Maps show intensity of each party’s support in B.C.

I wanted to use some interactive maps to take a look at how the four main parties’ support varies across the province.

First, we’ve got the typical who-won-which-riding map, colour-coding each riding by the party that won in 2008. Here it is:

But that doesn’t really show you how dramatically each party’s level of support varies from riding to riding.

Some ridings are won by the slimmest of margins (like 20 votes in Vancouver South). Others, like those in the Fraser Valley, are won by massive, 40- or 50-point margins of victory.

And the basic winners map doesn’t show you anything about support for the Greens, since they didn’t win a single seat.

So I’ve created four maps showing intensity of support for each party. For each map, click on the image to be taken to the interactive version.

Here’s the map for the Conservatives:

the Liberals:

the NDP:

and the Greens:

For any riding, you can just click on the map to see the exact vote breakdown in 2008. The maps reveal some interesting patterns. The Conservatives’ base of support is in the Fraser Valley, southeast and northeast. The Liberals’ support is really concentrated in Metro Vancouver and Victoria. A couple quick notes: First, the Lower Mainland ridings kind of get lost on the big map — you can zoom in to take a closer look. Also, there wasn’t a nice shade of orange for the NDP, which is why I went with the somewhat odd choice of purple.