The 40th Parliament has been dissolved and Canadians are heading to the polls on May 2.
Created by TorontoStar on Mar 29, 2011
Last updated: 05/03/11 at 12:41 PM
Tags: canadian politics election 2011
The traditional Liberal stronghold that has kept the Greater Toronto Area mostly red for decades suffered a devastating blow Monday night. The death knell was capped by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff losing his own seat in Etobicoke-Lakeshore, signalling a sea-change of the political landscape not only in the GTA, but across the nation.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/984470
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May became her party's first MP elected to the House of Commons, with early results Monday night showing her leading in the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding.
http://www.thestar.com/federalelection/article/984551
Layton didn't become prime minister, but he vaulted his party over both the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois to form the official Opposition for the first time in its half-century history, altering the political landscape in an election the Conservative government insisted no one wanted and the pundits said would not change a thing.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/984131
Jack Layton strolled along the wet sidewalk around the corner from his downtown home to vote with his wife and fellow New Democrat Olivia Chow in what could be a historic election for the party.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/984131
The campaigning is over, the opinion surveys have all been done and now the only poll that counts is underway. Canadians are voting today in the fourth federal election in seven years and, by most accounts, it’s going to be a game-changer.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/984104
Trying to stop social media from broadcasting early election results on Monday was like “trying to nail Jell-O to the wall,” as social media users openly flouted Elections Canada rules forbidding the dissemination of results before polls closed.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/984433
Harper and his wife Laureen, who keep a home in Calgary, voted at midday at St. Augustine elementary school accompanied by their children Ben and Rachel. Afterwards, he surprised many when he went into and through the school and was mobbed by nearly two hundred schoolchildren out on the playground. They cheered and called out to Harper as he walked briefly among them.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/984207
Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton and Elizabeth May lay out their reasons for why Canadians should vote for them.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/983800
Columnist Jonathan Kay and political consultant Warren Kinsella say they were also leaked the story of Jack Layton’s massage parlour run-in years ago, raising questions about how the potentially damaging story emerged just days before voters head to the ballot box.
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/983801
Can you vote if you're homeless? Where do you vote? What ID do you need? Your questions are answered here.
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/983706
Layton spent the last day of his surprisingly momentous campaign on a whistle-stop tour beginning in Montreal and heading west along Hwy. 401 to Kingston, Oshawa and Toronto, ending the day with a large rally of more than 650 people — many from the Tamil community — in a public school gymnasium near Morningside Ave. and Sheppard Ave. E. on Sunday night.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/983633
Despite being mired in third place in the polls, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff says he’s proud of his effort to rebuild his party by doing politics differently. Barnstorming through southern Ontario, Ignatieff said he’d been trying since taking over the Liberals in late 2008 to “reconnect my party to Canadian voters.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/983419
Jack Layton continues to surge in popularity among voters, giving his New Democrats vital momentum going into Monday’s election, largely at the expense of the Liberals, a new poll reveals.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/983246
A Markham woman who lost her chance to vote in a dispute at a polling station can now do so after the Star published a story about the incident.
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/983496
Musicians, actors and political 'celebrities' are also a part of the campaign trail, as they lend support to specific candidates or just urge people to go out and vote.
http://photogallery.thestar.com/983043
The campaigning nearly over, the time for replication begins. That’s the message Elizabeth May’s supporters are pushing as the Green Party leader finishes the last stretch of her campaign carrying the huge burden of winning a seat in the House of Commons.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/982937
Ignatieff, who planned to open his Ontario blitz in London and Kitchener, said he’s going to “hoover” up undecided voters, disillusioned Conservatives and NDP supporters who are looking for a moderate alternative to Stephen Harper’s government.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/982942
Stephen Harper's Conservatives must win 23 more seats in Ontario to achieve their coveted majority, a task that senior party insiders now admit is almost impossible, the Star has learned.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/982356
In an unprecedented move coming on the heels of the NDP’s meteoric rise in Quebec, two Bloc Quebecois members are urging their fellow sovereigntists to vote orange.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/982823
A federal NDP-led government would do to Canada what former premier Bob Rae's New Democrats did to Ontario, predicted Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/981639
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is vowing to forge ahead with a controversial security perimeter with the U.S. that critics charge will compromise Canadians’ privacy.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/981839
All that pavement-pounding, door-knocking, podium-speeching and baby-kissing gets a leader hungry. Take a look at some of the campaign pit stops the leaders have taken for a snack.
http://photogallery.thestar.com/982071
Both the Liberals and the NDP have budgeted about $3.3 billion over four years to building affordable, high-quality child care centres across the country. Most importantly, both are committed: Universal child care is the first promise the Liberals make in their platform, and the NDP vow to enshrine it in law — like medicare — so a new government couldn’t scrap the plan without a debate in the House of Commons.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/981562
All eyes on the leaders, right? Don't forget about the people at their events. And how could you? They dress as clowns, sport Tory hairdos, and show off their homemade signs.
http://photogallery.thestar.com/980509
A “seismic shift” among voters has vaulted the NDP to second place, just five points behind the Conservative front-runners while the Liberals are falling further behind, a new poll reveals.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/980804
It’s being removed from Canada’s public buildings, is banned in the European Union, and caused the cancer that afflicted Transport Minister Chuck Strahl, but Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is defending asbestos exports.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/980449
Margaret Atwood shares her paper napkin guide to the election.
