(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Commentary

In the Oct. 14 federal election, votes remained low for the 24 Communist Party candidates, despite clear public support for many of the policies in the party's platform. As in other recent campaigns, this outcome reflects the near complete media blackout of "alternative candidates" in most areas.

     Another factor is the "first past the post" system which pressures voters to support candidates with a strong chance to win; under a proportional representation system, the vote for smaller parties would be much greater.

     The outcome is also affected by the constant ratcheting up of ID requirements, an effort which is almost becoming a campaign against the right to cast a ballot, especially for youth, poor people, Aboriginals, new Canadians, and those such as the elderly who are less likely to have a valid driver's license. Not coincidentally, these sections of the population are also relatively more inclined to vote against the big business parties.

     The Communist vote averaged about 150 per riding, up slightly from 2006. Among the Communists, Jason Devine was the front runner, where his 323 votes were 1% of the overall total in Calgary East.

     The results were much different among Canada's students. The results of the "Student Vote", conducted in about 4,000 elementary and secondary schools across Canada, are very interesting. Despite the failure of most school officials to contact the Communist Party for literature and information, the Communists received about 0.5% of the 483,710 votes cast by students in these parallel elections. In ridings where Communist candidates were on the Student Vote ballot, their average share of the total was nearly 5%. That compares to 26.5% for the Conservatives, 24.6% for the Green Party, 23.7% for the NDP, and 19.2% for the Liberals.

     Initial reports on the Student Vote website http://www.studentvote.ca wrongly state that Young Communist League of Canada leader Johan Boyden received 47.74% of the vote in his riding of Toronto Centre, which would have seen him "elected". Correct results have not been posted yet.

     Here are the results for Communist candidates by province, except for Toronto Centre and for Québec, where only a few schools took part.

BRITISH COLUMBIA: George Gidora, 6.0% (Burnaby-Douglas); Harjit Daudharia, 5.64% (Newton-North Delta); Mark Haley, 4.86% (Kelowna-Lake Country); Kimball Cariou, 2.36% (Vancouver Kingsway).

ALBERTA: Jason Devine, 5.95% (Calgary East); Naomi Rankin, 3.59% (Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont).

MANITOBA: Frank Komarniski, 5.30% (Winnipeg North); Lisa Gallagher, 4.67% (Brandon-Souris); Darrell Rankin, 2.01% (Winnipeg Centre).

ONTARIO: Martin Suter, 8.11% (Kitchener Centre); Ramon Portillo, 7.91% (Kitchener-Waterloo); Catherine Holliday, 7.53% (Don Valley West); Dimitrios "Jim" Kabitsis, 5.06% (Brampton-Springdale); Alex McDonald, 4.81% (Ottawa West-Nepean); Miguel Figueroa, 4.25% (Davenport); Ryan Sparrow, 4.15% (Hamilton Centre); Sam Hammond, 3.69% (St. Catharines); Liz Rowley, 3.16% (Windsor West); Drew Garvie, 2.26% (Guelph).

     These results point to one further conclusion. Lowering the voting age to 16, as the Communist Party advocates, would increase overall participation in the electoral process, and it would probably mean a higher vote for the Communists and other progressive candidates.