Hash, you've accomplished an interesting exploration, but I don't think you get any closer to explaining why Catholics vote Liberal than Meisel or Blais or Stephenson. It certainly may be correct that the connection between Catholicism and voting for Liberals
hasn't been adequately explained, but it makes for a rather dull thesis. I get to the end of your paper with a clear recognition that you've done your research and that you know precisely what you're talking about, but it seems like you've made a general appraisal on the subject.
It's good that you make the connection between religious community and voting behavior. That, I think, is very important. So much of our political perceptions and values are determined by the actions we learn from our family and close friends that it's often difficult to tell in our own thought what is uniquely ours and what is determined by our upbringing. Religious community clearly is a factor in the maintenance of moral values and ideas on social issues, but I think there is also an economic and social factor there as well. Your community (whether it be a congregation or just a network of friends who don't practice but consider themselves Catholic) may be homogeneous in terms of religious affiliation, true, but odds are it's also homogeneous in terms of linguistic background, income, ethnic background and perceived social class. I wonder if Catholicism and voting Liberal might be concurrent and correlated through other common factors - without a causal relationship. A daunting challenge indeed in studying this stuff!
You haven't considered Quebec in this paper, and I understand that if you did you'd probably have to write a half-dozen more pages. But I wonder if there is any sort of Catholic solidarity that cuts across the linguistic and cultural cleavages. Weber's work on the idea of a "Protestant ethic" might be useful here.
About the example of Britain: You're right to look at the religious cleavage there, but there may be a problem in controlling your variables, since it seems that ethnic identity and social class may be concurrent with Catholicism there, and could offer better explanations as to why Catholics tend to vote Labour. Much of this comes down to the problem of identity - do voters first and foremost see themselves as Catholic, or Irish, or English-speaking, or middle class, etc.?
Overall, though, well written throughout, and very interesting to read. It's a fine paper that I just feel could benefit from more analysis - be it (ultimately determined) right or wrong.
Also, fix this from your Newfoundland section:
