I’m back from voting. The polls weren’t too busy, but it is only mid-morning here. I’m sure they will get busy at the end of the business day, though.
Well this should be interesting. Heck Google even has a Canadian election image up.
So I went and considered what happens to political party funding if 15million people vote as per the 308 link. It’s neat 
Assume we had roughly 14 million votes cast last election with the following results and funding
Conservative (37.7%) for 5,271,000 votes – $9.2 million
Liberals (26.3%) for 3,676,400 votes - $6.4 million
NDP (18.2%) for 2,545,200 votes - $4.5 million
Bloc (10%) for 1,397,200 votes – 2.4 million
Now lets’ just say that this election will see 15 million votes cast and we’ll use the projected % from 308
Conservative (36.4%) for 5,460,000 votes – $9.6 million
Liberals (22.8%) for 3,420,000 votes - $6.0 million
NDP (27.3%) for 4,095,000 votes - $7.2 million
Bloc (6.7%) for 1,005,000 votes – $1.8 million
The Conservatives and Liberals don’t see massive funding jumps at all here. The NDP funding jumps by $2.7 million or enough for 27 people at $100k LLR
The Bloc loses $700k of funding or 30%. That, to me, seems huge as the available pool of donors is restricted to the 20% or so of the 3 million Quebecers that continue to vote Bloc. Still the Bloc was able to win large numbers of seats prior to the current funding formula, but it does present a challenge to their ability to operate.
I held my nose and voted. Never missed an election yet. 
I’m puzzled as to what “results” I could illegally post on here or Facebook, Twitter, etc. I don’t know the results until Elections Canada starts releasing them. I supposed I could tell you who I voted for - I wouldn’t, but I could - but that doesn’t count as a “result,” does it?
In the past, local TV has reported election results in one part of the country before polls have closed further west. This wasn’t a big deal because you couldn’t get the Thunder Bay station in Kenora anyway. And it’s against the law for the Kenora station to broadcast those results. Now, someone in Toronto can post the eastern results three hours before Vancouver’s done voting, and (potentially) influence the vote.
It’s an antiquated law that just doesn’t work in the Internet age (or really the satellite TV age either), and yet there have been prosecutions. Our ministerial friend is merely warning people about that potential – if you’re worried, don’t discuss results here until after 8 PM PST.
I’m curious about the satellite TV bit. Do the Westerners who subscribe to timeshifting get those channels blacked out for the time period, or are they visible? I never had TV when I lived out west. Does anyone know?
And also, here’s a cite:
You wouldn’t know the results until Elections Canada starts releasing them, but I’m sure people working at polling stations in the east will have results before the polls close in the west. I think these people are the ones who are being targeted with the “no twittering” barrage of messages this election.
I imagine they’re completely visible, since no station can report results until after the polls close in the west anyway.
That’s never been the case in the past; the CBC’s always come on with their election coverage right when polls close, EST. And they’ve got 10,000 votes counted in all of the Atlantic ridings already, and Peter Mansbridge says something to the effect of, ‘Welcome all of you who are just joining us from Ontario and Quebec, the polls are now closed.’
That changed sometime ago. I can’t find a cite. Perhaps 10 years or so ago I believe they changed the elections act to exclude the publishing of any results until all the polls had closed.
I’ll keep looking…
Cons - 145
NDP - 88
Libs - 50
Bloc - 25
Green - 0
My wild ass guess
I guess section 329 of the elections act has always been there, just that in today’s connected world it now applies to other broadcast options, like twitter, etc.
I know back in the 90s the CBC would start reporting results as they came in, but only for your time zone or earlier.
The last few elections they don’t start reporting anything until all polls close. I can’t seem to find out which election specifically this changed on.
It’s not that as much that all the polls times were changed.
The Eastern, Central and Mountain time polls all close at the same time now, and Pacific polls close a half hour after them. You couldn’t do this with the Atlantic polls, because that would mean either having them open until 10:30 p.m. (11 in NL), or opening them at 6:30 a.m. in Mountain time.
Thanks Raygun. That’s pretty much all I’m coming up with, which boils down to all the results coming at once, instead of flowing from east to west.
I appreciate those changes.
Wouldn’t be a problem if Elections Canada would only release results once all polls across the country are closed.
I’d hate to be the Newfoundland candidate waiting for four and a half hours (from 8:00 to 12:30 (aka 8:00 PST)) to hear anything about my campaign, and then to have it be very anti-climactic “oh, I lost/won” (who doesn’t like seeing those poll numbers go back and forth, especially if you’re the candidate)?
I’d say you were baffled. 
Let the candidates eat cake. Better they be patient for a few hours than regular folks run afoul of the law for discussing results over the internet.
I wanted to vote for Jack Johnson, but ended up voting for John Jackson.
So what time do the polls close?