{"id":1835,"date":"2008-07-16T20:33:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-17T00:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=1835"},"modified":"2008-07-16T20:33:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-17T00:33:00","slug":"the-first-round-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=1835","title":{"rendered":"The First Round Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

The field of 16 has been set in the search for Canada\u2019s Biggest Election<\/a>. For simplicity\u2019s sake, there will be 8 federal and 8 provincial elections (even though Ralph Klein\u2019s first Calgary mayoral run was an inspired suggestion), and will only involve elections prior to 1990.<\/p>\n

As a fun twist this year, I\u2019ve brought in an expert to seed the teams \u2013 John Duffy. John\u2019s Fights of our Lives<\/a> is one of the best books on Canadian elections out there so he seemed like a natural choice and I\u2019m very happy that he agreed to do it. I sent him a list of all the nominations and comments people submitted<\/a> and, from that, he produced the seedings (and the little one line synopses you\u2019ll see bellow).<\/p>\n

Apologies if your election of choice was left out but I believe the final list John produced has a great mix of elections on it, which should make this a fun contest.<\/p>\n

Voting begins today and closes at noon Saturday for the four federal first round match-ups. Next week, we\u2019ll begin what should be a series of very intriguing provincial competitions (I\u2019ll be announcing the provincial seeds this weekend\u2026so you\u2019ll need to live in suspense for a bit).<\/p>\n

1896 (8) vs. 1988 (1)<\/strong>
1896 (Laurier over Tupper):<\/span> With the new country shaking to bits over religious education in Manitoba, a great unifier emerges in Laurier.
1988 (Mulroney over Turner and Broadbent):<\/span> Turner and Mulroney duke it out over free trade with the US and leadership in an epic personal duel.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Which Election was Bigger?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(8) 1898: Laurier over Tupper<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(1) 1988: Mulroney over Turner<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
See Results<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/form>\n

1925\/26 (7) vs. 1878 (2)
<\/strong>1925\/26 (King over Meighen\u2026and Byng):<\/span> In a wild and wooly hung parliament, a cornered Mackenzie King outfoxes Meighen, Byng, the Progressives, everyone — and turns House of Commons trickery into ballot box gold.
1878 (MacDonald over Mackenzie):<\/span> Macdonald storms back from the wildreness of scandal to re-ignite the National Policy and complete the CPR.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Which Election was Bigger?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(7) 1925\/26: King over Meighen<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(2) 1878: MacDonald over Mackenzie<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
See Results<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/form>\n

1957\/58 (6) vs. 1979\/80 (3)<\/strong>
1957\/58 (Dief over St. Laurent, Pearson):<\/span> Prairie no-hoper Diefenbaker decks the Chairman of the Board, St.Laurent, then crushes his successor, Prince-of-Peace Pearson.
1979\/80 (Clark over Trudeau, Trudeau over Clark):<\/span> Trudeau falls, Clark rises, Clark falls, Trudeau rises, as constitutional and energy battles rage across the regional landscape.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Which Election was Bigger?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(6) 1957\/58: Diefenbaker over St.Laurent, Pearson<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

<\/p>\n

(3) 1979\/80: Trudeau vs. Clark<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
See Results<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/form>\n

1911 (5) vs. 1935 (4)<\/strong>
1911 (Borden over Laurier):<\/span> An aging Laurier deploys free trade with the US to revive his government, but challenger Borden turns the blade to defeat the champion.
1935 (King over Everyone):<\/span> Arguing it’s “King or Chaos”, Liberals take on all comers and shatter the Conservative brand for two decades.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Which Election was Bigger?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(5) 1911: Borden over Laurier<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(4) 1935: King over Bennett<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
See Results<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/form>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The field of 16 has been set in the search for Canada\u2019s Biggest Election. For simplicity\u2019s sake, there will be 8 federal and 8 provincial elections (even though Ralph Klein\u2019s first Calgary mayoral run was an inspired suggestion), and will only involve elections prior to 1990. As a fun twist this year, I\u2019ve brought in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[360],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-canadas-biggest-election"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}