Is St. John's naturally more Dipper-friendly, or is it just a matter of candidates?
It's mostly candidates, but it is more NDP friendly in general, just just nowhere near the degree that Jack Harris (in particular) won last time.
St. John's is more anti-Liberal than anything. It goes back to 1949 confederation tribal politics.
So it was heavily Catholic? That's how Newfoundland works, right?
Would be interesting to see how it voted when the Conservatives were split.
The Reform / Canadian Alliance did not do well in Newfoundland at all. Newfies aren't very conservative people at all. The kind of right wing populism that the Reform Party presented doesn't really exist in Newfoundland.
And yes, the Avalon peninsula (which includes St. John's) is historically much more Catholic than the rest of the island. Catholics and the business elite opposed confederation, and so supported the Tories while the rural protestants and poor fishermen supported confederation, which was backed by the Liberals and Joey Smallwood.
Meanwhile outside of "the rock", religious voting patterns are the opposite.
