Three election charts you haven’t seen yet

You may think there couldn’t possibly be anything new to learn about the recent, extraordinary election. But you’d be wrong. Here are three interesting tidbits you may not have seen.

The kid vote

In a parallel federal election held last week by Student Vote, almost one million youth in 337 ridings cast a ballot. It turns out their political leanings are surprisingly similar to those who can legally vote. Look at the popular vote: Liberals, Conservatives and the NDP received support highly reflective of the official results. In fact, the difference in vote share for the NDP between parents and their children was a minuscule 0.1 per cent. However, the young voters were spread differently across the nation — so despite having a similar popular vote, the Liberals in the imaginary parliament gained 42 seats over the official tally.

Most and least politically engaged

The seat of Canada’s federal government is, perhaps not surprisingly, where we find Canada’s most dedicated voters. The top-three highest voter turnouts on Oct. 19 came in the National Capital Region, where thousands of civic-minded public servants, political staffers, and otherwise engaged Canadians hang their hats. Longtime Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc’s New Brunswick riding scored the nation’s fourth-highest turnout as the whole region went red. And Green Leader Elizabeth May, again her party’s lone bright spot on an election night, can take solace in her constituents’ propensity for political engagement.

Close calls and wide margins

Prairie voters gave us some of Canada’s closest races. Daniel Blaikie, a rookie New Democrat, barely reclaimed the Winnipeg-area riding his father, Bill, held for 10,378 days until his retirement in 2008. Daniel’s sister, Rebecca, attempted the same feat in 2011. No surprise in the biggest win of the night: Judy Foote, now a three-term Liberal in Newfoundland, blew her Conservative competition out of the water in a province that refuses to send Tories to Ottawa.