Turnout hike provincewide just minimal

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This article was published 06/10/2011 (5498 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeggers voted. People in contentious ridings really voted. Rural voters were lethargic. And northerners stayed home en masse.

Overall, turnout in the province turned out to be a little better than had been initially estimated on election night, when it looked as though barely half of Manitobans made it to the polls.

In all, just over 57.47 per cent of the province’s 750,000 registered voters cast a ballot, up slightly from the 56.75 per cent who voted in the 2007 election. And Manitoba’s uptick at the ballot box is in contrast to what Prince Edward Island witnessed Monday night when voter turnout fell drastically in the province that has long been home to the country’s most committed voters.

Still, many believed the tight race between the NDP and Conservatives across Manitoba would spur more voters to the polls.

The picture is particularly dismal in northern Manitoba, where just over a third of all adults voted. The north barely resonated during the campaign. Greg Selinger was the only party leader who paid a visit, and pressing problems such as poverty, job creation, remote health care, food prices, teen suicide and housing earned little mention on the hustings.

Elections Manitoba’s Mary Skanderbeg said she had hoped Conservative candidate Michael Birch would boost turnout in the Island Lake area because that’s where he’s from.

And new rules made voting in rural areas more accessible. Every community with at least 50 voters must have a polling station within 30 kilometres. That rule resulted in 100 more voting locations, many in the north, which made Skanderbeg hopeful turnout might increase.

It did not.

But she said turnout across the north is traditionally low, in part because there are often not any highly contentious races there.

Research by University of Manitoba political scientists has suggested a juicy race where the riding is genuinely up for grabs boosts turnout, almost more than any other factor, such as income or education. That was certainly true Tuesday night, when the hottest ridings, such as Seine River, Southdale and Kirkfield Park, had some of the highest turnouts.

Selinger said on election night and again Wednesday he wants to explore ways to improve turnout. And Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard has suggested giving First Nations dedicated seats in the Manitoba legislature.

“The concept here is that you’ve got First Nations communities with specific needs and those needs are not being met,” said Gerrard. “It’s just an idea we’ve got that all Manitobans should be discussing.”

In the Liberal platform, he proposed adding four seats to the legislature earmarked solely for aboriginal people with MLAs elected by residents of the province’s 62 reserves.

The four new seats would be added to the existing 57, to bring the total of MLAs in Manitoba to 61. The province would be divided into four regions of reserves, with populations roughly the same as the existing ridings.

 

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

Voter turnout by the numbers

35.63%

Average turnout of Manitoba’s four northern ridings

 

65.89%

Average turnout of 15 hotly contested ridings

 

60.64%

Average turnout of Winnipeg’s 31 ridings

 

54.4%

Average turnout of 22 rural ridings

 

75.72%

Highest turnout, in River Heights

 

30.93%

Lowest turnout was in The Pas

 

56.75%

Voter turnout in 2007

 

57.47%

Voter turnout on Tuesday night

 

— Source: Elections Manitoba