National elections in Canada are really 308 simultaneous elections held across the country at the same time. The 2011 general election will be conducted using the same 308 ridings contested in the 2008, 2006 & 2004 elections; by contrast there were 301 constituencies in the 1997 and 2000 elections. The 2006 elections were conducted with the same electoral boundaries used in the 2004, with the exception of two constituencies in New Brunswick: Acadie–Bathurst and Miramichi. Note that a few ridings have new names since 2004, but their boundaries have remained intact.

You can view & download electoral district maps from Elections Canada.

Perhaps the most interesting ridings in any election are the marginal seats, which were won by less than 5% in the previous election. Thus, attention focused in 2008 on the 49 marginal seats up for grabs in the current elections. Marginal seats had an impact on the outcome of the 2006 election, particularly because the Liberal Party suffered significant net losses among those ridings.

1587 candidates have registered to contest the 2001 election by the deadline on April 13. You can download an Excel file with the final list of confirmed candidates from Elections Canada in either an Excel file or as a pdf.

Cyberpresse.ca provides a great tool, using Google Earth to show on a map of how each polling district in any riding voted. Although the starting page is in French, the Google map is in English. Just use the pull down menu above the starting map to select a riding, and Google Earth will zoom in. (Note: this site seems to work best in Google Chrome and have technical issues with Firefox.)

Statistics Canada provides detailed maps and riding profiles based on data from the 2006 Census. You will find data on age, gender, education, ethnic origin, immigration linguistic groups, income and occupations.  With this information you can get a real flavour for the distinct communities in specific constituencies. An Excel file with data on gender and incumbency for all the registered candidates in the 2008 election is available here.

Incumbent MPs have something of an advantage in elections, since they have had the benefit of experience and the public exposure that comes with serving in office. As a result, interesting contests occur in ridings where the sitting MP has decided not to run again..

Elections Canada sets a limit that can be spent by each party and candidate that depends upon the number of registered voters in each riding. You can look up the total spending limits registered political parties are allowed to spend based on the number of electors in the risings they are contesting in the 2011 election; note that this was in addition to the amount that the individual candidates can spend.

Milton Chan runs a unique site providing riding-by-riding predictions of the contests in each constituency for national and provincial elections  This site relies on people submitting their assessment of ridings that they have local knowledge of. Connect to the site and add your two cents worth! This site was uncannily accurate in the past, correctly predicting 91% of the seats in 2008.

Since our electoral system is created around local elections, one would think that local candidates would play an important role in people's decision about whom to vote for. However, opinion polls have consistently found that Canadian voters overwhelmingly decide how to vote on the basis of party leaders or platforms. A Nanos poll conducted in March 2011 found that only 12% of Canadians felt that the local candidate was the most important factor in deciding how to vote; 48% said they were most influence by a party's policies, 20% by the party leader, and 10% simply said they traditionally vote for the party. This trend was evident in an Ekos poll released at the start of the 2008 campaign, in which less than 9% of respondents claimed that the local candidate is the main factor in their decision. An Ipsos poll conducted Sep 17-18 asked a somewhat different question but still found only 17% saying that local candidates were their most important consideration. You can read an interesting academic paper on the importance of individual candidates: "Does the Local Candidate Matter?" (pdf file) by André Blais, Elisabeth Gidengil, Agnieszka Dobrzynska, Richard Nadeau, Neil Nevitte.

Readjustment of Electoral Boundaries
 

Each decade independent Electoral Boundaries Commissions are set up to review the distribution of seats in the House of Commons to ensure that the number and size of each province's constituencies meets the legal requirements.  The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled, in the Electoral Boundaries Reference case, that Canadians should have a relatively equal voting power. As a result, the number of voters per constituency should not normally vary more than + or - 25% from the average. From time- to time, new ridings are added, and at others the seats are redistributed among the provinces.  The methods used to allocate seats among the provinces and to draw boundaries has changed considerably over the years. The previous readjustment of electoral boundaries was done in time to come into effect for the 1997 general elections.  Prior to 1985, adjustments to federal boundaries were achieved by amending the British North America Act, 1867; since 1985, however, the changes are incorporated into ordinary law. Section 51(1) of the Constitution Act, 1867 and Electoral Boundaries Adjustment Act governs the process currently used.

However, riding populations can shift dramatically within short periods of time. You can look up the differences in the populations of each riding, to see how they have changed between the 2001 and 2006 Census. Just in this 5 year period, the population changes range from -7.6% in BC's Skeena - Bulkley Valley to a whopping 52.5% in Ontario's Oak Ridges - Markham. StatsCan has a sortable table of population and dwelling statistics for all the federal ridings. You can also download an Excel file with all the population and dwelling data for Canada's electoral districts.

Because the boundaries of electoral districts changed between the 2000 and 2004 elections it is necessary to transpose the results on a poll-by-poll basis before you can compare the results on a riding-by-riding basis. You can see how the 2000 elections results would have been under the new 308 seat distribution (Adobe pdf file). Elections Canada also shows what the results would have been on a riding by riding basis.