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/98020
A frustrated Michael Ignatieff threw his attacks on Stephen Harper into high gear Monday, rhyming off what he said were “stupid” Conservative government decisions and questioning why Canadians have accepted Harper's rule for five years.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/980248
The leaders aren't the only ones soaking up the spotlight - their wives are, too. As the leaders trek across Canada on their campaign trails, their wives are never far behind, either as candidates themselves or just as supporters.
http://photogallery.thestar.com/979862
Jack Layton made a vague promise to safeguard the right to access safe abortions as he accused the Conservative government of doing little to advance the equality of women.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/980194
Just one week is left in the federal election campaign, and a significantly large number of Canadians are sitting in the “mistrustful middle” of everything they’ve been hearing from the political parties, a new Angus Reid-Toronto Star poll has found.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/979612
Stephen Harper says he’s going to win the election and he’s laid out four “immediate” priorities for a Conservative government that include help for seniors, passing a package of crime bills and protecting health care.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/979897
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper roared into a rally in Canada’s Motor City in his bulletproof Cadillac limousine to tout all his government had done to bail out domestic automakers.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/980189
A 500-page dossier of potentially damaging remarks by Stephen Harper has hit the election campaign, but don't blame the opposition parties — it was prepared by the Conservatives.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/980084
Jack Layton acknowledges he will have to put some green initiatives on hold if money from a planned cap-and-trade system comes too slowly, but refuses to say what he would shelve first.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/979868
The Bloc Québécois is set to bring some heavy artillery into the federal election battle on Monday as the separatist party tries to push back an apparent NDP tide with just a week to go until voting day. Former Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau is scheduled to campaign with Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe at an event in Longueuil, Que., near Montreal.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/979779
As Canadians emerge from their Easter break, they are now looking at a May 2 election that holds the potential to fundamentally redraw the country’s political landscape. Whether this looming realignment is real or an April mirage may hinge on five factors.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/979541
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff crossed paths at the Khalsa celebration with the NDP’s Jack Layton, who exchanged a brief handshake with the Liberal leader as they switched places on the outdoor stage.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/979561
Ignatieff tried to appeal directly to voters with a personal, at-times emotional infomercial that aired nationally.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/979514
In his appeal for a majority mandate, Stephen Harper has a caution for voters: don’t give politicians absolute trust. But on the direct question of why voters — who have been cool to him in past elections — should trust him with a majority this time, Harper sidestepped the query and instead sought to put the focus on his government’s track record.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/979619
With just over a week until election day, the optics for NDP Leader Jack Layton couldn’t be better. The Montreal event showed a man with momentum — a man threatening not only the Bloc Québécois, but the Conservatives and Liberals in other pockets across the country.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/979434
With polls showing New Democrats on the upswing, Harper made Layton the main target of his revised stump speech during a rally in a Vancouver Island riding where the Conservative incumbent’s main rival is a NDP candidate.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/979311
Police from 53 Division are investigating 16 cases of cars with slashed tires and scratched paint in the area and have asked the public for help in the investigation. They said cars had their tires slashed and paint defaced between 10 and 11 p.m. Thursday night.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/979199
Understaffing or extra interest? Chalk it up to what you will, but Good Friday’s advance polling stations in the GTA and across the country saw a surge of voters eager to mark their ballots ahead of time.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/979121
What if every single one of our youth listened to Rick Mercer, who called out the nation’s young, in one of his trademark rants, to exercise a franchise that has for them grown rusty from disillusionment, disengagement and political ignorance. What would Canada look like?
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/978633
It might be hard to believe in today’s digital world, but publicly posting or “transmitting” election results on Facebook or Twitter before polls in other parts of the country have closed is illegal. Doing so could result in a $25,000 fine.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/978388
Conservative leader Stephen Harper’s chief spokesman denies he received any kickbacks for allegedly trying to influence the appointment process at the Montreal Port Authority.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/978404
Never before seen in Canadian politics, the New Democratic Party has jumped to the top of the heap in Quebec, ahead of even the Bloc Québécois.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/978205
Ryan Hastman contends 550 names on the list in Edmonton Strathcona are invalid because individuals used the addresses of several businesses, including the Truth North Hemp Company and the Mars and Venus goth-punk clothing store.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/978877
Believe it or not, our federal political leaders were once young too.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/977659
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