Source metadata

Political leader

Stephen Harper (2011)

Original subtitle

Tracking Stephen Harper's Campaign Promises

Archived time-series commentary

The above diagram shows the timing of the realization of the Harper government’s promises since the election in May 2011. The data are quarterly observations. The green bars represent the promises kept in full, the orange bars represent the promises kept in part and the red bars denote the broken promises. A promise is reported only once in the diagram, whether it is kept in full, in part or broken (the promises made in part are not repeated when they become fully realized later). This chart was updated periodically until the elections of 2015. The data used to construct the diagram are the dates of the quotations in support of each project verdict. These dates do not always coincide with the dates of government decisions.

Note the large number of promises kept in June 2011 (23) and during the first two years after the elections (80 kept and 4 kept in part). In 2011, several government bills had been blocked by the opposition parties in the previous Parliament, others had already passed the main stages of the legislative process when the Harper government was defeated in the House in March 2011. These projects were mostly reintroduced and adopted by the new conservative majority in the weeks following the election of May 2011. Note also the cyclical changes in pledge fulfillment: we observe increases in the number of promises kept in full and in part following each budget and slower rates of fulfillment during summer and parliamentary vacations (prorogation). Finally, as we near the next election, most outstanding promises become broken promises.

Archived policy-area commentary

This figure shows the 140 promises of the platform of the Conservative Party in 12 policy areas in descending order of total pledges in each area. There are three bars per area, the green ones representing promises kept, the orange ones designating promises kept in part and the red ones showing the broken promises (blue bars are used to track promises still pending during the government’s mandate). This figure was updated following the election. In September 2015, the domain "the economy and employability" is the one with the largest number of promises made and kept entirely or in part (25), followed by “law and order” (19) and “education and research” (13). The following areas are “health and social services” (10), “defense and foreign affairs” (9), “agriculture and regions” (8), the “environment” (8), “minorities” (8), “the government and democracy” (6), and “family” (5). The areas with fewer promises are the Arts and Culture (4), the identity and Canadian nationalism (4). At the closing of the Harper polimeter, 119 out of 140 promises were kept in full or in part, for a pledge fulfillment score of 85 percent.

Time-series chart title

Figure 1: Variations in promise fulfillment over time

Policy-area chart title

Figure 2: Fulfilment of promises by policy domain