Official federal election numbers released

The numbers have been crunched and tabulated and it is official – more people came out to vote in October’s federal election.

According to data published by Elections Canada, a little more than 63 per cent of eligible voters in the Oshawa riding came out to vote in the election, up from 56.8 per cent in the 2011 race. In that race, incumbent Conservative MP Colin Carrie took in 23,162 of the 60,914 votes cast, good for 38.2 per cent of the ballots. In 2011, Carrie took in 26,034 of the 50,394 ballots cast, or about 51 per cent.

The same trend carried forward in Durham, where just under 68.5 per cent came out to vote, up from 63.2 per cent in 2011. Conservative MP Erin O’Toole, who had previously been voted into the seat in a 2012 by-election, walked away on voting day with 28,967 of the 64,418 ballots cast, or about 45 per cent. In the 2011 election, O’Toole’s predecessor, Bev Oda, took the seat with 31,737 of the 58,451 ballots cast, or about 54.5 per cent.

The ridings in the 2015 election were laid out differently than in the 2011 runoff following a realignment of electoral ridings in 2012, which saw the Oshawa riding lose some of its land to Durham, but gain from Whitby-Oshawa (leading to it becoming a solely Whitby riding). In that realignment, Durham gained land from Oshawa and Whitby-Oshawa, but lost some to Pickering-Uxbridge and Northumberland-Peterborough South.

Across the country, voter turnout was up 18 per cent from 2011, bringing voter turnout to 68.3 per cent. The largest gains were seen with younger voters, with 57.1 per cent of those ages 18 through 24 voting, up from 38.8 per cent in the previous election.