Suchergebnisse

Although the interrelationship between socio-economic characteristics and electoral behaviour in Canadian elections is widely recognized, only recently have attempts been made to evaluate these interactions in a precise manner. The approaches used so far vary in methodology–using both interviews and voting results–and in the level of analysis–ranging from poll to constituency to province to nation. The results depend to some extent on the research approach. Particularly strong variations exist in the effects of social variables in different provinces and different constituencies.This study presents another research alternative, using multiple regression techniques to combine census small-area information with voting results at the poll level. Although the strengths and weaknesses of this approach are discussed in detail by Meisel and Paquet, few Canadian studies have yet exploited its potential return. Problems of sampling and of variations in candidates and issues among constituencies are replaced by the difficulties of ecological correlation, but the use of regression procedures allows the evaluation of the predictive power of the explanatory variables.