In the provinces

Quebec, as it is having an election, will not be in this update.

Newfoundland

The NDP members have settled in to their more visible role here, but the Liberals have yet to fail at the official opposition. Polls taken since the last election show the NDP up, but also, the Liberals either maintaining their vote, or up themselves. The most recent poll in fact shows the NDP in the lead. My projection for "where things really stand" is 40PC - 30N - 20L This would be enough for the NDP to win Burin, and Saint Johns West, which might not sound like much, but is enough to push them into the Official Opposition.

Prince Edward Island

I lived here for a decade and even ran for office here. With a 5 member opposition, at least the Government is being held accountable by someone. PEI has a terrible history of 1 or 2 member oppositions (or 0 member even). I'd even say that a 3 member opposition in the 27 member house is not enough. A 3 member opposition means 1 opposition member for every 8 government members. 4 members pushes that number down to 6, and that is rounding up. My personal feeling is that 1-to-7 is the lowest you can go and still retain an effective opposition. Regardless, the only report here is "No Changes", the Liberals retain their majority.

Nova Scotia

The next province over is Nova Scotia, where the NDP holds a majority. Not much has changed in the legislature since my last update which was on the Blunt Objects blog The most recent poll shows the NDP down 10 points from the last election, but, a poll over a year ago had the same results and the NDP bounced right back. Both the Liberals and Tories are bouncing about in the polls as well, making it difficult to tell exactly what is going on. The only thing that is clear to me is that the NDP has lost some ground, likely settling at 40% right now, while the Liberals are closer to 30 as I see it, and the PC Party closer to 27. The Tories, having more close second place finishes to the NDP last time, would see the most gain out of this, and would take enough seats to push the NDP into a minority, and themselves into the official opposition. 

New Brunswick

All three parties here are in a depressed state. The NDP lost a by-election they put all their eggs in to a few months ago, and the Liberals are still shopping around for a leader. The Governing Tories are down in the polls meanwhile, Polls show the NDP vote doubling, and they could win them a few seats, but with the concentration pattern of the NDP vote, even 20% on e-day may only mean 4 seats. More details to come later as NB is far too complex to make a simple projection. 

British Columbia

Off to the other coast to tell me what you already know, as the state of things has not changed much since the BC By-Elections. The NDP is far out in the lead and will likely take all but a dozen ridings in the next election unless the polls change. The Greens have been displaced as the 3rd party by the Conservatives, who manage to stick a few points behind the Liberals, who can not seem to break out of the 20s.

Alberta

With an election so recent, there really is not much I can say here that is of any use whatsoever.

Saskatchewan

The Saskatchewan Party retains their huge lead that they won in the 2011 election, and beyond that, there is nothing to say here either.

Manitoba

Rounding out politics on the quiet prairie is Manitoba, where again, not enough has changed since the 2011 election to provoke any comment. 

Yukon

Heading up north to the Yukon we find the same as we do in the rest of the west, not much to comment on.

The Senate

Those who follow me know that I like to take a look at the Senate during these updates. Current party standings have the Tories at 59, the Liberals at 40, and 3 official Independents - though at least one claims to be a member of a party that has not existed for nearly a decade.

There are currently 5 vacancies in the Senate, 2 in Ontario, and 1 in each of Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

By the middle of November, there will be additional vacancies in Newfoundland, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia. Perhaps we are headed for a Senate election? Perhaps not.

Ontario

And now what you've all been waiting for, but, I'm afraid to tell you, you have to wait some more. What's been going on in Ontario is large enough for it's own post, and thus, it will have one, independent of this post. 

Updated Projection

First I want to address why I'm updating a projection from less than an hour ago. The answer is twofold.

1 - Follow your gut.
This most recent Leger poll has results that match my gut feeling about the election. I've learned not only to trust my riding numbers (IE they say Hull might vote PQ, so, Hull might vote PQ) but I've also learned when "poll averaging" to follow my gut far more than the math. My gut tells me that the CAQ is stealing PLQ votes, and this poll confirms that this is indeed the case among Francophones.

2 - Regional Breakdowns.
A rush to get a projection out means no focus on the various regional breakdowns. The regional breakdowns on this poll got heavy weight for a few reasons. First of all, the CAQ breakdown identically matches that of the ADQ at these levels, and this leads me to believe that old ADQ voters are ready to go CAQ without much of a change. Secondly, these regionals represent a huge change from past polls, a change I'm willing to trust for reasons listed above. Lastly, this is a Leger poll, and Leger, from my experience, is the most accurate pollster on the Quebec scene.

