YEAR IN REVIEW 2011: Canada votes blue and orange

Canada’s voters dramatically changed the makeup of their Parliament this year.

2011’s federal election ushered in a Conservative majority while the NDP gained its largest share of seats in its fifty year history. This made Canada’s leftmost major party the Official Opposition to Harper’s right-leaning government.

The most monumental political shift was seen in Quebec, as Bloc blue was swept away by an orange wave of NDP support.

The NDP’s share of seats in Quebec vaulted from one to fifty-seven after the election.

The loser in this equation? The Liberal Party. The Grits plummeted from a seventy-seven seat Opposition to a thirty-four seat outsider. This came as a result of an election they forced with a vote of non-confidence in March. The disappointing result cost Party Leader Michael Ignatieff his job.