Research and Explain Canadian Provincial Voting Behaviour (Essay Sample)

Voting Behavior in Canada.
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Introduction
Voting is a fundamental aspect of public engagement. A large number of political researchers link voting with the wellbeing of the equitable procedure and contend that declining voting rates is one of the signs of a "democratic deficit" (Albert & Steven, 2011). Political participation is one of the factors that influences public policy. There are thus concerns that lower participation in the voting process could result in policies not representative of key constituencies because such constituents tend to vote less (Albert & Steven, 2011). Voter turnout rate is therefore used as one the indicators of democratic civic engagement.
In Canada, a number of administrative data sources and surveys have been used to carry out voter turnout studies. Examples of such surveys include Security and Community Survey last conducted in 2003, the Equality survey done in 2008, and most recently the Elections Canada study that involved population estimate for the May 1, 2011 elections
(Bevelander & Ravi, 2009). This paper seeks to compare the non-immigration group and immigration group in Canada in terms of voting participation, and describe the social outcome in relations to Canada. The paper also looks at the difference in voting patterns by comparing education level and employment rate
Immigrants vs Non-Immigrants Voting Patterns
At Statistics Canada, Canada survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (CSGVP) was the first survey that was conducted to cover voter participation in the country. The CSGVP continued to survey the elections process in 2001 and 2008 (Bevelander & Ravi, 2009). This survey and others show that some groups including the young, the less-educated, and the immigration group voted less. Recently, the Labor Force Survey (LFS) in collaboration with Elections Canada included in the survey where the respondents who did not vote were asked to give the reasons of not voting. This process is helpful in understanding the socio-demographic in the country and to cast some light on the factors associated with less voting engagement of the immigration group in comparison to the non-immigration group.
Based on the surveys those immigrants who immigrated to Canada from 2001 onwards had a voting rate of 51% in comparison to 66% for more established immigrants who migrated earlier than 2001. The voting rate for Canadian-born immigrants was 67%
(Statistics Canada, 2011).
Participation in General Election Based on Education Level.
Educated individuals were 66% more likely to vote in comparison to 57% for the general population. According to National Youth Survey Report, the employed or self-employed youths in school were significantly more likely to vote in comparison to the employed youths who live at home (75% versus 59% of the surveyed youths). The huge disparity is associated to the high school environment’s encouragement to voting participation among the students as part of their curriculum (Statistics Canada, 2011). No notable difference exists between individual’s electoral participation among those whose first language is English, French or any other language. However, higher education, employment status and higher personal income are significant predictors of increased participation in the general election. The reflected results above for the May 2011 general election in Canada are consistent with other past studies on voting patterns in the country.
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Table 2: National Youth Survey Report
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Participation in General Election Based on Employment
With respect to the Canadian tradition of voting studies, a great deal found strong results for social groups as significant components of vote determinants. In relation to employment rate, successive findings over the years shows that unskilled laborers lags behind in terms of attitudes in comparison to the skilled laborers and managers. These attitudes go ahead to be reflected in the voting patterns (Statistics Canada, 2011).
Employment is directly related to the income well-being of a person. The employed individuals have a higher voting rate. Research shows that the material interests of the employed and managers are reasonably different from the unemployed where for example the working class tend to depend more on social programs that the unemployed. A great deal of numerous past research show a close correlation between employment/class and voting patterns in Canada (Albert & Steven, 2011).
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As highlighted in the table above, progressive increase in voting rate was direc...