The major changes are the around 20% of Liberal votes in rural Quebec are heading over to the CAQ, and, at least 10% are doing the same in Quebec City. Of note, if these numbers hold, the QS will hold the balance of power. The prospect of that brings me an interesting sort of joy.

55 #PQ | 39 #PLQ | 27 #CAQ | 4 #QS

New projection!!

#liberalwho #lpcldr #lpc - great hashtags, but who is it really?

Who is behind http://www.liberalwho.ca/

That is the question everyone wants to know. It's registered to someone who seems to - from the postal code - live in a Jean Coutu. The postcode is in Trudeau's riding. Is it him? Whoever it is follows a lot of people from in and around Halifax on Twitter, maybe it's Brison? The guy seems to also know a lot of people from Calgary, maybe it's Nenshi. Some others even think it's Andrew Coyne.

There were a few things I noted based on the little that's written on the website. First off, this "platform" seems left wing. The mystery man refers to the party as "Progressive" and wanting to unite "Progressives". He also attacks Harper rather than the entire Conservative Party. The problem is this could apply to a dozen Liberal MPs. So how to narrow it down?

One word caught my attention. Laggard. It's not a common word, at least, not one I use, nor one that I hear get used often. In particular, this person refers to Canada being "Laggard" in the International arena when it comes to the Environment.

This gave me an idea and a quick search of Hansard though http://openparliament.ca/ and I found something interesting. There are only a handful of Liberal MPs that have used this word more than once, and of them, only one, has only used it to refer to the Environment.

Frank Valeriote

Is it him?
Maybe, maybe not. But either way, whoever it is, certainly is capturing attention.

The Starting Point

So, where do we start? The answer is normally pretty simple; a transposition of the 2008 vote. The answer this time is a bit more complex. While that applies in most ridings, it does not in others. Dumont's old seat, for example, can not rightfully be considered a CAQ seat, and Legault's old seat, and that of the two other PQ MNAs that crossed the floor, should be considered CAQ seats. The same applies to Aussant and the ON. 

Thus, with those changes in mind, I present to you the "Starting Point" or "Base Results" of the 2008 election, transposed to 2012.

Also, a special thanks to Volkov, who is registered to contribute to this blog, and who runs his own at http://blunt-objects.blogspot.ca/ A special thanks to Volkov for creating the base for the map that I use. Especially since I used it myself on his blog without asking... And then, sorta, absconded with it without telling him >.<

Direct 2 Twitter

This post is mostly a test of my new direct to twitter thanks to www.twitterfeed.com  which should allow all my new posts here at RxR to appear automatically on my twitter feed!

About me

Some of you may be wondering who I am.

I'm Teddy!

Others will need more.

I'm Nick J "Teddy" Boragina. I live in Toronto, Ontario. I grew up on PEI on the east coast. I ran provincially for the PEI NDP in 2003, and municipally as an "Independent Conservative" in Toronto in 2006. I'm currently a member of the Federal Liberals, and a supporter of the Provincial Greens.

I'm all over the map politically, because my views do not line up with any particular party. When it comes to Justice or Labour issues, I side with the more Conservative elements. On Social policy and help for the needy, I side with the NDP. In terms of balancing taxes and spending, or first nations rights, I side with the Liberals. And on the environment, and public transit, I'm a Green.

This gives me a unique prospective on the parties I think. Rather than being an outsider who can see all the negatives, I can also see all the positives. In addition, the only other big party out there, the Bloc, and I, agree on the kind of powers a Federal government should have. I am not big on centralization. Federally I want my MPs to give more and more power and tax room to the provinces, while I want my province to take as much tax room as it can from the cities and spend like madmen.

Currently, I'm 27; but I decided to change my birthday to August 8th, so by that measure I'm 28; though, my birth certificate says I still have a few months to go for that.

I am very friendly and open, and though I will debate you and even argue with you, I am always willing to accept you are right and I am wrong (though I might need to grump about it for a while) and I'll never stop talking to a person just because I disagree.

How to contact me? Well, I'm TheNewTeddy. Add a hotmail.com to the end to e-mail me, put a facebook.com before it to find my FB page, change "Facebook" to "Twitter" to find my tweets, so on and so forth. You can also google me to see all the crazy things I say when I get mad about stuff if you really want.

So never be afraid to drop me a line. I love talking to anyone and everyone!

Would another Minority look like 2007?

No.

The answer, as always, is in the numbers.


