{"id":1840343,"date":"2025-05-07T10:22:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T14:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1840343"},"modified":"2025-05-07T10:22:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T14:22:28","slug":"empty-land-doesnt-vote-and-neither-do-kangaroos-what-australian-and-canadian-election-maps-do-and-dont-do-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/05\/empty-land-doesnt-vote-and-neither-do-kangaroos-what-australian-and-canadian-election-maps-do-and-dont-do-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Empty Land Doesn\u2019t Vote (and Neither Do Kangaroos): What Australian and Canadian Election Maps Do (and Don\u2019t Do) About It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Both Australia and Canada had federal elections last week. Both countries have overwhelmingly urban populations (Australia 87%, Canada 82%<\/a>) and vast tracts of sparsely populated territory, which means that strictly geographical election maps of both countries suffer from the \u201cempty land doesn\u2019t vote<\/a>\u201d problem. But that doesn\u2019t seem to stop such maps from being used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I posted about the maps of the last Canadian federal election in 2019 (1<\/a>, 2<\/a>, 3<\/a>), most static election maps in Canada use the Lambert<\/a> projection, whereas online maps generally use Web Mercator; cartograms and such aren\u2019t really a thing. I suspect that this is a combination of the Lambert being very familiar to Canadians (it\u2019s pretty much the default projection for static maps) whereas a cartogram isn\u2019t: it\u2019s easier and less disorienting to use the Lambert with inset maps, or zoom in on Web Mercator. Canadians aren\u2019t dumb: we know that there are lots of seats in and around Toronto and Montreal, and that hardly anyone lives in Nunavut, and even zooming all the way out in Web Mercator won\u2019t fool us. Besides, with four parties capable of winning expansive rural or northern seats, the urban-rural split isn\u2019t quite<\/em> as binary as it is elsewhere, so the urgency of correcting the map by showing votes or seats\u2014the need<\/em> to say land doesn\u2019t vote\u2014isn\u2019t quite there.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
The Guardian<\/em> (screenshot)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Maps Mania has a roundup<\/a> of some media maps of the Canadian election results. Jens von Bergmann crunches the riding-by-riding results with some maps and visualizations<\/a>\u2014including an animation that morphs between a geographic map and a Dorling cartogram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geographic maps also tend to be used for Australian election results, to the point that in 2022 ABC News (the Australian one) ran a piece saying that the election map was lying to you<\/a> (previously<\/a>). Once again, Maps Mania has a roundup of Australian election maps<\/a> this time around: ABC goes full cartogram, using British-style hex maps showing results<\/a> and vote swing<\/a>; The Australian<\/em> sticks with geographical maps<\/a>; and The Guardian<\/em> toggles between geographical and \u201cexaggerated\u201d maps<\/a> that enlarge urban constituencies while maintaining Australia\u2019s overall shape, which I find an interesting compromise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both Australia and Canada had federal elections last week. Both countries have overwhelmingly urban populations (Australia 87%, Canada 82%) and vast tracts of sparsely populated territory, which means that strictly geographical election maps of both… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[330],"tags":[496,131,337],"class_list":["post-1840343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-politics","tag-australia","tag-canada","tag-elections","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1787927,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/10\/a-cartogram-of-canadas-election-results\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840343,"position":0},"title":"A Cartogram of Canada\u2019s Election Results","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"24 October 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"This cartogram shows the seat-by-seat results of the federal election held last Monday in Canada. It was uploaded to Wikipedia by user Mark Gargul to illustrate the 2019 Canadian federal election article, and it\u2019s a welcome departure from the usual election results maps in this country. (An example of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/2019-canadian-election-cartogram-1024x456.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/2019-canadian-election-cartogram-1024x456.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/2019-canadian-election-cartogram-1024x456.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/2019-canadian-election-cartogram-1024x456.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1788675,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/04\/canadian-election-atlas-adds-2019-results\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840343,"position":1},"title":"Canadian Election Atlas Adds 2019 Results","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"10 April 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Election-atlas.ca, the collection of historical Canadian election results maps I first told you about in 2018, has added poll-by-poll results for the 2019 Canadian federal election. Also, since we last saw them it seems they\u2019ve extended their historical results further back in time\u2014as far back as 1896 for the federal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1737701,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/01\/an-online-atlas-of-canadian-election-results\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840343,"position":2},"title":"An Online Atlas of Canadian Election Results","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 January 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"Election-atlas.ca\u00a0is an online atlas of federal and provincial election results in Canada. At the federal level the maps go back as far as the 1925 general election; provincial election maps go back as far as the late 1960s or early 1970s. Poll-by-poll results are available for the most recent elections.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1787936,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/10\/more-canadian-election-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840343,"position":3},"title":"More Canadian Election Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"25 October 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kennethfield\/status\/1187093377231314947 I hit \u201cPublish\u201d too soon last night. Kenneth Field and Craig Williams put together a series of maps showing the Canadian election results in a number of different ways: we have a value-by-alpha map, a proportional symbol map, and two kinds of dot density maps: one showing the winners,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1788030,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/11\/mapping-the-canadian-election-results-technical-details\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840343,"position":4},"title":"Mapping the Canadian Election Results: Technical Details","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"1 November 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"Bothered by the widespread use of Web Mercator by Canadian news outlets to show last week\u2019s election results, Kenneth Field has posted an article that aims to address the problem. Static maps of Canada tend to use a conic projection like the Albers or the Lambert, and that\u2019s the case\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1786024,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/07\/empty-land-doesnt-vote-and-other-hot-takes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1840343,"position":5},"title":"‘Empty Land Doesn’t Vote’ and Other Hot Takes","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"29 July 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"The hot takes about the New York Times\u2019s detailed map of the 2016 U.S. presidential election results (see previous entry) have been coming in fast. Most of the critiques focus on the map's failure to address population density: a sparsely populated but huge precinct appears to have more significance than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/nyt-2016-election-precincts-1024x530.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/nyt-2016-election-precincts-1024x530.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/nyt-2016-election-precincts-1024x530.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/nyt-2016-election-precincts-1024x530.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1840343"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1840350,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840343\/revisions\/1840350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1840343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1840343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1840343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}