General

Election fatigue?

So Jean-Pierre Blackburn wants the Bloc to hold off on defeating the Conservatives until the spring, because “it’s not sound to have municipal and federal elections going on at the same time.”

I haven’t had to deal with too many campaigns since moving to Toronto in 2006. But Blackburn’s comment got me thinking about just how many votes have taken place in my old stomping grounds of Montreal’s Outremont riding in the past five years:

  • June 28, 2004: Federal election
  • November 6, 2005: Municipal elections
  • December 12, 2005: Provincial by-election
  • January 23, 2006: Federal election
  • March 26, 2007: Provincial election
  • September 17, 2007: Federal by-election
  • December 16, 2007: Municipal by-election*
  • October 14, 2008: Federal election
  • December 8, 2008: Provincial election

That’s eight nine (!) votes in five years. Assuming election signs stay up for six weeks—five weeks before a vote and one week after, give or take a few days—my former neighbours have had to stare at elections signs for a ungodly grand total of 336 378 days since the summer of 2004.

I don’t know if Blackburn’s right and there really is such a thing as election fatigue, but if there is, Outremont might be as good a place as any to start looking for it.

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