ADQ Experince (in years)
Dumont - 13
Grondin - 4
Picard - 4
Roy - 4
Legare - 3
TOTAL: 28 years and 41 MNAs
36 MNAs with no experince
1 MNA with experince for every 7 without
No alternate interests. The ADQ was built up by and around Dumont. No one with enough experience to even think of challenging Dumont. Election candidates that did not expect to win.

CAQ Experince (in years)
--Presuming they all get elected--
Legault - 11
Roy - 9
Caire - 5
Bonnardel - 5
Deltell - 4
Ratthe - 4
Charette - 4
Rebello - 4
Damphousse - 1
Levesque - 1
Schneeberger - 1
Gaudreau - 1
Benjamin - 1
Total: 51 years and (projected) 25 to 40 MNAs
27 MNAs with no experince (of 40)
1 MNA with experince for every 2 without
A merger of disaffected PQ members and the ADQ, token positions will have to be given out accordingly, causing a larger powerbase. People like Roy who rival Legault's time served in the legislature. Legault is not as strong an individual as Dumont. Election candidates that expect to win.

Any minority with the CAQ as either the official opposition or as the 3rd party will not be like when the ADQ came to town. There will be no "Dumont and his kids" stories. The CAQ team is far more experienced than the ADQ, and like the 2011 NDP, there are enough people with experience in the legislature to guide the new members though.

...Of course all of this presumes the CAQ is not the government. That's another story altogether. Keep in mind that the Ontario NDP victory of 1990 and the following government was so controversial that even the federal Liberals are feeling the after effects to this day! (Okay, lame attack, but point made)

More on the PQ's lost natural advantage

Analysis on the "how" over on Blunt Objects!

Projection Update

As usual, many projections here at RxR don't contain an endless stream of words. We like to jump straight to the numbers and the maps.

As always, if you have any questions or want more info on any particular thing, just ask!

Fun polling numbers

I've gone though Leger polls since the CAQ was created to come up with some interesting numbers. First off, you might ask, why Leger? The answer is simple really, they've been polling Quebec for many decades, and, they poll much more often and consistently than other firms.

The highest and lowest for each party.
Quebec wide
PLQ - 33 - 22
PQ - 33 - 21
CAQ - 37 - 19

Montreal Area
PLQ - 35 - 21
PQ - 34 - 16
CAQ - 34 - 17

Quebec City Area
PLQ - 38 - 22
PQ - 33 - 14
CAQ - 46 - 24

Rest of Quebec
PLQ - 31 - 17
PQ - 41 - 19
CAQ - 43 - 20

I will be doing things with these numbers a bit later.

One Free ElectoMatic

As my old-time followers will know, I use a self built spreadsheet program called the ElectoMatic to project elections. My old-time followers will also know that I decided to give out this program for free. Anyone looking for the current Quebec one can find it here (along with a sneak peak at my current projection - which changes sometimes hourly)
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?gs8ww8789ddffxr
I've made it somewhat user-friendly, but remember too that I've been tinkering with this file multiple times a day, and all the various random calculations on it might not make much sense.

My new followers might wonder why they need to follow me if they have the magic machine I use to project all my numbers. The answer to that is simple really. Anyone can have a math-based projection, but not many have accurate math-based projections.
http://calgarygrit.blogspot.ca/2011/05/predicting-unexpected.html
My projections (2011 sadly was on my website that now is owned by an adult company selling... toys) were #1 of anyone offering individual riding by riding projections. Why? I deviated from the math and used my gut.

My gut, sadly, is not available. Knowing where and how to make additions, and what other calculations to make (for example, I don't think anyone out there agrees on a single ADQ-to-CAQ calculation regimen) is the key to making everything work.

The base program will always be free, but the analysis and "Teddy Touch" will always be confined to my blog. Though the program is free, I ask that anyone using it to make projections mention me and this blog. You don't have to do so for every last projection you make, but 2 or 3 times during a writ period would be greatly appreciated.

PQ facing mortal damage?

As promised.

Here is the news from this projection.
First off, Charest is now winning his seat. First time since the election started. As I suspected, if he wins the election, he will win his seat, but if he does not win the election, he will lose his seat.
Secondly, the Greens are doing god awful.
Other things: Aussant is back in second according to my numbers in his riding.
The QS is projected to win 4 seats in Montreal again. I had them at 4 earlier on in the campaign, and suspect they may indeed win 4 or more. Note their close second in Hochelaga.

This projection puts the Liberals in first in terms of seats, 55 to 44 for the PQ. The CAQ is stuck with only 22. What is important however is the very small gap in popular vote.

