Vote Compass: See The Story Of The 2011 Canadian Election In Two Minutes (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post Canada   First Posted: 12/14/11 02:08 PM ET Updated: 12/14/11 02:12 PM ET

The 2011 federal election was one the most memorable in recent times. Stephen Harper won his first majority government, the NDP made huge gains in Quebec and support for the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois collapsed.

The ramifications of the May 2 vote are still unfolding, but now you can see what happened during the campaign in just two minutes.

The Vote Compass animation gives a bird's eye view of what happened in every Canadian riding during the 2011 campaign.

The Bloc dominates in Quebec and the Liberals are strong in Ontario, but as the animation progresses support for both parties collapses, with the NDP benefiting in Quebec and the Conservatives in Ontario.

Vote Compass is an interactive online electoral literacy tool overseen by scholars and grad students. Users provide their opinions on 30 multiple choice questions for a given election and then the tool shows how these views align with the platforms of the political parties involved.

Those behind the tool claim it helps Canadians break through politicians' "doublespeak" and discover what the parties actually stand for on important issues. Not everyone, however, agrees that Vote Compass does this fairly.

The tool was used extensively by CBC during the 2011 election and was criticized for allegedly favouring the Liberals.

There is little evidence of that bias in the results animation though. Support for Liberal policies can be seen falling as dramatically in the animation as it did in reality.

Regardless of where you stand on the political impartiality of Vote Compass, it's hard to deny that the data set paints a compelling picture of the vote which reshaped Canadian politics.

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The 2011 federal election was one the most memorable in recent times. Stephen Harper won his first majority government, the NDP made huge gains in Quebec and support for the Liberals and Bloc Quebecoi...
The 2011 federal election was one the most memorable in recent times. Stephen Harper won his first majority government, the NDP made huge gains in Quebec and support for the Liberals and Bloc Quebecoi...
 
 
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
tnanimation
11:17 AM on 12/15/2011
Can't help but notice all of these little Stephen Harper 'feel good' stories, popping up on a daily basis in Huffpost. Interesting propaganda campaign from the PM's office.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
JackHoffman
Pundit
03:14 AM on 12/16/2011
The editor of HuffPo Canada is David Frum's wife. A right wing nasty.
02:57 PM on 12/14/2011
Interesting video and article. A dynamic that is not addressed is the power of vote splitting in a multi party system. We have five parties in Canada that actually hold seats in parliament and over a dozen that actually ran candidates

In such a system, vote splits always play a huge part in the results. It is often pointed out that the PC's formed a majority government with less than a majority of the popular vote. Less frequently mentioned is the fact that the NDP racked up a whopping 178% increase in seats with only a 12% increase in popular vote. Both the result of vote splitting

Vote splitting is the single most important phenomenon in a multi party system. It's little wonder that no one wants to discuss proportional voting when they are on a winning streak!