Did you vote the way your neighbours did in 2008? And did your candidate take the poll you voted in? Now you can find out -- and gain a better picture of how your riding is likely to go this time.
Cyberpresse.ca, a Quebec website, has created an electoral map of the 2008 federal election, overlaid on a Google Earth map of Canada. Originally in French, the map has been so popular that it now offers an English version as well.
The map's menu includes every riding in the 2008 election. Choose your riding and you'll see it with every poll coloured according to the party that took it. The heavier the vote, the more intense the party colour.
What's more, you can click on a given poll and see exactly how many votes each candidate gained there. In North Vancouver's poll 126, for example, winning Conservative Andrew Saxton had 130 votes compared to Liberal Don Bell's 116. Jim Stephenson of the Greens gained 43 votes, almost double the 22 of New Democrat Michael Charrois.
In Vancouver Centre's poll 64, Liberal Hedy Fry took 86 votes and the riding. New Democrat Michael Byers had 61, Adriane Carr of the Greens had 44, and the Conservatives' Lorne Mayencourt had just 39.
And in Saanich-Gulf Islands, the islands went Liberal. But in Saanich's poll 42, winning Conservative Gary Lunn took 155 votes to Liberal Briony Penn's 80, Green candidate Andrew Lewis's 31, and New Democrat Julian West's 11.
Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission's poll 129 gave 51 votes to winning Conservative Randy Kemp, 33 to New Democrat Mike Bocking, 14 to Green Mike Gildersleeve, and just 12 to Dan Olson of the Liberals.
The map is a useful reminder of how the 2008 election went, and offers some hints about the outcome of the May 2 election.
Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.
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