It has always been suspected that the PQ could win tie with the Liberals in the vote and still win more seats. In fact, this has always been the case historically. However, and this is HUGE news, according to these numbers, the PQ has lost that advantage. Again, in French, PQ a perdu son avantage naturel. A égalité de voix signifie maintenant PLQ victoire, pas PQ victoire. Ce sont des nouvelles énorme! Vous l'avez entendu ici en premier!

How this happened can be questioned, but in short, it seems a combo of the CAQ, QS, and ON. The only other election with a strong CAQ-like party, did see the PQ fall to 3rd place, so it may just be the case that whenever the CAQ/ADQ does well, the PQ loses that advantage.

Regardless, here are all the numbers for you all to enjoy!

Projection, Twitter, and Francais

Want a sneak peak at the next Quebec projection? Check out my twitter feed at
http://twitter.com/thenewteddy

Also note that a projection is coming up shortly.

Lastly, note that I do not speak French very well at all. I often say the following: Je suis la Parle Francais Tres Tres Petite which seems to get the point across rather well.

Les chiffres ne parlent pas le français ou l'anglais. 
Pour de meilleurs chiffres (et des cartes!) Viennent ici!

How'm I doin?

Ever wonder how accurate this crazy guy running this blog actually is? Let's find out.
http://www.threehundredeight.com/2012/08/tight-race-in-nicolet-becancour-and.html has a wonderful post about riding polls. Let's compare these to the projections that I have.


Trois Rivieres
What I had VS what the poll had
30 - PLQ - 30
35 - PQ - 36
27 - CAQ - 19

The race, which is between the top two, is nearly identical to what I had.

Nicolet Becancour
19 - PLQ - 16
21 - PQ - 25
32 - CAQ - 31
28 - ON - 28

Again, the top two match my numbers.

So, if I may say so myself, I'm doing pretty darn good.

Current Projection

My projections seem to change hourly due to new data. Regardless, I've decided to share what I have at the moment.

Equalization

An interesting article
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2012/08/17/20113821.html
Quebec, this year, will pay apx 3 billion into Equalization (Federal tax dollars remember) and receive apx 7.5 billion.

More on this later (perhaps much later).

Quebec Debate and Projection

I'll be brief. Who won? David. Who lost? Legault.

Projection based on my interpretation of the results of the debate:

My feelings in short (more detail in a post in an hour or two)

Charest: As I suspected, nothing he did or would do mattered.
Marois: She really did well, she looked most like a Premier IMO, and has solidified her party's lead.
Legault: Too aggressive, everyone wanted to tear a strip off him, he looked unready.
David: Extremely strong performance. QS may be back on track for more than 2 seats.

FULL ANNOUNCEMENT

Alright, after some testing, I've been able to get the old blog working once more! This post will be somewhat short and include three sections. The first, a self explanatory section that will include these words I am typing right now. The second will be a link to a project I've been slowly working on. The last, my projection for the Quebec Election. I also want to say hello to anyone following from our sister blog at http://blunt-objects.blogspot.ca/ where I've been ranting from time to time.

Next, on to my project. I've been working on this for some months, though slowly. It is a wiki to compliment this blog. http://ridingbyriding.wikia.com/wiki/Ridingbyriding_Wiki I will be putting real-life election data, and, fictional what-if stories here. I will also have it set up so my most recent projections are easily visible. You will also find attached a forum, where I will from time to time run games or interesting thought experiments.

Lastly, my Quebec Projection.

For more details, visit the aforementioned Blunt-Objects.

Test

More testing

Test

Test


Test

Another test

Still working out the kinks.

The return of RxR

Hello folks. I've decided to return this old blog to it's former glory! Many of you already know that prior to the 2011 Federal election, I got my own website, www.ridingbyriding.ca and moved everything over there. Many of you also know that following the election I ran into financial difficulties and was unable to pay the bills on the site.

The 2011 Federal election was a mixed bag for me. Of anyone who attempted a riding-by-riding projection, I was closer to the actual results than anyone else. In effect, I "won". Despite that, my daily unique readership never peaked beyond 30 (Except for the few days right around E-Day of course) and that put me into a slump and depression.

I've since come to realize that I don't really care who reads my stuff, so long as my numbers are as correct as I can make them.

Therefore, this blog will be returning to regular activity!

~Teddy

Returning

RxR will be returning here.
<- Click here to see the full post Sorry, no extra data today!

bump

<- Click here to see the full postSorry, no extra data today!