Macleans obtained some interesting data from Angus Reid Strategies about the changing patterns of Catholic voting inside and outside Québec. Angus Reid found that Catholics outside Québec who attended church at least once a week were more likely to have voted Conservative in 2008 than in 2004 (49% in 2008 vs. 38% in 2004). Inside Québec, Liberal support amongst Catholics has fallen from 56% to 22% (frequency of church attendance was not mentioned here).

Statistics Canada did not collect any data on religion in the 2006 census, but did collect data on religion adherence in 2001 (although no data on frequency of attendance was included in the Federal Electoral District profiles).

Below are the Top 30 ridings by percent of Catholic adherants, outside Québec. Thirteen of the 30 ridings are now held by the Liberals, 10 by the NDP, and 7 by the Conservatives. In 2004, the Liberals held 21 of them, followed by the NDP at 5 seats and the Conservatives at 4 seats.

Top 30 Ridings by Catholic Religious Adherence (Percent, 2001 Census)

% Cath	2008 Contest	Riding	2008 Margin	2004
92.9%	NDP-Lib	Acadie – Bathurst, NB	35.6%	NDP
90.1%	Lib-Cons	Madawaska – Restigouche, NB	14.2%	Lib
77.0%	Lib-Cons	Vaughan, ON	14.8%	Lib
76.6%	Cons-Lib	Glengarry – Prescott – Russell, ON	10.4%	Lib
73.1%	NDP-Lib	Nickel Belt, ON	20.2%	Lib
72.9%	Lib-Cons	Beauséjour, NB	17.6%	Lib
69.3%	Cons-Lib	Miramichi, NB	5.1%	Lib
67.0%	Lib-Cons	Cape Breton – Canso, NS	24.6%	Lib
64.3%	Lib-NDP	Sydney – Victoria, NS	25.0%	Lib
61.0%	NDP-Lib	Timmins – James Bay, ON	34.4%	NDP
59.7%	NDP-Lib	Sudbury, ON	4.9%	Lib
58.5%	NDP-Lib	Algoma – Manitoulin – Kapuskasing, ON	13.0%	Lib
57.7%	Cons-Lib	Ottawa – Orléans, ON	6.1%	Lib
57.4%	Lib-Cons	Moncton – Riverview – Dieppe, NB	3.3%	Lib
57.2%	Lib-NDP	Davenport, ON	14.5%	Lib
56.0%	Cons-Lib	Stormont – Dundas – South Glengarry, ON	38.4%	Lib
54.1%	Cons-Lib	Egmont, PE	0.3%	Lib
53.9%	Lib-Cons	Ottawa – Vanier, ON	18.9%	Lib
53.6%	Cons-Lib	Essex, ON	10.9%	Cons
53.1%	NDP-Cons	Windsor – Tecumseh, ON	24.8%	NDP
52.8%	Lib-NDP	St. John's South – Mount Pearl, NL	2.8%	Cons
51.0%	Lib-Cons	Cardigan, PE	23.2%	Lib
49.8%	Lib-Cons	Nipissing – Timiskaming, ON	12.2%	Lib
47.7%	Lib-Cons	Charlottetown, PE	18.0%	Lib
47.1%	NDP-Lib	St. John's East, NL	62.0%	Cons
46.3%	Lib-NDP	York South – Weston, ON	18.6%	Lib
46.3%	NDP-Cons	Windsor West, ON	29.9%	NDP
45.4%	NDP-Cons	Welland, ON	0.6%	Lib
45.3%	Cons-Lib	Renfrew – Nipissing – Pembroke, ON	40.5%	Cons
45.2%	NDP-Cons	Winnipeg North, MB	40.3%	NDP

Readers who are interested in politics and religion might enjoy visiting the Canadian Blog Awards-nominated website by former M.P. and radio host, Dennis Gruending, entitled "Pulpit and Politics".

UPDATE: Paul Wells added some observations to this subject at Inkless Wells. His interesting sidebar:

An odd thing: I made a concerted attempt to find out how the Conservatives measured the Catholic vote, how specifically they had sought to appeal to Catholics, and how much they thought they had managed to move it from 2004 to 2006. And, although the Conservatives were very cooperative in other ways for my book, they wouldn’t respond to these requests. I got the impression I was asking too much about a trade secret.

Meantime, Joanne at Blue Like You dug up a short item penned by Michael Coren just before the election in the National Post, which suggests the Liberals believe they are still the party of choice for Catholics.

Dennis Gruending wrote a post on evangelical voters and the 2008 Canadian election, citing a post-2006-election study by Ipsos-Reid which found that Catholics' voting behaviour more closely mirrored that of mainline Protestants, and claiming that evangelical church-going christians were four times more likely to vote Conservative than either of the other two groups. If Angus Reid's post-2008 data is correct, then voting intentions have moved amongst church-going Catholics over the past two years.

In another post, Gruending reviews exit poll data from the recent U.S. presidential election, and noted that Barrack Obama was able to swing Catholics back to the Democrats in 2008, after supporting George Bush in 2000 and 2004.

Labels: 40th General Election, Religion