Thank you so much to Cineplex Entertainment, Toronto Star, MUCH, Etalk and many celebrities and many others who provided important, generous help

Federal election voter turnout increased by 7.39%+ -- the largest change ever

28 election-night Vote Parties held in 7 provinces

Initiative continuing now for Northwest Territories, and Newfoundland and Labrador, elections, and for future elections until July 1, 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Monday, November 2, 2015

OTTAWA – Today, the VoteParty.ca/VotePromise.ca initiative announced that it reached more than 3.5 million people across Canada during the federal election campaign with its key message to take a non-voter to vote with you.

This was the first election that VoteParty.ca/VotePromise.ca was active, and the first national voter turnout campaign that asked voters to help non-voters vote.  According to preliminary calculations by Elections Canada, the initiative helped voter turnout increase 7.39% compared to 2011 – from 61.1% to 68.49% (the highest turnout since 1993 -- and the final official voter turnout will be even higher as people who registered on election day are added to the total).  That’s the largest change in voter turnout from federal election to federal election (positive or negative) since Canada became a country in 1867 (the next largest change was the 1917 to 1921 elections when voter turnout decreased 7.3% from 75% to 67.7%; the next largest positive change was the 1953 to 1957 elections when turnout increased 6.6% from 67.5% to 74.1%).  

Given its first voter turnout campaign was a remarkable success, VoteParty.ca / VotePromise.ca will reactivate for federal, provincial, territorial and municipal elections between now and July 1, 2017 --  Canada’s 150^th birthday -- with the goal of increasing voter turnout in all elections across Canada. 

The VoteParty.ca/VotePromise.ca initiative is active right now as the Northwest Territories and Newfoundland and Labrador election campaigns are underway.

A total of 28 election-night Vote Parties to celebrate voting were held in 7 provinces – organized by the 9 young Canadians from 7 cities in 5 provinces who were the spokespeople for VoteParty.ca (See list below), and by others including some member schools in the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) which ran its own voter turnout initiative.  Thank you for all their help!

Millions of Canadians were reached through celebrity montage video ads shown before movies in 160 Cineplex Entertainment theatres across Canada from Oct. 2-18, and ads the Toronto Star ran in its print and online editions from Oct. 12-16 (thank you to both companies for their generous donations), and through media coverage and social media (thank you to all who shared).

Several Canadian celebrities – Rick Mercer, Mary Walsh, the band MAGIC!, Ashley Callingbull, Patrick McKenna, David Suzuki, Graeme Wardle, Elena Juatco, Greg Bryk, Michelle Morgan, Rick Miller, Lindsay Broughton, The Dead South, Julian Taylor, Tyler Ellis,  generously recorded promo videos for the initiative that can be seen on the http://VoteParty.ca and at http://VotePromise.ca websites.  Thank you very much to them all!

And many of those celebrities, and many other Canadian celebrities – George Stroumboulopoulos, Margaret Atwood, Shaun Majumber, Mark Critch, Susan Aglukark, Allan Hawco, Raine Maida, Gavin Crawford and Raffi – along with MUCH, E! Online Canada, Change.org Canada, the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP), Leadnow.ca, Prevent Cancer Now, Maytree Foundation, MEC Outdoor Nation, Imagine Canada and dozens of other organizations and individuals, all shared VoteParty.ca or VotePromise.ca’s social media posts.  Thank you very much to all for sharing!

VoteParty.ca invited voters to Make a #VoteDate and take a non-voter to vote with them, and VotePromise.ca asked voters to Make the #VotePromise to help a non-voter vote.  

Vote Party was a great party – thank you very much again to everyone who helped out!

VotePromise.ca and VoteParty.ca are initiatives of Democracy Education Network, since 1993 one of Canada’s leading civics education organizations.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Education Network 

and Coordinator of VoteParty.ca and VotePromise.ca
Tel: (613) 241-5178
Cell: 416-546-3443
Email: [email protected]

Internet: http://VoteParty.ca

and

http://VotePromise.ca 

List of VoteParty.ca spokespeople

In Ottawa

Laura Ndoria
Jillian LeBlanc
Deborah Sogelola

In Toronto

Claire O'Manique

In Montreal

Crystal Chan

In Halifax

Shauna Doll

In Antigonish

Travis Dagg

In Fredericton

Travis Daley

In Vancouver

Jullian Kolstee

Thank you so much to you all!