TORONTO (CP) - The shutout of the Tories in Toronto is reflective of a growing divide in Canada between big city voters and their rural counterparts, founded on clashing views on gun control and social services, experts said Tuesday.
"We've got a very major rural-urban rift opening up in the country," said Paul Nesbitt-Larking, a political science professor at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. "It's not just Toronto, but it's also other urban centres, with the singular exception of Calgary."
The Conservatives did not garner one federal seat in the country's three largest cities of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Within Ontario, the few gains prime minister-designate Stephen Harper earned were mainly in smaller urban centres - Barrie, Burlington, Chatham and Kitchener, for instance.
"It's very clear the people in cities, in the major cities, voted for parties that in the last Parliament, had delivered programs for the people that live in cities," Toronto Mayor David Miller said.
"By Torontonians and people in Vancouver and Montreal voting for their cities, it sends a strong message that cities' needs need to be addressed if you're going to succeed electorally in the city."
Crime and punishment was a central theme of Harper's campaign, and while gun violence was an issue primarily plaguing pockets of Toronto, the Conservative leader's hardline stance did not resonate with the majority of that city's voters.
"In the urban areas, much more emphasis is on what needs to be done to prevent and forestall the causes of crime and criminal behaviour," Nesbitt-Larking said.
"In the rural areas, guns are not considered to be the issue . . . (there is) much more emphasis therefore on punishing the offenders and not worrying about the guns."
Another key factor was concern over the provision of the social safety net - services including child care and health care, platforms the Conservatives have not been traditionally known for, Nesbitt-Larking said.
The Conservative pledge to kill a planned national child-care program likely scared off Toronto voters who were undecided until Monday, he added.
The city's highly visible immigrant population also helped buoy the Liberals and allow the NDP to secure two gains in Toronto, said David Hulchanski, director of the Centre for Urban and Community Studies at the University of Toronto.
"The Liberals manage to speak to them, and the NDP manages, and an American-style Republican just doesn't connect," Hulchanski said, emphasizing the differences between today's Conservatives and the Progressive Conservative party of years past.
"The Stephen Harper Conservative party is a U.S.-style Republican party and I think there's about 25 to 30 per cent core support in Canada for that . . . and it is a rural, small-town, small city kind of constituency."
"They're not the Brian Mulroney PCs, they're not Joe Clark PCs . . . and voters know that."
When asked what Harper would need to do to win more votes in Toronto, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said he would need to "indicate that he has a good grasp of the urban agenda."
"If cities are working well, we've got a great province and a great country," McGuinty said, adding that without assuring cities are well-equipped to finance housing, infrastructure and other needs, they would "drag on economic growth" in Canada.
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"We've got a very major rural-urban rift opening up in the country," said Paul Nesbitt-Larking, a political science professor at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. "It's not just Toronto, but it's also other urban centres, with the singular exception of Calgary."
The Conservatives did not garner one federal seat in the country's three largest cities of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Within Ontario, the few gains prime minister-designate Stephen Harper earned were mainly in smaller urban centres - Barrie, Burlington, Chatham and Kitchener, for instance.
"It's very clear the people in cities, in the major cities, voted for parties that in the last Parliament, had delivered programs for the people that live in cities," Toronto Mayor David Miller said.
"By Torontonians and people in Vancouver and Montreal voting for their cities, it sends a strong message that cities' needs need to be addressed if you're going to succeed electorally in the city."
Crime and punishment was a central theme of Harper's campaign, and while gun violence was an issue primarily plaguing pockets of Toronto, the Conservative leader's hardline stance did not resonate with the majority of that city's voters.
"In the urban areas, much more emphasis is on what needs to be done to prevent and forestall the causes of crime and criminal behaviour," Nesbitt-Larking said.
"In the rural areas, guns are not considered to be the issue . . . (there is) much more emphasis therefore on punishing the offenders and not worrying about the guns."
Another key factor was concern over the provision of the social safety net - services including child care and health care, platforms the Conservatives have not been traditionally known for, Nesbitt-Larking said.
The Conservative pledge to kill a planned national child-care program likely scared off Toronto voters who were undecided until Monday, he added.
The city's highly visible immigrant population also helped buoy the Liberals and allow the NDP to secure two gains in Toronto, said David Hulchanski, director of the Centre for Urban and Community Studies at the University of Toronto.
"The Liberals manage to speak to them, and the NDP manages, and an American-style Republican just doesn't connect," Hulchanski said, emphasizing the differences between today's Conservatives and the Progressive Conservative party of years past.
"The Stephen Harper Conservative party is a U.S.-style Republican party and I think there's about 25 to 30 per cent core support in Canada for that . . . and it is a rural, small-town, small city kind of constituency."
"They're not the Brian Mulroney PCs, they're not Joe Clark PCs . . . and voters know that."
When asked what Harper would need to do to win more votes in Toronto, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said he would need to "indicate that he has a good grasp of the urban agenda."
"If cities are working well, we've got a great province and a great country," McGuinty said, adding that without assuring cities are well-equipped to finance housing, infrastructure and other needs, they would "drag on economic growth" in Canada.
http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/NationalNewsArticle.htm?src=n012449A.xml
