Figures!

[bjarvis]

I follow Canadian elections like some people follow baseball or football.

This week was a double-header: provincial elections in Newfoundland & Labrador Monday and Ontario tonight. Woo hoo!

The numbers were streaming in after the polls closed at 9 PM and TVOntario had continuous coverage. The Liberals appear to be re-elected with another large majority. The Conservative leader was losing in his own riding. But just as they were covering my parents' area --the riding of Temiskaming-Cochrane in north-eastern Ontario-- longtime Liberal MPP Jim Ramsay was 500 votes behind the NDP candidate, it happened: we lost the satellite signal. DAMN!

The universe has a twisted sense of humour.

Comments

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Yup, kinda: a riding is a district or constituency on the electoral map. It doesn't necessarily correspond to particular counties or municipal boundaries but would be restricted by provincial borders. For example, the above mentioned riding of Timiskaming-Cochrane largely covers the regional district of Timiskaming where I grew up, some of the regional district to the north and I think a chunk of Nippissing, the district to the south but it absolutely respects the Ontario/Quebec border.

Federal parliamentary ridings don't necessarily correspond to federal parliamentary ridings; each body defines their own borders. Still, some provinces have opted to simply adopt the federal map for ease of comprehension.

And the riding names are so gosh-darn colourful! :-) The Speaker of the House has to memorize all parliamentarians' names, and the names of their ridings in both official languages. That must be great fun.