premier Danny Williams and his "Anything But Conservative" campaign in 2008, where he encouraged residents not to vote blue in the federal election that year. Williams criticized former prime minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives for adjusting the federal equalization formula, effectively cutting payments to the province. Since then, the province has had mostly Liberal seats in parliament. That is until now. Fabian Manning, a former senator and Conservative MP, held one of three Conservative seats in 2006, before the Williams ABC campaign. "We were dealing with, you know, a very, very toxic situation between the government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the government of Canada at the time," Manning said in an interview with CBC News on Tuesday. "Because of that, we had the ABC campaign." He said that kind of idea doesn't go away overnight. But almost 20 years later, residents came around to the idea of voting Conservative again. 'Time moves on': N.L. has most Conservative MPs since ABC campaign 5 hours ago Duration 1:05 The political landscape was shaken by former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Danny Williams in 2008 with his 'Anything but Conservative' campaign. But following this year's general election, the province has three Conservative MPs. Former senator and Conservative MP Fabian Manning says it could be a sign of the passage of time. Manning thinks many of the province's electors voted with their pocketbooks this year, and the party gained seats in turn. "Time moves on and people … look for new direction," he said. Urban-rural divide Acadia University political scientist Alex Marland says the result of this year's election is evidence of a rural-urban political divide in the province. "People who are socially progressive and anchored in what I would call kind of urban values, are clustered mostly in the St. John's area and maybe to a broader extent the Avalon," he said. Residents in rural areas, Marland continued, are more likely to be frustrated with the pace of change and will vote differently. Marland also says that Atlantic Canadians have "a lot of hesitations" about the kind of free market economics that is promoted by the Conservative Party of Canada. "As a result, they … tend to lean a little bit more towards the Liberals because the Liberals believe in government intervention in the economy," he said. Manning said residents in rural areas of the province are proud, and they have unique issues that other parties don't typically focus on, such as marine infrastructure and transportation. "I think that's the reason, sometimes, why you see a vote like we'd seen in April," he said. Marland added that social media could also be a reason for the change in voting behaviour. "Social media was not a huge thing back in 2006," he said. "[It] creates this stronger sense among people that they need to vote in a certain way." However, residents in urban centres promote different concerns online than those in rural areas, he said, which creates a growing cultural divide and polarization. "A lot of the things that people in urban centres will be talking about, including in St. John's, will be completely disconnected from somebody worried about trying to get their wharf repaired in rural Newfoundland and Labrador," he said. MUN political scientist Kelly Blidook says the increase in Conservative seats won't make a huge difference in parliament, but it does make a difference for the province. "Now what we see, at least on the island, it's half and half," said Blidook. "I think this is actually kind of an interesting thing where Newfoundland and Labrador is now in a competitive state." As for the upcoming provincial election, Blidook says it's possible there could be a similar dynamic rolling into provincial politics.
CBC
27-05-2025
- General
- CBC
‘Time moves on': N.L. has most Conservative MPs since ABC campaign
The political landscape was shaken by former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Danny Williams in 2008 with his 'Anything but Conservative' campaign. But following this year's general election, the province has three Conservative MPs. Former senator and Conservative MP Fabian Manning says it could be a sign of the passage of time.
