Ontario Election: Half the Voters Stayed Home, Only 24% Actually Voted for Liberals

TORONTO, October 3, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Ontario has voted in a majority Liberal Government under Premier-elect Dalton McGuinty, ousting the Progressive Conservatives led by Ernie Eves.  The Liberals took 72 seats, the PCs 24 and the NDP lost official party status with only 7 wins.  However, the very low voter turnout – the lowest in the country – speaks volumes about the voters’ poor perception of the options they were given.  The prospects for pro-life advances going into the election were bleak with none of the three main parties backing life or family concerns. The result is similarly bleak with the change in Government.  Voter frustration with the three main parties reached a climax with no discernable difference between the main parties on moral issues and very little difference on many other concerns.  Hence the pathetic voter turnout, at about 52% of Ontarians, down from the already woefully low 58% in 1999, came as no surprise.  With 46.4% of the election’s total votes cast going to the Liberals the result is that only 24% of the total eligible Ontario electorate actually cast a ballot for the new Government. 53.5% of votes cast were for other than the Liberals and yet, because of the Ontario voting system, the Ontario Liberals won 72 of the 103 seats (70%)in the provincial government.  The media-hyped ‘landslide’ win was nothing of the sort with about 76% of eligible voters now being governed by a party that they did not vote for. In addition, much of the support the winning Liberals did get was due to intensive efforts by the province’s exceptionally wealthy and powerful teachers unions and similar organizations who put out a lot of effort and money to ensure a Liberal victory.  The pro-life movement was very appreciative of the efforts of the Family Coalition Party for bringing the all-important life and family issues into election discussions. Running in only 51 of the 103 ridings, the FCP garnered over 35,000 votes, an improvement of 48% over its 1999 total, with 35% more candidates having run this time over last time.  See the vote breakdown from the CBC at:  https://www.cbc.ca/ontariovotes2003/