A Study of One Constituency in the Canadian Federal Election of 1957

In: Canadian journal of economics and political science: the journal of the Canadian Political Science Association = Revue canadienne d'économique et de science politique, Band 24, Heft 2, S. 230-240

Abstract

This article attempts to describe the process of election as it occurred in one Canadian constituency in the federal general election of June 10, 1957. Since it would be foolish to generalize on the basis of one example, no effort is made to draw conclusions. The article is expository and intended only to illumine one of the unexamined corners of Canadian political science after the fashion of Larzarsfeld's work on the 1948 American election and the valuable constituency studies contained in Butler's book on the British election of 1951.Constituency X is a large residential electoral district, part of which lies within Metropolitan Toronto. Brought into being by the Redistribution Act of 1952, the riding grew quickly because of the flight to the suburbs and the rapid growth of Toronto. Between 1951 and 1956 the population more than doubled, from 72,117 to 167.310. The huge size of the constituency and its swift increase presented a challenge in organization that is worth noting in itself.The task rested in the hands of a woman who had served as returning officer in the previous election also. For the 1957 election she began in October, 1956, to make preparations for taking the vote and by the following April she was giving all her working hours to the job. For the three months immediately preceding the election she had a full-time assistant and two part-time workers helping her. The extent of the operations involved can be gathered from the statistics. Enumerating the riding required the appointment of 636 enumerators and the assignment to them of 318 election kits containing about a dozen items each. In addition to supervising the drawing up, posting, and revision of the lists of electors, who totalled 104,000, the returning officer was also responsible for splitting the constituency into 318 polling divisions, for establishing 427 polling stations, and for appointing a deputy returning officer and an election clerk in each. On voting day, with a staff of four people, she tabulated the 74,995 votes cast and was among the first to report results.